Xiao Qian

Plot synopsis:
Ning Choi-san is a timid debt collector whose job requires him to travel to rural areas. He arrives at a town but is forced to seek shelter in a deserted temple in the forest on the outskirts because he ran out of money due to his inability to collect the debts as initially planned. That night in the temple, Ning meets a beautiful and alluring young maiden called Nip Siu-sin and falls in love with her. However, when he later recalls that night's events the next day, he becomes increasingly fearful and superstitious because a Taoist mystic told him that the people he saw at the temple were ghosts. That night, he returns to the temple to spend the night there and confirms his theory that Nip is actually a spirit.
Nip tells him her story of how she became eternally bound to the servitude of a sinister Tree Demoness. She explains that as long as her remains are buried at the foot of the tree, her spirit will be forever enslaved by Tree Demoness. Ning attempts to free her from her suffering. He seeks the help of a powerful Taoist priest and master swordsman called Yin Chik-ha, whom he met earlier. Yin battles the Tree Demoness and attempts to free Nip's soul but fails. Nip's soul is taken to the underworld for betraying her master.
Ning is unwilling to give up on Nip and insists that Yin help him. Yin manages to open a temporary portal to the Underworld. Ning and Yin enter the Underworld and attempt to free Nip's soul from suffering. They are unable to find her in the midst of thousands of other spirits. Eventually, Ning and Nip are able to see each other briefly near dawn when they come back from the Underworld after the fight. Sunlight shines on the urn containing Nip's cremated remains, but Nip cannot be exposed to sunlight or her soul will disintegrate. Ning holds on to a curtain to shield the urn from sunlight as he has a final conversation with Nip. Nip tells Ning that the only way to save her soul is to place her remains to rest at another more auspicious burial site before she returns to the darkness. Ning follows her instructions and with Yin's advice, Ning buries Nip's remains near the crest of a hill. He burns a joss stick for her and prays for her soul while Yin watches solemnly behind him.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
This is one strange film..
Even allowing for problems in translation, Chinese Ghost Story is thoroughly odd.
It may well take you more than one viewing to figure out everything that is going on.
I wouldn't even posit on where they got the theology behind it.However, it is still a highly entertaining film.
It is a love story that appealed even though I despise love stories and a comic adventure such as I've rarely seen.
If you don't mind things not entirely making sense, you should love this film.Chinese Ghost Story uses an interesting combination of computer and cell animation.
The combination is not seamless as in more recent films, resulting in a very interesting look.
Meanwhile, Chan experiments with the possibilities offered by the combination (look near the beginning when the camera cranes through solid ground).Best line in the movie 'Scissors of Heaven.'.
enchanting tale & animation.
Reading all the reviews of "Don't expect to understand this one", I went in the theatre expecting another trashy eyecandy-piece...I came out loving it!
The fact of the matter is, if you aren't already familiar with the Chinese folklore or myth of the love story between Xiao Qian and the tax collector Ning, you WILL find some ideas like the "ghost-busting" strange to comprehend.
Actually the so-called ghostbusters have supernatural powers well-associated to Taoist masters, or elites of the popular rituals and religion in Chinese communities.
(The other two "ghostbusters" recall wuxia/martial arts heroes in popular literature.)This animated version is quite enjoyable as far as visualizing these stories well-known and dear to many Chinese.
Having said that, there are also a lot of contemporary touches (e.g. the abusive boyfriend-ghost who seems a parody of the various Cantopop megastars giving another one of his "idolize me" concerts!)and musical numbers that are sometimes "Disney"-ish (having a song for the sake of the Disney-mation convention perhaps?) and at others really really gorgeous pop.So, eyecandy it is but with very creative camera angles and enchanting colors.
Very ambitious and hilarious!
Recommended even if you don't want to mess with the subtitling (which reads rather strange anyway due to cultural relativism etc.) The luscious images and love story are "universal" enough to understand by anyone..
Very funny and ORIGINAL anime!.
I finally got "A Chinese Ghost Story" on DVD and is well-worth it too!It has everything I can hope for in animation:a strange,un-predictable storyline,bizarre characters,off-the-wall (and sometimes sick) humour,rock-opera-like music score(it is NOT Disney-like!)and interesting and successful combination of CG and Traditional Animation(which is a nice first in Anime).If you want an Anime worth your time,please,get this classic now.But personally,I'd prefer the DVD version,since you can get Cantonese and Mandarin dialogue on it(personally,I prefer Cantonese) and you don't have to get stuck with the horrid English version(sorry,but the English "vocal-talents" need to take some singing lessons!)..
Rainbow hued HK Anime fun!.
"Xiao Qian" seems to be one-of-a-kind Asian anime films of the late 20th Century, a sucessful mixure of CGI and Hand Drawn animation.The plot follows a young boy  named Ng (pronounced Neeng) and his dog, Solid Gold, trying to recover from breaking up with Ng's ex-girlfriend, Ran. As the two converse, two ghost hunters appear at his village, wiping out living skeletons and flatuent, smelly spirits.
Then, Ng is sent on a special derilvery course through China, stumbling into a city of ghosts and the living dead.
Here, he falls in love with the title character (Xiao-Qian, meaning Sunshine in cantonese) and try to escape the ghosts hunters, Xiao-Qian's selfish boyfriend and cruel mistress whom eats the souls of male humans to become young again, as well as the repenting of the mistress' left hand girl, Zhiaodee (Butterfly Cantonese).
I also love how the film pokes fun at Disney movies and satirizes mass-media sell outs.Xiao-Qian gets five kisses.
Pure classic and fun!.
Interesting plot.
This animation starts extremely lame.
That is, compared to the rest of story.
At first I thought I got some kind of cheesy ghost-busting anime with weird-looking synthesis of computer graphics and regular animation.
But if you can accept (or endure) occasional splashes of barrel and spell fighting you'll find in this movie an engrossing love drama with interesting plot turns and a bunch of original art.
Although the mage characters seem to be low grade in comparison to two main ones the battle system mechanics is pretty interesting too and quite detailed.
So after all 'low-gradeness' of mages could be a trick to make main characters stand out.This version of the story is WAY better than any real movie interpretations.
Very recommended.