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Chinese ghosts on the silver screen

By Yu Sen-lun
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Oct 08, 2004, Page 17

The 'Chinese Phantom Festival' looks back at the history of Hong Kong ghost movies in the 1980s. PHOTO COURTESY OF SPOT

Long, disheveled hair and a green dead-pan face, with a long, white robe, standing straight and stiff. This is the classic image of ghosts in Chinese-language films. Different from Western ghost movies, Chinese ghosts are not necessarily scary or evil. They are therefore not categorized as part of the genre of horror films.

The Chinese Phantom Film Festival (鬼魅影展) aims to take moviegoers into the unique world of Chinese ghosts through 35 feature-length films. These movies share a common feature of mixing melodrama, comedy, kung fu, suspense and Chinese opera -- all distinct from the gore and horror pictures in the West.

As a part of the government-sponsored POP Cinema (國民戲院) series, the festival will be held from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30 at SPOT -- Taipei Film House (光點台北), the Hsinchu Municipal Image Museum (新竹影像博物館) and at the Kaohsiung Film Archive (高雄電影圖書館). Ticket sales will start this weekend at Artsticket ticketing outlets (www.artsticket.com.tw).

Long before Japanese horror film Ring and its Hollywood remake became hit movies, there have been waves of Chinese-ghost films pulling audiences into cinemas.

They include Tsui Hark's (徐克) Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂, 1987), which combines a romantic love story and hi-tech visual effects; Stanley Kwan's (關錦鵬)Rouge (胭脂扣, 1987), which features a touching story with beautiful photography; and the amusing Mr. Vampire (暫時停止呼吸, 1985), that combines comedy and kung fu. The Hong Kong produced Enchanting Shadow (倩女幽魂, 1960) was the first ghost story set up for the silver screen in Chinese cinema history.

Adapted from the classic novel Liao Chai's Collection of Ghost Stories (聊齋誌異) by Pu Songling (蒲松齡), it's basically a love story about a human and a ghost. Ning Caichen (寧采臣) is a scholar who meets the beautiful Nie Xiao-qien (聶小倩) in a deserted temple. They exchange poems and fall in love. Nie, who was originally kind-hearted has been forced to take young men's blood for the evil witch, Lao-lao. Ning is advised not to go near the female ghost, Nie. But, together they storm the gates of hell to find Nie's dead body so that she can reincarnate and never be a ghost again. The payoff is that the two lovers will never meet again.

The story was remade into the 1987 hit movie A Chinese Ghost Story, produced by Tsui Hark and starring Leslie Cheung (張國榮). The film was so successful that there was a Chinese Ghost II and III, and an animated film of the same story in 1997.

At the film festival there will be four screen versions of the same story: The 1960 original, Tsui Hark's 1987 hit and the animated version. There will also be Taiwanese director Yao Feng-pan's (姚鳳磐) version of the same story Blue Light of Winter Night (寒夜青燈). Yao made his name in the 1970s, making more than 20 ghost films. He was dubbed the "king of ghost movies" at the time.

In the 1980s, kung fu films in Hong Kong declined and the new trend was action and suspense movies, with zombies, or Chinese vampires.

A Chinese vampire is more often than not, more amusing than scary. Most of them wear traditional Chinese outfits such as long gowns or cheongsams and some have funny round hats. Apart from stiff bodies and black kohl around the eyes, these vampires usually have two red, round circles on their cheeks.

In the 10 hit vampire films made in the 1980s, there were a series of weapons to subdue the vampires, such as fire, black sticky rice, Taoist symbols, monk's gowns, peach wood swords, ancestral tablets, even the urine of virgin boys.

For those who missed the recent hit movie Three (三更) and Three II -- Experiences (三更二), the festival offers a chance to see extended versions of the films' Hong Kong segments. Peter Chan's (陳可辛) Going Home (回家), the 30-minute film that won Leon Lai (黎明) Best Actor at the Golden Horse Film festival, will be screened as special 60-minute version. Fruit Chan's (陳果)Dumplings (餃子) shows what a high price an actress pays for magical dumplings that will help her keep her beauty and win back her husband's heart.

This film has been chosen as the opening film of the festival. For more program information or for English subtitle information, go to www.spot.com.tw.
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