Since Chinese Paladin 1, BoJone has always been following the film and television works of Liu Yifei and Hu Ge, especially their period dramas. I spent only four days each to finish watching Hu Ge’s versions of The Legend of the Condor Heroes and Chinese Paladin 3 (a bit crazy...), as well as his The Myth, among others. As for Liu Yifei, in my impression, she hasn’t filmed a period drama in the last two years; the last one seemed to be The Forbidden Kingdom, though I didn’t like that movie much (I couldn’t quite understand it...). However, Liu Yifei’s roles in several period TV series, such as The Return of the Condor Heroes, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and her “Fairy Sister” image in Chinese Paladin 1, left a deep impression. Perhaps this is precisely due to her pure and innocent temperament.
I remember seeing news about the filming of the new version of A Chinese Ghost Story in the Guangzhou Daily last year, and I have been following its production progress ever since. It seemed that the public release was set for April 22nd earlier this month, but in fact, it was released ahead of schedule. It is said that fans originally did not hold much hope for this film, but after its release, most people changed their minds; there has been a lot of praise, and the box office has been soaring.
Actually, BoJone does not know how to appreciate a movie. As long as the plot is not exceptionally bad, I think the film is decent. After reading this sentence, some veteran movie fans can basically ignore me, as this article has almost no reference value. ^_^
This film looks like a horror movie, but personally, I feel it is not as scary as the old version. Therefore, when you enjoy the film, you might as well not treat it as a horror movie. Before the release, many netizens had already compared Liu Yifei’s version of Xiaoqian with Joey Wong’s version. Looking at it today, I found that although Liu Yifei plays a demon in the film, it still cannot hide her “Fairy Sister” temperament, making her appear particularly lovely. Yu Shaoqun’s version of Ning Caichen continues the style of Leslie Cheung from back then—still a weak scholar—and I personally feel there were no outstanding breakthroughs. Louis Koo’s version of Yan Chixia, however, makes one sigh: it turns out he is such a deeply affectionate demon hunter! To prevent Xiaoqian from suffering so much, he used a divine weapon to seal the memories of both Xiaoqian and himself (if there is to be pain, let one person bear it). It wasn’t until the moment of slaying the thousand-year-old Tree Demon that he was forced to break Xiaoqian’s seal and use the divine weapon to perish together with the Tree Demon...
I’ll keep the introduction brief. In a word: this film is not bad, and BoJone feels it is very good!