EROTIC GHOST STORY (1990)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

Some online reviews compare the Hong Kong movie EROTIC GHOST STORY to the book-and-movie THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, and I suppose this could be a partial influence. But even having only a smidgen of familiarity with Chinese literary tropes, I tend to think that the story owes a lot more to the oft-adapted Chinese story of THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE. SNAKE is about a female snake-spirit who falls in love with a mortal man and so attempts to pass as human, only to be separated from her love by a busybody Taoist monk. 

GHOST is about three spirits-- my subtitling calls them both "foxes" and "fairies"-- who are seeking to purge themselves of lustful impulses so that they can become human. In a reversal of the SNAKE plotline, they meet a male-- only apparently a mortal-- who seduces them all and ruins their chances to become human beings. The film's references to Chinese metaphysics are the only reason I give GHOST a fair mythicity rating, since most of this Category III film consists of loads and loads of softcore sex.

The three fairies (Amy Yip, So Man and Hitomi Kudo) descend to Earth and take up residence in some Chinese city, where they're able to pass as humans with their neighbors. A busybody Taoist priest stops by to provide exposition about how the fairies need to avoid sex in order to attain humanity, and the girls all vow to stay chaste.

In no time, handsome young scholar Wu Ming (Pal Sinn) comes along and implores the women to give him shelter until he gets wherever he's going. And equally quickly, each of the sisters in turn finds some excuse to corner Ming in private and sex him up. The sisters aren't even particularly possessive, for when they find out that they've all done the scholar their next step is line up a foursome.

But Ming isn't a mortal scholar at all; he's the fertility demon Wutung, the very incarnation of the lust the sisters were attempting to avoid. This leads to a magical duel, which includes flashing CGI rays and the use of  a voodoo doll. (The scene in which Wutung writhes in pain as the three girls repeatedly stab his image is the movie's high point.) Aside from that scene, both the fight-scenes and the sex-scenes are nothing special, and the three female stars don't even get to defeat their seducer, as the Taoist comes back to deal the demon his defeat-- though oddly, Wutung gets a sequel and the fairy-girls don't.