Happy Ghost III

 
Director: Ringo Lam/Raymond Wong
Year: 1986
Rating: 5.5
I am not really one to use the word cute too often, but there is no other way to describe Maggie Cheung in this film. She almost overdoses on cuteness. This was an early film of hers – and she really wasn’t much of an actress yet so she pretty much depends on winning the audience over with her pouts and grins. Needless to say, I fell victim to every pout and every grin. Maggie just effects me that way.  There really isn’t a lot more going on in this film though it certainly is amiable enough and it supplies some innocent laughs along the way. It was the third in a series of five Happy Ghost films from Cinema City and Raymond Wong. I haven’t seen any of the others in the series, but I gather the Happy Ghost is an ancestor of Raymond’s that he can bring forth to help him in dire needs. There really is very little of him in this film though.
 

Maggie is dead when the film begins – but Maggie is pretty cute even when she is dead. She is up in heaven getting ready for reincarnation. Tsui Hark - in a cameo - is in charge of matching up folks with their new lives and Maggie convinces him to find her a musical family because she was a failed singer in her previous life. Tsui finds just the right family and tells Maggie where she has to go to be reincarnated. If you didn’t know already, the spirit has to jump into the womb just as birth is about to take place. You can’t be too late or too early. As in all things – timing is everything.
 


Everything gets bungled because of Raymond Wong and Maggie is told that she has to wait a month for the next opportunity for reincarnation. With a lot of time on her hands, Maggie decides to make life miserable for Wong for messing up her reincarnation. All of this is fairly pie in the face/falling trousers type of harmless stuff. Maggie can also possess other people and does so with Fennie Yuen, a student of Wongs, causing further complications with some triad folks. Raymond first summons the Happy Ghost and but then decides the best plan is to romance Maggie. In a musical video number Maggie dances the night away. Problems lie ahead of course for this happy couple.