Picture of a Nymph
Director: Wu Ma
Year: 1988
Rating: 7.5
In the aftermath
of the very successful Chinese Ghost Story, a plethora of similarly styled
supernatural films were made – some quite good, some quite sexual and others
that were neither. This Sammo Hung produced film follows the formula of
a Chinese Ghost Story as closely as it possibly can even to the point of
having Joey Wong once again play a mournful tragic ghost figure and Wu Ma
(who also directs) once again as the surly ghost fighter. Though it isn’t
nearly as poetic, romantic and sumptuous as Chinese Ghost Story, this film
is overall quite entertaining with a number of excellent fantasy/special
effect scenes. It has also added – much to it’s benefit - a new character,
the son of Wu Ma – played by Yuen Biao.
Beginning in myth like fashion, Lam Wai puts his son into a basket and
lets it float down stream where a singing and semi-naked Wu Ma finds it
and adopts the boy as his own. The boy grows up to be Yuen Biao and though
he is following in the footsteps of his father as a hunter of ghosts, he
plays it in charming Biao fashion - quite shy and playful. In an early scene,
he tracks a demon, Yuen Wah, into the house of a poor young scholar – Lawrence
Ng – and a battle ensues pitting the acrobatic skills of Yuen Biao against
the deadly entrapping whiskers of Yuen Wah.
During the fight, Ng’s house burns down and so Yuen offers him shelter
in the home where his father and he live. Ng soon comes across the ethereal
and painfully gorgeous Joey Wong. Joey is a ghost of course – and truly doesn’t
have to do much in the film but flutter her eyebrows over those sad brown
watery eyes and look tragic and vulnerable – but that is enough. On her
way to her wedding the Ghost King attacked her entourage and Joey jumped
to her death rather than become the slave to the Ghost King. Now Joey’s
wandering spirit resides on the earth – unable to reincarnate and still
being sought after by the Ghost King.
The Ghost King is in fact a female – performed juicily by Elizabeth Lee
in a sensually evil manner – and she is in the habit of picking off brides
to be and making them her slaves – and though never spelled out, it gives
off hints of ghostly lesbian activities.
Love is a funny thing and Ng willingly enters into hell to fight for Joey’s
soul with Yuen and Wu Ma not far behind him. Of course as Yuen thoughtfully
tells him – even if you should get her out, she is still a ghost and you
are still a human. A mere trifle to Ng. With a face like Joey’s, he will
gladly take the downside – and who wouldn’t? Yuen on the other hand is in
love with a village girl (May Lo) who already has been captured by the Ghost
King.
Ng’s portrayal of the scholar was the weakest point of the film for me.
Perhaps, I always think of him in terms of his role in Sex and Zen, but he
always comes off as callow and effete and not at all the material of a romantic
lead. So I found it difficult to be swept up in the drama and romance of
this film and didn’t honestly care that much about the outcome. At the same
time, this is a beautifully rendered film with a nice eye for detail, great
eerie atmospherics and some memorable images. For Yuen Biao fans, he is very
personable in this film and performs some nice acrobatics – but as one might
expect in a ghost film like this, there is no real opportunity for martial
arts type action.