A Chinese Ghost Story

The title if this animation is A Chinese Ghost Story. It is known as 小倩 (Siu Sin) in Cantonese. I wonder how many of you knew about this animation. I personally never heard about it before until Shu told me last week. I went looking for the animation and I found it. I watched it 2 days ago and i'm totally impressed. I never knew Tsui Hark produced an animation before.

It is a love story about a man, Ning (宁采臣) and a beautiful ghost, Siu Sin (小倩). Ning is a debt collector who wanders around with his dog, Kam Kin ( 金坚) to collect debts across the land of China. Ning is grieving over his lost love Siu Lan (小兰) who married someone else because she was neglected by Ning who work day and night just to ensure a better future for them. During one of his trip to collect debts, Ning entered a ghost town. When he was in the ghost town, Siu Sin spotted him and knew that he is a human. Siu Sin who works for Lou Lou (姥姥), a thousand year old tree evil spirit who need to consume the soul of human to maintain her beauty, wanted to capture the soul of Ning and present it to Lou Lou. While she was trying to captivate him with her beauty, a ghostbuster, Yin (燕赤霞) came to the ghost town to extinguish the ghosts there. Ning and Siu Sin tried to escape from the wrath of Yin. Yin saw Ning and Siu Sin and gave chase. Yin attacked and hurt Siu Sin. Ning begged Yin to let her go. Siu Tip(小蝶) who also work of Lou Lou reported to Lou Lou about the situation. Lou Lou came to the town in time to save Siu Sin and fought with Yin. During the battle, Siu Sin and Ning escaped. After escaping, Siu Sin and Ning were saved by a staircase ghost who brought them to the Reincarnation Train. The train bring ghosts to reincarnate everyday. While in the train, Siu Tip attack Ning and wanted to take him back to Lou Lou. Siu Sin fought with Siu Tip in order to save Ning. Accidentally Siu Tip zapped Siu Sin and Siu Sin fell. Then dawn broke. As a ghost, Siu Sin cannot be exposed to the sun. So she hide inside the umbrella of Ning. During the journey back to the Ghost Town, they met Yin. Yin believed that Ning and Siu Sin were close friend. He decided not to extinguish Siu Sin. Suddenly, a monk, Pak Wan (白云) and his apprentice Sap Fong (十方) appeared. They wanted to extinguish Siu Sin. Yin helped them escaped. They managed to reach the Ghost Town just in time to see Siu Sin's love, San Yiu (黑山老妖) concert which is held every year during the Ghost Festival. While she was enjoying herself dancing on the shoulder of San Yiu, she accidentally offended him by pulling of his hair. San Yiu got very angry and attacked Siu Sin. Ning wonders why he treat her like that. All of a sudden, the situation turned chaotic because Pak Wan and Sap Fong came to the Ghost Town and started to extinguish ghosts. Siu Sin and Ning took the opportunity to run when San Yiu were fighting with Pak Wan. They reached a cave. At the cave, Ning allowed Siu Sin to present his soul to Lou Lou. Siu Sin extracted Ning's soul from his body and bring it to Lou Lou. When Lou Lou was about to consume Ning. Siu Sin regretted and save Ning with the help of Siu Tip. Ning's soul went back to his body and the planned to reincarnate together. During reincarnation, they have to dodge the Heartless Hammers. Once hit by the hammers, you will forget your past in the new life. In order for them to remember each other in their next life, they have to dodge the Heartless Hammers. They took the Reincarnation Train. Upon reaching the Door of Reincarnation, Pak Wan and Sap Fong tried to stop them. Yin came and helped them. Yin used up all his power to stop Pak Wan. Pak Wan who survive Yin's final blow lost all his powers as well. After Ning and Siu Sin entered the Door of Reincarnation, they dodged the hammers. In the confusion, Ning was pushed out of the door. The door close and he didn't managed to reincarnate. He was very sad because he thought Siu Sin reincarnated. Suddenly, Kam Kin, the loyal dog of Ning pushed Ning's umbrella to him. Siu Sin also didn't reincarnate. So they lived happily ever after.

The ending is kind of hilarious. If you wanna know how funny it is, go watch the animation. Guaranteed worth watching. It is very difficult to find the animation now because it was made, exactly 10 years ago, in 1997. Even the voice casting is star-studded.


Characters --------------Voice Actors (Cantonese/Mandarin)

Ning ------------------Jan Lamb Hoi Fung 林海峰/Nicky Wu Qi Long 吴奇隆
Siu Sin ----------------Anita Yuen Weng Yee 袁咏仪 / Sylvia Zhang Ai Jia 张艾嘉
Siu Lan ---------------Vivian Lai Sui Yan 黎瑞恩 / Linda Wang Xin Ping王馨平
Kam Kin --------------Tsui Hark徐克
Yin --------------------James Wong Jim 黄沾 / Li Li Qun 李立群
Pak Wan -------------Raymond Wong Yuk Man 黄毓民 / Sammo Hung 洪金宝
Sap Fong -------------Eric Kot Man Fai 葛民辉 / Alex Su You Peng 苏有朋
Siu Tip ----------------Charlie Yeung Choi Nei 杨采妮 / Rene Liu Rou Ying 刘若英
Lou Lou ---------------Kelly Chan Wai Lam 陈慧琳 / Yang Fan 杨凡
San Yiu ---------------Jordan Chan Siu Chun 陈小春 / Luo Da You 罗大佑
Siu Lan's Husband --Ronald Cheng Chung Kei 郑中基

Ning

Siu Sin

Kam Kin

Yin

Pak Wan

San Yiu

Sap Fong

Kam Kin, Ning and Siu Sin

This animation deserve 2 thumbs up. Perfect casting and I rarely see animation from a Hong Kong production house. It's a good start but i wonder if this the only animation or is there other animation from Hong Kong production house that i didn't know?