A goofy Tax Collector (think Joxer from Xena) named Ning Tsau-shen must stay at a local temple after his records are ruined and he has no money. When he gets to the temple he meets a master Taoist swordsman by the name of Yen. Tsau-shen also meets the beautiful Nieh Hsiao Tsing and they fall instantly in love. Unfortunately Hsiao Tsing is one of a band of ghosts that haunt the temple and trap unwary men for a local Tree Demon. Tsau-shen with the help of Yen must free Hsiao Tsing from her undead bondage and stop her from having to marry a Black Lord and live in some sort of Hell forever.

In my search for good Asian horror coupled with ghosts I came across this little gem of a movie that came out in 1987. Honestly it felt like watching a really awesome episode of Kung-Fu Theatre. I wasn’t really digging it at first but once the story evolved from goofy guy stumbles around (inadvertently killing some sucked dry animated corpses) and falls in love with beautiful girl, to guy and girl must save her soul from demons and a really, really long tongue, I was having a great time.

The cinematography was absolutely gorgeous. For most of the movie Hsiao Tsing wears this long white dress with billowing sleeves that flows beautifully as she flies from tree to tree. Actually almost every movement made by Tsing is a thing of beauty even in the middle of a comic scene. The Black Lord was a bit cheesy looking but when he throws out his cloak and you see the spirits he has trapped it will make you jerk back in your seat, especially when the heads fly out to try and chew up our heroes. The action is lightning fast with amazing spot on timing, really everything in this movie excellently done but if you don’t like wire work then it’s not the movie for you.

My chief complaint was the subtitles, they were horrible. Words were missing or misspelled, the tenses were wrong, things that should have been singular were plural, etcetera etcetera. It was like they got a translator straight out of school to do the translations.

The movie played out very much like a fairy tale (and who knows it might be) with the themes of love and loss. If you’re a fan of Asian cinema I’m sure you’ll enjoy this movie. Don’t pick it up thinking you’re getting another version of Ju-On or The Eye since there really aren’t many scares here. I would classify it as a love story with horror and supernatural elements. Actually parts of it reminded me somewhat of Evil Dead II with the trees and the swooping cameras.

8 out of 10 Taoist Swordsmen that break out into rap while doing forms.