News 
"Let's chant"
A Chinese Ghost Story 3 was the final film in the trilogy and took place 100 years after the original. Gone were Leslie Cheung and Wu Ma with Tony Leung, Lau Shun, and Jacky Cheung taking their places. Joey Wong returned as a ghost working for the Tree Demon played once again by Lau Siu Ming. If the set up sounds familiar it was.Monk Fong and his master are carrying a gold Buddha statue to the Imperial Temple. In a rough and tumble town, clownish Swordsman Yin accidentally reveals the statue to a group of thieves. Attempting to stay dry during a downpour the two Buddhists take shelter in the haunted Orchid Temple with the miscreants in close pursuit. While the golden Buddha will protect the monks, the thieves find themselves in the clutches of beautiful ghosts. When Fong’s master goes into the forest to expose the demon within, Fong loses the statue. A beautiful ghost uses this time to tempt the young monk with numerous erotic games.
In the first film Wu Ma’s Swordsman Yin buried the Tree Demon for 100 years. Thus, this story takes place with the Tree Demon having broken free and starting the whole cycle again. The film felt overly redundant. The major difference being that the slapstick comedy level was increased with this film, something I’m not a fan of. While I tolerated Jacky Cheung’s helpful swordsman in the second film, the lecherous, greedy swordsman in this one wasn’t nearly as likeable. Lau Shun was fine as the wise old monk, but I still missed Wu Ma from the first two. Joey Wong playing a similar character in a similar film was too much for me. The Demon Tree having the same actor made sense, but without Leslie, why not recast the alluring ghost as well? If the Demon Tree events were bound to happen again, they needed to shake up the whole story instead of repeating it with different characters doing much the same thing.
The special effects were better in this film, but that’s not saying much. Buddhist and Taoist magic were on full display as well as demonic and ghostly abilities-elongated tongue, fingernails, and hair. Not to say the effects were great, there were places the wires could be seen in the smoke/fog.
I found the first two thirds of the film tedious as much as I wanted to like it. The last third with the full on battle with the Tree Demon and the Lord of the Black Mountain was more entertaining. My chief complaint is if they were determined to essentially do a remake, it needed to be better than the first, not an obvious retread of the source material that was only four years old. Not even Tony Leung could save it for me. If you are a fan of Hong Kong 1990’s slapstick, you will likely enjoy this more than I did. While it had some highlights (a building coming to life!), it didn’t stand a ghost of a chance of being better or even as good as the first two.
29 October 2026
Trigger warnings: SNAKES. Several scenes with numerous snakes. Ick.
Sticky Note: Wardrobe must have used super glue to hold up Joey’s dress in one running scene, no double- sided wig tape could do the job they were requiring to keep the film PG.
Was this review helpful to you?
A 'Sequel' that Ends up Spinning its Wheels
[Watched/Reviewed on Letterboxd 5/13/2021]"Basically a retelling of A Chinese Ghost Story" Amazon Prime nakedly claims in its summation of the film. Whoever wrote the summary is not wrong in the least, but now the ghost dame likes being evil, and its Monk protagonist is genre savvy to ghosts.
It's kind've disappointing when you consider how many ways from Sunday you could tell a continue a "Chinese Ghost Story", but sometimes folk just become a bit too taken with their first idea to break away from it.
Was this review helpful to you?
Sumptuous
Simultaneously a distant sequel and retread of the original film, A Chinese Ghost Story III keeps things together a bit more than II did, following the tradition of the previous two films this closing chapter once again gifts us with equal doses of comedy, action, romance and horror. The photography is as gorgeous as the previous entries, playing with colour, light and smoke with an abundance of stunning direction throughout, Tony Ching Siu-Tung certainly pulled his weight with this series balancing his style with Tsui Hark's eccentric sensibilities. Instead of Leslie Cheung's bumbling tax collector, we get Tony Leung as a bumbling novice monk, a worthy successor, adding a great charm and likeability to his character thanks to Tony's comedic timing. The film delivers a cinematic seductiveness that greatly benefits from the fast-paced plot, chock full of crazy magic spells and action sequences, spellbinding female ghosts, hair-raising demons, a touch of humour, drama and romance, a parade of crazy special effects and a sumptuously enchanting score for a third time courtesy of James Wong and Romeo Diaz. While it may certainly have many similarities to the first, A Chinese Ghost Story III almost plays like a parody of it at the same time, all without being too ridiculous and closing the trilogy out in style. The lengths men will go to for Joey Wong hey?Was this review helpful to you?
