Legendary Hong Kong producer/director Tsui Hark and filmmaker Ching Siutung combine forces in this high-flying supernatural romance classic. Ning Caichen (Leslie Cheung) is a lowly tax collector who takes refuge for the night at the spooky Lam Ro temple. There he encounters and promptly falls in love with a beautiful ghost named Nie Xiaoqian (Joey Wang). Unfortunately Xiaoqian is damned to serve the evil hermaphroditic tree spirit Lao Lao, who (thanks to an extraordinarily long tongue) feasts on the souls of amorous young males. Usually Xiaoqian, along with her comely sister Qing, tempts would-be Lotharios to their arboreal doom, but she too is smitten with the downtrodden wanderer. Soon afterwards, Caichen meets Master Yan (Ma Wu), a Taoist hermit, martial arts master, and a sworn enemy of Lao Lao, who tells him of Xiaoqian's true, otherworldly nature. Nonetheless, true love proves to be strong. Caichen promises Xiaoqian that he will help spring her from her dubious employment and Xiaoqian protects her love from the evil wood sprite. Later, things grow more complicated for the lovers when they learn that Xiaoqian has been betrothed to a demon warlord. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Ning Caichen is a timid tax 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 as the inns are fully occupied. That night in the temple, Ning meets a beautiful and alluring young maiden called Nie Xiaoqian and falls in love with her. However, when he later recalls last night's events the next day, he becomes increasingly fearful and superstitious. That night, he returns to the temple to spend his night there and confirms his theory that Nie is actually a spirit.
Nie tells him her story of how she became eternally bound to the servitude of a sinister Tree Demon. She explains that as long as her remains are buried at the foot of the tree, her spirit will be forever bound to the Tree Demon. Ning attempts to free her from her suffering. He seeks the help of a powerful Taoist priest and master swordsman called Yan Chixia, whom he met earlier. Yan battles the Tree Demon and attempts to free Nie's soul but fails. Nie's soul is taken to the Underworld for betraying her master.
Ning is unwilling to give up on Nie and insists that Yan helps him. Yan manages to open a temporary portal to the Underworld. Ning and Yan enter the Underworld and attempt to free Nie's soul from suffering once more. They are unable to find her in the midst of thousands of other spirits. Eventually, Ning and Nie are able to see each other briefly near dawn when sunlight shines on the urn containing Nie's cremated remains. Nie 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 Yan's advice, Ning buries Nie's remains near the crest of a hill. He burns a joss stick for her and prays for her soul while Yan watches solemnly behind him.
The ghost, Nie, plays a qin and she breaks a string (a common metaphor for a troubled heart or being surprised) when Ning steps into the pavilion.
The string breaking is symbolic of the parting of ways, and could represent an absolute separation. The Cantonese Chinese expression for this is "tyun yun" (團圓) and it could be directly translated as "breaking fate". She is a ghost and he is a mortal and that fate that had briefly brought them together had at that point broken. They could have never have been together anyway and they had to part so as to preserve the natural order of things.
A decade later, in 1997, an animation based of this movie was made called Chinese Ghost Story Xiao Qian, the story is a bit modified than the original source, in the animated version it focus on lighthearted slapstick comedy.
References
^ HKmdb. "HKmdb." Box Office Numbers. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
