Brief Story Line
A young naive inexperienced scholar named Ning Caichen (Oliver Chen - The Legend of Condor Heroes 2017 version etc) was planning to go the capital for examination to be government official. Along the way he met a female ghost named Nie Xiaoqian (Eleanor Lee - Fake Princess TV series etc) who was tasked by her elder Lao Lao (Norman Chu - King of Beggars etc) to kill Caichen and absorb his vitality. But all her plan fell apart when both of them were attracted with one another.
Meanwhile a demon hunter named Yan Chixia (Yuen Wah - Kungfu Mahjong etc) started to notice many demons surrounding Caichen and decided to protect him from these ghosts.
So what would happen to Caichen and Xiaoqian? Find them all in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I said above that I read about this movie which made me interested in watching it. It was the information that the film was a new remake of the classic Hong Kong movie A Chinese Ghost Story starring Joey Wong and the late Leslie Cheung. I remember watching that film many many years ago and even if I did not have complete memory of it in detail, I recollect that I was fond of it. Anyway that was the reason I was excited to give this a try.
This time around the movie starred two young stars (who I think are quite popular judging by the many TV series they took part in either as main role or support role). Both of them look quite comfortable playing the lead characters, though I personally felt Joey Wong was the better version if I compared with the original movie. But I am not saying Eleanor Lee is not good in here, just that she was different from what I had in mind of the kind female ghost. I think Oliver Cheng did his job awesomely as he was very convincing with his naivety that created one or two hilarious situation. It was amazing considering he played a ruthless cold hearted Yang Kang on that 2017 Legend of Condor Heroes series.
What actually surprised me was the vast amount of fight scenes in here which were amazing and wonderfully done. Perhaps Yuen Wah has got something to do with it since he has prior experience as martial arts and stunt director in various movies. The special effects were good as well, with only the scene during the climax where the CGI was not as good as the rest. But mostly I was satisfied by them.
The story itself I think did not deviate too much with the original film. Btw this is not the only remake of that classic 1987 movie as there was another 2011 version starring Crystal Liu as Nie Xiaoqian though I have not seen that one to give any thoughts/comparison. Oh I think to honor the original movie, the same theme song was also used in here albeit not the Leslie Cheung version. It was playing during the opening scene and the closing credit. Before I forgot there was a brief mid end credit scene that should not be missed.
Overall I enjoyed watching this movie quite a lot. It might not be up to the classic level yet but I believe those who did not experience watching the original can certainly see this one to appreciate the lovely tale of the forbidden love between a human and a demon. With some nicely done sword fight scenes to give excitement to the new generation of audience and some funny moments as well, I think it should be an entertaining movie. So if you want to see a renewed version of A Chinese Ghost Story, then you can give this a try.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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