Review: After the ambitious, but flawed second installment in the Chinese Ghost Story series, the final part plays it safe and reworks the plot of the original film. Gone is Leslie Cheung (bar an opening recap), but Tony Leung’s naive Fong is from the same mould and shares a similar romance with the ghostly Wong, whose Lotus is a harder-edged version of Sian from the first film. Fong is under the reluctant tutelage of an elder priest and must convince the priest to spare his spectral lover and save her ashes, just as Cheung had to.

Yet A Chinese Ghost Story III has one big surprise; it’s first-rate entertainment. Returning to the original premise may be lazy, but in its vitality, wit and emotion the movie is a standalone success.

Part III is, unsurprisingly, the darkest entry in the series as writers Tsui and Szeto had previously collaborated on We’re Going to Eat You (1980). A swimming pool orgy with moronic bandits is curtailed as Lotus, Butterfly and the Tree Demon bloodily tear the men’s souls from their bodies. Thankfully absent are the rubber monsters of A Chinese Ghost Story II, here the ghosts are back and the horrors are recognizably physical; Lotus uses her long hair to drag her victims to the doom, an image Ronny Yu seems to have borrowed for The Bride with White Hair (1993), Butterfly’s claw-like red nails rip befuddled men apart and the Tree Demon, a powerful asexual priestess, again has a snaking tongue that captures his/her prey. In the nearby town, weapons manufacturing is the lone growth industry and Yin thinks nothing of dismembering irksome bandits.

One of the film's triumphs is that it marries this darker worldview with lighter, more playful elements. The middle section resembles a Hollywood screwball comedy refracted through a Hong Kong lens, as Lotus attempts to seduce the celibate Fong in the Orchid Temple. Wong riffs on her performance in the original movie, and is more playful in this role, her clothes bursting into flames from the heat of her passion, forcing the chaste Fong to disrobe her as she returns the favor. Wong gives her best performance in the series demonstrating a sassy flirtatiousness, while the likeable Leung is bumbling and winning enough to plausibly draw her back from the dark side. Playfully, Lau Shun and Lau Siu-ming, respectively evil and good characters in A Chinese Ghost Story II, switch sides for this movie, Lau Siu-ming reprising his demonic role from the first film.

The wirework action is a delight; with director Ching joined by three action directors. The flying sequences are so gracefully agile why didn’t Hollywood call for the wirework wonderboys until almost a decade later? While martial arts is limited to Yin’s swordplay abilities, the powerful monks and evil ghosts frequently battle above the ground with incantations and exploding charms, and Yin (who may or may not be the Taoist ghostbuster from the second movie) also has a ghost-seeking sword cannon that he uses to bother the dangerous Butterfly, played with full-blooded lethality by Nina Li (that's Mrs. Jet Li, trivia fans).

The climax with an all-powerful Mountain Demon bearing down on the protagonists reveals again how much inventive mythology Hong Kong movies have to draw from. The sifu uses his own gold blood (the mark of a true Zen master) to paint Fong, making him a living embodiment of the gold Buddha statue required to defeat powerful demons.

Ching’s visual storytelling is more assured here than in part two, and sticks to the visual pattern used in the previous installments, harsh daytime lighting for the town scenes and a chilly, erotic blue for the Orchid Temple, but extends his visual palette to burnished gold for the Tree Demon’s lair. Ching (joined by regular DP Lau Moon-tong) also reaffirms his credentials as the comic-book poet of Hong Kong with Evil Dead demon POV shots and haunted forests, and tongue POV shots as the demons give their victims the ultimate French kiss!

Allegory is not a primary concern for the filmmakers this time around, but there is thematic meat on the bone. The spectral sisters are Lotus, an African plant fabled to make those who eat it lose any desire to return to normal life, and Butterfly, an insect once believed to be a disguised larcenous witch.

During the climactic chase when the Mountain Demon reveals himself, he drags the town behind him, resembling an unstoppable freight train. Coupled with Fong’s sifu’s teachings on materialism, maybe the suggestion is the march of progress inevitably leads to avarice and murder.

UPDATE: Second Opinion: The visuals, action and acting are all superb, but this film really has some of the sharpest comedy of any Hong Kong movie, period. Clever parody abounds throughout the story; with flying body parts, haggling weapons smiths, allusions to kinky sex, and Tony Leung's timeless combing the eyebrows gag. A first-rate actor, Leung is excellent and has terrific chemistry with Joey Wong, who I might add, has never looked so good. Their French kissing scene is a hoot. While it is essentially a remake of the first film in the series, it is superior. The filmmakers refined everything from the original and I hate to say it, but for casting, Leung beats Leslie Cheung. Leung also shares better chemistry with Jacky Cheung, particularly as they humorously squabble over who gets to "pretend" to be seduced by Wong. All around, A Chinese Ghost Story III is a brilliant piece of Hong Kong filmmaking that perfectly balances humor, action and wild special effects. As such, I have added a half star to Rob's original four-star rating.

As you might guess, this is not really a continuation of the first two movies. Rather, it is more of a similar tale in the genre. It's effective for what it is: the special effects are suitably inventive and gruesome, the action is fast and lively, and there is also a nice bit of drama and romance and Joey Wong starts to have feelings for Tony Leung. It's nothing earth-shattering, but A Chinese Ghost Story III should please fans of the first two movies. Even if you haven't seen either of the previous films, it's still an entertaining way to kill ninety minutes.

A Chinese Ghost Story III takes all the elements that made it's two predecessors popular - ghostly romance, demons, sorcery, swordplay, and the supernatural - and brings it all out again for another round. Unfortunately, it doesn't equal the sum of it's parts. This film borrows so much from the first two that it leaves no room for originality, and what you're left with is a re-hash of the originals. What's more, since you've seen it all before, it just isn't quite as good the second time around. A Chinese Ghost Story III doesn't have the depth of characterization or superb storytelling of Part I, nor the energy and excitement of Part II. It's not bad, and it is kind of fun in it's own way. However, it may have all the ingredients of the first two films, but the end result isn't quite as good.

There are not many main characters in this movie which is good in the sense you don't get too confused. The story mainly focuses on the young student monk named Fong and the ghost named Lotus. The master monk and the mystic warrior are interesting characters but they have less of a main role, they are more there to fight. As for the villains you have the Tree Devil and Lotus's sister Butterfly, they are like the evil spirits from the first film. In general the characters are very much like the first ghost story.

The action scenes in this movie are very much like the previous Ghost Stories and the special effects are a bit improved in quality. The action scenes were well spread out in the movie but it was not the main focus, there wasn't as much action as in the previous films. You had 2 main combat styles the old monk and the mystic warrior, the warrior was pretty much like in the other movies but for the old monk that was something a little different and was nice too see. All in all the action scenes were good the only negative side is that there were not that many.