Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Only in Hong Kong would a martial arts-action-comedy mixing humor, horror, romance, and at least one song and dance number be given such a generic title. The sequel is no less noisy or frenetic then the original, and the bigger budget means better translated subtitles. But except for some cheesy, papier-mâché monsters and grubby special effects (an old man's eyes boiling out of his face, for example) the more polished production lacks the sloppy, innocent charm of Part One, and as in any sequel the excitement of discovery is diminished. On the other hand Part Two makes even less sense (if that's possible), despite telling essentially the same story: the headlong pace hides not only most of the plot holes, but much of the plot as well. A synopsis would be impossible; suffice to say there aren't too many movies able to claim the novelty of a scene set inside the digestive tract of a giant airborne centipede.

Chinese Ghost Story may well be the best HK film I've seen, effortlessly combining fantasy, romance, horror, kung fu action and comedy, and pulling all these elements off fantastically.It's sequel however... well, how do you describe a movie whose main villain is a giant centipede masquerading as a levitating golden buddha that shoots laser beams out its eyes? This movie is a jarring change of pace from the original - it's pretty much an incoherent, rambling, silly and occasionally hilarious mess. The best scene sees Leslie Cheung battling a monster with a 'freeze' spell which he manages to cast on everyone and anyone - even himself - A-grade slapstick.Still, don't go out of your way to see this.

Not entirely sane mixture of martial arts, supernatural tomfoolery, adventure epic, picaresque, Eastern philosophy and religion, and monster movie; featuring cowardly, yet devilishly handsome scholar-heroes, potty priests with magical nous, fearsome, yet cute, highkicking heroines, fat evil fake Buddhas, mendacious high priests, lumbering trolls, hairy gurus and noble warriors. You can choose either THE PHANTOM MENACE and George Lucas, who stole many of these elements to create an enervating sticky gloop that goes on way too long; or this, directed at a breathless pace, full of fun, joy, energy, terror, invention and wonder (and socio-historical critique) which ends far too soon.

After the resounding success of "A Chinese Ghost Story" a second part had to be made. And what a sequel it is! This time our bumbling tax-collector finds himself in prison, fighting stacks of rubber monsters and befriending a Taoist who likes to travel underground! It's nice to see all the cast back too. This movie is very funny and never takes itself too seriously. For some who didn't quite understand the first movie, this is great to clear up any confusion. For the others, this is lighthearted entertainment.