Ching Siu-tung
Producer Tsui Hark was interested in creating "A Chinese Ghost Story" as early as 1978, where he suggested it as a television production at TVB. The producer turned it down, feeling it would not be suitable for television. "A Chinese Ghost Story" uses elements of several stories from Pu Songling's 17th century collection "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". Tsui Hark stated that they changed a lot of the stories for their adaptation as they found out the stories were against their initial interpretation. On developing the film, Tsui Hark noted that director Ching Siu-tung wanted to work with him. Ching Siu-tung had previously worked as a director and an action choreographer on various Film Workshop productions such as "Peking Opera Blues" and "A Better Tomorrow II". Hark suggested developing "A Chinese Ghost Story", describing it as a love story which Siu-tung was not as interested in developing as either a romance film or a non-horror based ghost story. Hark noted that his higher up approached him to develop the film into being about a female cop, not being aware that it was based on a book or that it was a period film. While working on the film, Hark and Siu-tung did not really know what it was end up being like, as Siu-tung was still apprehensive on creating a romance film and desired to add horror film elements. Rumours persist around the production suggesting that Tsui Hark effectively directed the film. British critic Tony Rayns stated that effectively, most Film Workshop productions were "redirected or hijacked by Tsui Hark" Joey Wong was a professional basketball player and model before starting her film career. Prior to working on the film, she appeared in films such as the Taiwanese production "It'll Be Very Cold at the Lakeside This Year". She would show up in a few Shaw Brothers produced Hong Kong films and Tsui Hark's film "Working Class".