A Chinese Ghost Story

A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

Director - Ching Siu Tung

DVD Released by : Mega Star

Player reviewed with : Sony S3000

Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925

Features:

Trailer

Cantonese and Mandarin Soundtracks

Dolby Digital 5.1 remix

English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa

Malayasia, Bahasa Indonesia, and Thai Subtitles

A CHINESE GHOST STORY is the tale of a inept tax collector (Leslie Cheung),who must stay at a haunted monastery because he has nowhere else to go. While staying there, he meets up with Swordsman Yen, who feels sorry for him and becomes his protector. He also meets a ghost (Joey Wong), and falls in love with her. The ghost usually seduces men so that the Tree Demon can drain their souls, but she falls in love with the tax collector because he is honest and good-natured. The tax collector and Swordsman Yen risk their very souls in the bowels of Hell to help the ghost break free from the Tree Demon's curse

The picture quality of this DVD is above average. There are a lot of night scenes and the detail is very good. Even the darkest scenes showed no sign of any pixelation or noise. The source print has some speckles in it but overall the picture is more than satisfactory.

The Dolby 5.1 remix is actually pretty good. The best thing I can say about the sound track is that I can't notice anything wrong with it. Most if not all the soundtrack came from the front speakers. The sound mix was done well. The dialogue was never drowned out by the music or special effects.

I watched the movie in Cantonese with the English subtitles. The subtitles were a decent size and did not interfere with watching the movie. They were timed well with the dialogue and the translations were never distracting.

The movie contained a trailer as well as Media Asia's commercial for their DVD's that they have put on practically every one of their releases.

A CHINESE GHOST STORY is a great movie. If you are a fan of this movie, you will definitely want the DVD. This is probably the best presentation of the film out there. I would recommend this one.