Following the massive commercial success of the original, the creative team reunited in 1990 for a sequel that shifted gears toward grander action and sharp political commentary.
The trilogy's success also helped establish Johnnie Yuen and Joey Wong as leading stars in Hong Kong cinema, and their on-screen chemistry remains one of the most iconic in the history of Cantonese film. A chinese ghost story I II III -1987-1990-1991-...
Two years after the success of the first film, was released, again directed by Ching Po-tai and starring the same lead actors. The sequel takes place several years after the events of the first film and follows Nie and Ling as they face new challenges. Following the massive commercial success of the original,
Part II is not a direct continuation but a “spiritual sequel” set several years later, in a world even more corrupted. Ning Tsai-shen (again Leslie Cheung) is now an imprisoned scholar, framed for sedition by a corrupt government in league with a centipede demon. He is rescued by a band of rebel monks and a mysterious, hot-headed woman, Cheuk Yuet-yin (Michelle Reis), who bears a striking resemblance to Xiaoqian. The sequel takes place several years after the
Editors used jump cuts and overlapping action to make the martial arts look superhumanly fast.
Decades later, the trilogy stands as an irreplaceable relic of an era when Hong Kong filmmakers took massive creative risks, creating cinematic magic out of folklore, romance, and pure imagination.
At the heart of the trilogy is a tragic romance from the Qing Dynasty. All three films are titled Qian Nu You Hun in Chinese, which translates to "Beautiful Woman Dark Spirit," and they are based on the short story "Nie Xiaoqian" from Pu Songling's famous 18th-century anthology, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio . The tale of a ghost maiden enslaved by a demon, who finds redemption through love, is a classic of Chinese folklore that has been adapted countless times. While the first film is a fairly direct adaptation, the sequels soon depart from the original text to forge their own creative paths.