Well, it was never going to be better than the original – but Wilson Yip (Ip Man, Ip Man 2, S.P.L: Kill Zone) remake bucks the trend by being not ‘alf bad…

Once upon a time action choreographer supreme Ching Siu-tung directed Cantopop superstar Leslie Cheung and Joey Wang in an inspired wire-fu epic that mixed wuxia with horror and humour. Loosely based on a short story from Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, it kick started a trend for folklore fantasy swordplay epics, and took the genre to new heights.

Two sequels followed, an animation and eve a TV series. You’d think any director in their right mind would stay well away, but Wilson Yip – no doubt fuelled by his success with Donnie Yen on the Ip Man series and an eagerness to return to a proper wuxia film (it’s been a while since The White Dragon!) – has given it a go…

The ever-reliable Louis Koo (Overheard 2, Election, Accident, Connected) appears as Yin Chek Ha, a demon hunter who fell into disgrace when he fell for spirit Sin Sin (Liu Yi-Fei, The Forbidden Kingdom, White Vengeance). His weakness caused his master Xia Xuefenglei (Louis Fan, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, Ip Man, The Monkey King) to lose his hand fighting against the Tree Demon Lou Lou (Kara Hui, Wu Xia, Legendary Assassin, Infernal Affairs 2, once again appearing as an impressive villain).

Many years have passed, and timid investigator Ning Choi-San (Yu Shao-Qun, 1911, Shaolin) is called to a nearby village that has been hit by a serious drought. Investigating the Lanruo Temple that seems to be at the heart of the problem, he finds only Sin Sin, not suspecting that she is a spirit being used by Lou Lou to suck the life out of villagers in order to break free from the binding spell cast by Xuefenglei.

Soon Ning finds himself in the middle of both a love triangle with Yin Chek Ha and a battle to keep Lou Lou from crossing over.

At a time when even Hong Kong film seems to be eating itself, having watched Hollywood do the same for years, I guess that it was inevitable that someone would try and do the same with one of the most loved films of the 80s.

For better or worse, despite being something of a ‘reboot’ – the opening titles I saw billed this as A Chinese Fairy Tale – it’s obvious Wilson Yip has a love of the original, paying both reverence to it specifically and to the wuxia films of the 80s and early 90s. The end credits begin with a dedication to the late Leslie Cheung, while playing the original theme tune he sang. Yu Shao-Qun is done up to look the spit of him. He plays with the 80s lighting and style, particularly the blue lighting used in night scenes – though breaks it out of the studio setting.

He even casts Hong Kong veterans in some of the roles, including Fung Hak-On (Ip Man 2, 14 Blades, Kung Fu Hustle, Zu: The Warriors from the Magic Mountain, Last Hurrah for Chivalry) and Elvis Tsui (Sex And Zen, The Iceman Cometh, The Seventh Curse, The Three Swordsmen). Yip seems to pull back on over use of CGI, even though he relies heavily on it, so it doesn’t overpower the film, and as a result it looks great.

There are plenty of references to other films of the same period, including a sideways glance to The Bride With White Hair and Green and White Snake characters, an obvious reference Tsui Hark’s Green Snake – another folklore tale (ironically just adapted again by Ching Siu-tung as The Sorcerer and the White Snake, starring Jet Li).

Casting the dashing Louis Koo in the role originally played Wu Ma, Yip’s new version of the story creates enough of a difference not to have you comparing it to the original at every turn. It’s now a love triangle between Ning, Sin Sin and Yin Chek Ha, and it’s no surprise who really has her heart.

Comparisons do come, though…

In making Yu Shao-Qun look so close to Leslie Cheung, there comes an obvious assessment between them, and Shao-Qun cannot match Cheung’s wonderfully wide-eyed innocence in his performance.

And then there’s the fight choreography, tight and well filmed from three veterans of HK cinema, Ma Yuk-Sing, Alan Chui Chung-San, Fan Chin-Hung, it doesn’t have the off-the-wall wackiness that was Ching Siu-tung’s trademark.

I couldn’t help comparing this version of A Chinese Ghost Story with another ‘remake but not’ of a film from the same period, 3D Sex And Zen: Extreme Ecstasy. Both films reference a very specific look in Hong Kong movies from a very specific time. But whereas Christopher Sun’s 3D Sex And Zen flops miserably, Wilson Yip’s take manages to tread the line between respect for the style and creating a relevant film for 2011 – and unlike 3D Sex And Zen manages to be sexier than the original too!

So try to put the original A Chinese Ghost Story to the back of your mind as best you can, and you might enjoy this more than many of the wuxia films about now…

Related and associated posts

This entry was published by Andy H on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under Action / Thrillers, China, Films, Hong Kong, Martial arts, Reviews, Wuxia / Swordplay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  1. [...] A Chinese Ghost Story (2011) [...]

    Overheard 2 review | easternkicks.com January 17th, 2012 at 9:04 am

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