A Chinese Ghost Story

Original Title: 小倩 [Chinese]
Romanized: Xiao Qian
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

In China of days past, a young man is traveling the countryside collecting on old debts. But the rustic countryside is a land full of ghosts, along with a few eccentric exorcists bent on getting rid of them and showing each other up. In one corner is a boisterous fellow by the name of Redbeard and his giant ghost-busting mecha, and in the other is White Cloud and his sidekick, two monks with a passion for wiping out wayward spirits. When our intrepid traveler and his mutt happen upon a passel of spirits, he's saved and warned by one of those exorcists, but he's never been very good at following maps, and he finds himself in a ghost town that's quite crowded... with ghosts. In addition to the sights and sounds of the "city", the young fellow meets a rather pretty dead girl who's "dead" set (sorry) on grabbing his soul for her employer. But there's something more than that between them, and their bond will take them on one heck of a ride...

Quick Review

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-01-28

This animated adaptation of the popular series of live action movies is something like a cross between a Disney feature and the Beetlejuice cartoon. Its strengths are the sweet pair of main characters, a constant sense of motion, and several attractive action scenes involving 3D-enhanced chases and flights. On the down side, the rather jumpy story is fittingly broad and simple for a children's movie, the ghosts are largely uncreative, there are a few half-hearted musical numbers tossed in, and the computer generated backgrounds (the characters are hand-drawn cels) have some rough edges.

Younger viewers might enjoy this, but although it has some nice characters, attractive art, and some interesting use of computer animation, the plot is weak and it has enough of the marks of a made-for-the-kids movie that it probably won't appeal to most older viewers, especially those expecting something more along the lines of Miyazaki's "kids" movies. Spirited Away, it isn't.

US DVD Review

The DVD features the English dub plus original Mandarin and Cantonese soundtracks, and English subtitles.

Content Guide

A few scenes that might scare very young kids, and there's a bit of romance, but pretty much suitable for any age.

Violence: 1 - There is a lot of action and a sense of danger, but other than the fact that everyone's already dead, there is a near zero body count.

Nudity: 0 - Nothing.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A kiss or two.

Language: 0 - Nothing worth mentioning.

Notes and Trivia

This is based on a live-action series of Hong Kong films with the same English title (the Chinese titles are different, the live action versions being "Sinnui Yauman" and this one apparently being some sort of play on that). It is written, produced, and even edited by Tsui Hark (who also has a voice cameo in it), the producer of the original film trilogy. Mostly a Chinese production, though the visual style is largely anime.

Availability

Available from Geneon (though VIZ was also involved with the production) on hybrid English-Mandarin-Cantonese DVD. Was also available on dubbed VHS.

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