A CHINESE GHOST STORY
TONY CHING SIU-TUNG. TSUI HARK
A Critical Study
By Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a study of the Chinese Ghost Story film series produced by Tsui Hark and helmed by Tony Ching Siu-tung.
The Chinese Ghost Story movies are:
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
A Chinese Ghost Story 2 (1990)
A Chinese Ghost Story 3 (1991)
A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation (1997)
A Chinese Ghost Story was remade in 2011 (and dedicated to Leslie Cheung).
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987, Mandarin: Qiannu Youhun = Sien: Female Ghost, a.k.a. Fair Maiden, Tender Spirit), was one of those movies where everything works, and the mix of elements is just gorgeous. This is a golden, 100% killer of a movie.
A Chinese Ghost Story has everything going for it: it is among the finest fantasy and action movies ever; it boasts a finale as grand as any in cinema; it tackles the most profound themes; it possesses a perfectly achieved tone and attitude; it features two incandescent stars (Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong); it is helmed and produced by two of the greatest action directors in history; and it is brilliant filmmaking.
Tony Ching Siu-tung (b. 1953) started out as an actor and stuntman, working in movies in the late 1960s and 1970s; he moved into television as martial arts co-ordinator in the late 1970s and thru the 1980s (on several historical TV series); he moved up to directing movies with 1983's Duel To the Death.
Tony Ching Siu-tung's two signature works are probably A Chinese Ghost Story and The Swordsman 2. Critically, those two films (and their movie series, the Chinese Ghost Story series and the Swordsman series), have garnered the highest criticial accolades (and they were big hits financially), and The Swordsman 2 has been the subject of numerous analyses of gender-bending issues in cinema. The sight of Brigitte Lin in drag and later fooling around with Jet Li as a 'woman' seems to drive film critics goo-goo.
Tony Ching Siu-tung has won top awards for the action choreography for The Witch From Nepal, Shaolin Soccer, New Dragon Gate Inn, Hero and The Swordsman.
Fully illustrated, with images from the Chinese Ghost Story films and the films of Tony Ching.
With filmography, bibliography and notes. 176 pages.
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Robinson, Jeremy Mark: - "JEREMY ROBINSON has published poetry, fiction, and studies of J.R.R. Tolkien, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Hardy, André Gide and D.H. Lawrence. Robinson has edited poetry books by Novalis, Ursula Le Guin, Friedrich Hölderlin, Francesco Petrarch, Dante Alighieri, Arseny Tarkovsky, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Books on film and animation include: The Akira Book - The Art of Katsuhiro Otomo - The Art of Masamune Shirow - The Ghost In the Shell Book - Fullmetal Alchemist - Cowboy Bebop: The Anime and Movie - The Cinema of Hayao Miyazaki - Hayao Miyazaki: Pocket Guide - Princess Mononoke: Pocket Movie Guide - Spirited Away: Pocket Movie Guide - Blade Runner and the Cinema of Philip K. Dick - Blade Runner: Pocket Movie Guide - The Cinema of Donald Cammell - Performance: Donald Cammell: Nic Roeg: Pocket Movie Guide - Pasolini: Il Cinema di Poesia/ The Cinema of Poetry - Salo: Pocket Movie Guide - The Trilogy of Life Movies: Pocket Movie Guide - The Gospel According To Matthew: Pocket Movie Guide - The Ecstatic Cinema of Tony Ching Siu-tung - Tsui Hark: The Dragon Master of Chinese Cinema - The Swordsman: Pocket Movie Guide - A Chinese Ghost Story: Pocket Movie Guide - Ken Russell: England's Great Visionary Film Director and Music Lover - Tommy: Ken Russell: The Who: Pocket Movie Guide - Women In Love: Ken Russell: D.H. Lawrence: Pocket Movie Guide - The Devils: Ken Russell: Pocket Movie Guide - Walerian Borowczyk: Cinema of Erotic Dreams - The Beast: Pocket Movie Guide - The Lord of the Rings Movies - The Fellowship of the Ring: Pocket Movie Guide - The Two Towers: Pocket Movie Guide - The Return of the King: Pocket Movie Guide - Jean-Luc Godard: The Passion of Cinema - The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky - Andrei Tarkovsky: Pocket Guide."
