 |
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
|
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
Ning, a poor and naive tax collector, somehow stumbles into a ghost
town, where he is almost eaten by ghosts, if it wasn't for pretty female
ghost Shine. Shine and Ning soon enough fall in love, but their love seems
to be against the laws of nature, so both demons and humans, like
demonkiller Red Beard and ghosthunters White Cloud and Ten Miles turn
against them and make their life miserable. Eventually, Shine and Ning
come to the conclusion that they have to be reborn, and thus they hop onto
the reincarnation train - but still, a powerful demon and White Cloud and
Ten Miles try to chase them down, and the only one who comes to their
rescue is Red Beard, who has taken a liking in the two lovers ... Eventually,
the demon is killed, White Cloud, Ten Miles and Red Beard are reborn, but
Ning missed his chance for reincarnation when he guarded Shine's back. But
he has a rough idea where the reincarnated Shine will be - but alas, who
he thought to be the reincarnated Shine turns out to be the baby boy of
Ning's ex, whom he has desperately tried to forget. But what about
Shine? Turns out that when she saw that Ning missed his chance for
reincarnation, she turned back as well, and is still a ghost hiding in
Ning's umbrella (because you know, ghosts can't stand the sun). Being
reunited, Shine and Ning decide to skip reincarnation after all ... The
original A Chinese Ghost Story,
also produced by Tsui Hark, was a sort-of revelation, a light-footed film
that effortlessly married romance and action cinema, horror and comedy to
tell a very simple story in a very imaginative way. Ten years later, Tsui
Hark tried his hands on the source material again - to turn it into
something instantly forgettable: The whole thing greatly suffers from
excessive CGI effects, which might be nicely done, but they bury
everything else beneath them. On a narrative level, the enjoyably simple
story is equipped with way too many unnecessary plottwists, while the
central romance between the two main characters just refuses to manifest
itself emotionally. Plus, the characters all seem disappointingly empty.
Sure, there is still plenty to see in A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui
Hark Animation, and at least some of the visuals in this film are
breathtaking, but that's about it, there is not anything more to the film
- which is quite a pity.
|
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
