The film opens with Ling Choi-san, a meek, debt-ridden tax collector, who is forced to spend the night at the infamous Lanruo Temple. Unbeknownst to him, the forest is ruled by a thousand-year-old Tree Demon (Lau Siu-ming) and its legion of beautiful, enslaved female ghosts.
Leslie Cheung as the hapless debt collector Ning Caichen, Joey Wong as the ethereal ghost聂小倩 (Nie Xiaoqian)—their chemistry is heartbreaking. The film blends supernatural terror, Taoist exorcists (Wu Ma as the iconic Swordsman Yan), and a doomed romance. The tree demon (Lau Siu-ming) is pure nightmare fuel. The bamboo-lodge fight scenes? Still breathtaking. A chinese ghost story I II III -1987-1990-1991-...
The 1987 original is the series’ artistic peak—romantic, haunting, and visually distinctive. Sequels II and III trade some of the first film’s melancholy and thematic depth for broader spectacle, comedy, and action; they remain entertaining and influential in Hong Kong genre cinema but feel less emotionally substantial. Together they form a valuable case study in how folklore, romance, and action fused in late-20th-century Hong Kong filmmaking. The film opens with Ling Choi-san, a meek,