A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990)

In the eyes of the Chinese people ,It's a classic movie.These three movies( Sien nui yau wanI,II,III)are my favorite movies so far. The content is very romantic, and the heroine Joey Wong is my favorite movie star .The director of the film is very famous and In fact, the episode is also very pleasant .

Only in Hong Kong would a martial arts-action-comedy mixing humor, horror, romance, and at least one song and dance number be given such a generic title. The sequel is no less noisy or frenetic then the original, and the bigger budget means better translated subtitles. But except for some cheesy, papier-mâché monsters and grubby special effects (an old man's eyes boiling out of his face, for example) the more polished production lacks the sloppy, innocent charm of Part One, and as in any sequel the excitement of discovery is diminished. On the other hand Part Two makes even less sense (if that's possible), despite telling essentially the same story: the headlong pace hides not only most of the plot holes, but much of the plot as well. A synopsis would be impossible; suffice to say there aren't too many movies able to claim the novelty of a scene set inside the digestive tract of a giant airborne centipede.

Although a little shorter on plot than the first movie, this one might be a bit funnier. With the welcome additions of Jackie Cheung as a wandering ghost fighting Monk and the lovely Michelle Reis to the cast, the movie has even more Hong Kong star power than the last. Of course the chemistry between Leslie Cheung and Joey Wang is still there, and the film is funny and fast paced. If you liked the first movie, then put this on your must see list.

SINNUI YAUMAN II isn't bad at all, but it's disappointing. It isn't as funny, exciting, touching or visually inventive as its predecessor. The device used to reintroduce Joey Wong into the story is just plain wrong; if they didn't want to bring back her original character ( I have to admit they probably couldn't) they should have come up with a new love interest played by a new actress. Limiting Wu Ma to such a brief appearance limits his chemistry with Leslie Cheung, which is one of the things that made the first film such fun, and there's just about no one else here, except Cheung, who has as much charisma. It is a novel way to bring back the two actors, but it's a letdown.As for Cheung himself, he just isn't as disarming here as in the original; he doesn't fit his character as well. There's also what seems to be some kind of political allegory near the end that doesn't fit the rest of the story - maybe you have to be more familiar than I am with China to appreciate it? Oh, maybe I'm griping too much; it has its good moments (especially a scene concerning a slowly 'thawing' monster)...just not nearly as many as 1987's SINNUI YAUMAN. It waters down the impact of that jewel a bit, and frankly, I wish they'd taken all the good stuff in this film and used it on some entirely different project.