A Chinese Ghost Story 1987

Ning Choi-san, Leslie Cheung a timid debt collector, travels to a rural town to collect taxes but comes up short and runs out of money. With no options left, he takes shelter in a deserted temple in the forest on the town’s edge. That night, he encounters a beautiful and alluring young maiden Nip Siu-sin, Joey Wong Cho-Yin, and slowly falls for her. In the morning, after the memories from the night before return, he grows increasingly fearful and superstitious because Yin Chik-ha, Wu Ma, a Taoist priest, warns him that the people he saw in the temple are ghosts. The doubt gnaws at him, and when night returns, he insists Nip might be more than she appears and sets out to prove whether she is real or a ghost.

Nip reveals her tragic backstory: she is eternally bound to the servitude of a sinister Tree Demoness. She explains that as long as her remains stay buried at the foot of the tree, her spirit will be forever enslaved by the Tree Demoness Lau Siu-Ming. Determined to free her, Ning seeks help from Yin Chik-ha. The Taoist priest confronts the Tree Demoness in a tense confrontation and fights to redeem Nip’s soul, but the demon’s power overwhelms him, and Nip’s soul is cast into the Underworld as punishment for betraying her master.

Yet Ning refuses to give up. He begs Yin to help him rescue Nip, and Yin grudgingly opens a temporary portal into the Underworld, guiding Ning through a haunting, spirit-filled realm in search of Nip. The journey is perilous, and they struggle to locate her among countless shades. At dawn, they glimpse each other briefly just beyond reach as they scramble to exit back to the world of light. Once they return, Ning protects Nip’s cremated remains from the sun’s harsh rays by shielding the urn with a curtain, understanding that sunlight could destroy her soul. Nip explains that only by moving her remains to a more auspicious burial site can she be truly freed.

Following Nip’s guidance, Ning, with Yin’s wary advice, buries Nip’s remains high on a hill crest and offers a quiet prayer with a burning joss stick. Yin witnesses the moment with a solemn gaze, a quiet seal on the vow Ning has made to save Nip. The ending lingers on their return to the road, two figures riding toward whatever comes next, a radiant rainbow arcing across the sky as if blessing their pledge to continue their journey together.