A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂)

Ning Tsai-Shen, a humble tax collector, arrives in a small town to carry out his work. Unsurprisingly, no-one is willing to give him shelter for the night, so he ends up spending the night in the haunted Lan Ro temple. There, he meets Taoist Swordsman Yen Che-Hsia, who warns him to stay out of trouble, and the beautiful Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately, Hsiao-Tsing is a ghost, bound for all eternity by a hideous tree spirit with an incredibly long tongue that wraps itself round its victims and sucks out their life essence (or ‘yang element’)…

Part of Hong Kong Cinema Classics.

Co-presented by CCCSF (Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco) and Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco (HKETO)

Runtime
1h 36m
Year
1987
Director
Ching Siu-tung
Format
DCP
Country
Hong Kong
Language
Cantonese w/ English subtitles
First Showing
September 6, 2025