The villain upgrade. The Tree Demon is joined by a terrifying Foxy (Nina Li Chi)—a leopard demon who sheds her skin. The film leans heavily into slapstick (Tony Leung’s monk is constantly horny and incompetent) and Buddhist iconography.
The trilogy is a time capsule of Hong Kong cinema's golden age (1986–1993).
A timid debt collector falls for a beautiful ghost enslaved by a Tree Demon. A Chinese Ghost Story II Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong, Jacky Cheung
The trilogy is highly regarded for its technical achievements under the banner of Film Workshop: A chinese ghost story I II III -1987-1990-1991-...
The film utilized heavy blue gel lighting, constant mist, and kinetic camera movements to create a dreamlike, eerie atmosphere.
The first film follows (Leslie Cheung), a timid debt collector who seeks shelter in the haunted Lanruo Temple. There, he falls in love with Nie Xiaoqian (Joey Wong), a beautiful ghost enslaved by a sinister Tree Demoness (Lau Siu-ming) who uses her to lure travelers and drain their life essence. To free her soul, Ning teams up with the eccentric Taoist priest Yan Chixia (Wu Ma), leading to a climactic battle in the underworld.
A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991): A Soft Reboot and Special Effects Spectacle The villain upgrade
Produced during the aftermath of the Tiananmen
| Dimension | A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) | A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990) | A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991) | |---|---:|---:|---:| | Story & Screenplay | 9 | 7 | 6–7 | | Direction & Tone | 9 | 7 | 7 | | Visual Style | 9 | 8 | 8 | | Effects & Action | 8 | 8 | 8–9 | | Music & Sound | 9 | 7–8 | 7 | | Performances | 9 | 7–8 | 7 | | Cultural Resonance | 9 | 7 | 6–7 | | Rewatchability | 9 | 7–8 | 7 | | Modern Accessibility | 7 | 7 | 7 | | Overall Enjoyment | 9 | 7.5 | 7 |
The third and final installment of the original trilogy feels like a spiritual "reboot," returning to the haunted temple setting and repeating the core "ghost in peril" premise of the first film. The trilogy is a time capsule of Hong
The story picks up with Ning Choi-san mistakenly thrown into prison. After escaping, he encounters a group of rebels fighting an oppressive government. Among them is Windy (Joey Wong again), a mortal woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his lost love, Xiaoqian. Together with a young, enthusiastic wizard named Autumn (Jacky Cheung) and the returning Taoist master Yin Chik-ha, they discover that a monstrous, shape-shifting centipede demon has disguised itself as a high-ranking Buddhist monk to devour the nation's leaders from the inside out.
Leslie Cheung's bumbling yet fiercely loyal scholar paired perfectly with Joey Wong's ethereal, melancholic portrayal of Xiaoqian, creating one of the most iconic romantic pairings in Asian cinema history.
The sequel picks up sometime after the events of the first film. Siu-sin’s soul has been reincarnated (or so Choi-san hopes), and Choi-san finds himself wrongfully imprisoned in a highly corrupt, dystopian vision of China. After escaping, he crosses paths with a group of righteous rebels led by (Jacky Cheung), a quirky, young Daoist wizard, and two fiercely independent sisters, Moon (Michelle Reis) and Wind (Joey Wong, returning in a dual role).
Director Ching Siu-tung, a former choreographer, treated wirework like ballet. Characters run up walls, fly across lakes, and fight with glowing swords. The climax—where Ning desperately pulls Xiaoqian’s ashes from the tree demon’s roots as dawn breaks—is one of the most heartbreaking in cinema history.
The first film is a certified classic. It follows Ning Choi-san (the late, legendary Leslie Cheung), a bumbling debt collector who has to stay in the haunted Orchid Temple because he’s too broke for an inn. There, he meets Nip Siu-sin (Joey Wong), a beautiful ghost forced to lure men to their deaths by her master, a terrifying Tree Demon with a massive, prehensile tongue. Why it works: