Line #10 Film/AChineseGhostStory


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6	A UsefulNotes/HongKong [[GenreRoulette fantasy-horror-comedy]] film series by Tsui Hark. The original film was released in 1987. It's an adaption of the 1960 Shaw Brothers classic, ''The Enchanting Shadow'', which was based on Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling's ''Literature/StrangeStoriesFromAChineseStudio.''
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8	Ning, played by Creator/LeslieCheung, is a timid tax collector living somewhere in ImperialChina. His job requires him to travel to rural areas, and this way he arrives at a certain town, but he's broke, so he is forced to seek shelter in a deserted temple in the forest on the outskirts. That night in the temple, Ning meets a beautiful and alluring young maiden called Nie (Joey Wong). However, when he later recalls last night's events the next day, he becomes increasingly fearful and superstitious. It turns out Nie is actually a spirit, enslaved by a Tree Demon who forces her ghosts to kill men. But Ning manages to fall in love with her in the meanwhile, and decides to free her, and to do this enlists the help of Yin, a Taoist priest and wizard and all-round badass.
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10	There were two sequels, released respectively in 1990 and 1991. In the first of them, Ning gets into a political affair which turns out to have a supernatural background. In the second, which is set a century after the first film, two monks stumble upon the same Tree Demon to finish it once for all. There's also an 1997 AnimatedAdaptation of the first film[[note]]By Creator/TriangleStaff and Creator/WangFilmProductions[[/note]], with a more kid-friendly feel[[note]]The Japanese dub cast includes Creator/AkiraIshida as Ning and Creator/MegumiHayashibara as Nie[[/note]]. The original got a remake directed by Wilson Yip in 2011, starring Liu Yifei as Nie.
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12	----
13	!!The films include the following tropes:
14	* AnachronisticSoundtrack: Part of Yin's introduction have him breaking out in a rap number, with an anachronistic jazz soundtrack blaring in the background. It lasts for an entire minute and is never brought up for the rest of the film.
15	* {{Animesque}}: The animated adaption.
16	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: in the second film, we get a gigantic [[CreepyCentipedes centipede]] monster.
17	* BadassBureaucrat: Ning, although most of the time it tends to be BadassUnintentional or MistakenForBadass.
18	* BadassPreacher: Yin's a monk, and so are several other characters. Also, the chanting Buddhist monks. Well, actually you better not rub off any monks or priests in the wrong way there -- if you're lucky, they'll just kick your ass and not turn out to be huge demonic centipede in disguise.
19	* BattleCry: Altogether, guys: PAO YE PAO LO MI !!!
20	* BoyMeetsGhoul: Ning is a human scholar who, after being forced to spend a night in a derelict temple, ends up falling for it's resident ghost girl, Nie.
21	* BittersweetEnding: The first film [[spoiler:our hero frees his ghostly lover, but she is apparently reincarnated somewhere else]].
22	* BodyOfBodies: In a variation, the evil demon at the end of the first film has a torso entirely composed of screaming human faces.
23	* BrownNote: Buddhist chanting in the second movie - actually coming from aforementioned demonic centipede.
24	* CanOnlyMoveTheEyes: In the second movie, the young Kunlun priest gives Ning a special symbol that can freeze anyone and anything. [[EpicFail Ning promptly turns it on the priest,]] ''then himself'', and the very demon they were preparing to face as it's hovering over them.
25	--> "Move your eyes up-down for 'yes' and left-right for 'no'..." (Ning draws attention towards the demon) "What the hell is 'diagonal' mean?!"
26	* CoveredInGunge: In the first movie, Ning and Yin facing the tree demon's ''tongue''.
27	* CreepyCentipedes: The BigBad of the second movie appears to be an incredibly powerful buddhist monk, but is actually a gigantic centipede demon masquerading as a holy man.
28	* CreepyCrossdresser: The Tree Demon is a male actor dressed as a woman. Also, it should be noted the Tree Demon speaks with [[VoiceOfTheLegion male AND female voice simultaneously]].
29	* DemonicPossession: In the second movie, after the corpse demon is killed, it takes over Windy's body. Thankfully it doesn't last.
30	* DevilButNoGod: While Buddhist sutras and statues hold genuine power, it's still the demons who remain dominant in all cases. The second movie even involves a Buddha manifestation that turns out to be fake.
31	* EpicFlail: A swordmaster in the second movie carries four swords, as well as a whip he uses to ''grab and swing all of them at once''.
32	* TheFool: Ning is practically the archetypal manifestation of this trope, given how many times his life is saved by complete random happenstance. Takes on some of the aspects of TheChewToy at times, given that whatever is responsible for his luck doesn't seem to care about keeping him ''happy'', just alive.
33	* GhostlyGoals: proper burial, but in a rather unusual spin of the trope, it's more to break the Tree Demon's hold than as a goal in itself.
34	* {{Greed}}: The magistrate in the first film: when he's not acting like a HangingJudge, he's asking to be paid. When Ning tells him that he'd pay him if he had the money, the magistrate downright orders him to get out and ''steal'' money to pay him. When Yin shows up (creating a MassOhCrap) he cowardly hides under his desk, [[BlatantLies begging Yin not to rob him because he's poor.]]
35	* HoldTheLine: The Taoist WarriorPriest (Creator/WaiseLee) attempts this in the second movie, fighting agaisnt hordes and hordes of demons all at once.
36	* IAmAHumanitarian: Both films have a scene taking place in an InnOfNoReturn where bandits hide to attack passersby, kill them and cook them.
37	* HumongousMecha: The Tao of Tao in the animated version.
38	* KamehameHadoken: Yin shoots them like a machine gun, while [[WireFu flying]].
39	* KungFuWizard: Yin, and at least one other character. They show both martial arts and magic usually cast by throwing spells written on paper. This gets quite mixed, coming to a climax of fight choreography, flying around from tree to tree, and spellcasting.
40	* LegacyCharacter: In the third movie, Jacky Cheung, who was in the second, plays a completely unrelated character who's taken the name of Yin.
41	* MagicalForeignWords: Sanskrit is treated as this.
42	* MasterOfThreads: Nip Siu-sin, the titular ghost, can send lengths of cloth from her white dress flying through the air to catch and restrain people.
43	* MisplacedWildlife: The distinctive yip-yip-howl of a coyote can be heard in the first film's graveyard. The film is set in Ancient China, like what the title said.
44	* OminousLatinChanting: More like ''Ominous Buddhist Chanting'', the BGM that gets played in the 2nd films that serves as the villain theme song for the Imperial High Monk and his entourage.
45	* OneWingedAngel: In the second film. To be honest, the first form was impressive in its own right. In the first movie, the Tree Demon appears as either a menacing human in black, a giant wooden tongue or, in the climax, as a warrior in black with four axes on his back.
46	* OverlyLongTongue: The Tree Demon manifests a flattened, prehensile tongue long enough to fight two or three opponents at once, [[TongueTrauma which gets stabbed several times by the heroes.]]
47	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They pass quite well for a human, and they're enslaved by a demon.
48	* PragmaticAdaptation:
49	** From one tale in an ancient Chinese supernatural anthology, ''Liao Zhai''.
50	** Exaggerated in the {{Animesque}} AnimatedAdaptation. There's a HumongousMecha for crying out loud.
51	* PrehensileHair: Ghosts can do this.
52	* ReincarnationRomance: In the second film, somehow.
53	* {{Retcon}}: The third movie takes footage from the first and re-dubs it all to make new plot points.
54	* SkySurfing: on a hover-sword.
55	* StuffBlowingUp: the demons just can't die without blowing up. It's like they're {{made of explodium}}.
56	* ToHellAndBack: The climax of the first movie involves the Yin and Ning pretty much storming what looks like the Netherworld to save Nie and slay the evil demons behind it.
57	* UnfazedEveryman: Ning. Just some poor schmuck who stumbled upon a paranormal affair. [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Though, as it appears]], he's got surprising guts when a girl's soul is at stake.
58	* WeirdnessMagnet: Ning, so very, very, ''very'' much.
59	* WhenTreesAttack: The Tree Demon, which the main characters have to face for the climactic final battle.
60	* WickedWitch: The Tree Demon.
61	* {{Wuxia}}: Although ''The Chinese Ghost Story'' series has more of a fantasy element than most stories in the wuxia genre.

Context Film / AChineseGhostStory