EROTIC GHOST STORY 2 (1991)

 

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

EROTIC GHOST STORY made money, so it got two sequels, though I've yet to see the third. But for GHOST 2 the former main characters, the three fairy sisters, are dropped and the story focuses more on stopping the new rampages of the sex-demon Wutung. His main foes, however, are once again a trio of characters, this time consisting of a brother, a sister, and the brother's fiancee.

There are some minor references to the events of the first film but on the whole the new director and new writers drop the fairly linear plot of GHOST 1. GHOST 2 provides only the sliver of a basic concept and then piles on even more exotic gyrations than GHOST 1 ever thought of, with the lascivious demon played this time out by fan-favorite Anthony Wong (who must have been paid by the grimace).

The plot-sliver is the assertion that at some point Wutung fell in real love with the mortal girl Hsiao-Yen. Some celestial spoilsports don't approve of this union, killing the girl, but her spirit is later reborn in another body. During her absence, though, Wutung ravages many villages, and some if not all of them sacrifice their nubile maidens to keep the sex demon at bay.

Frankly, though I just finished watching the film I couldn't say just who Wutung's three opponents are, though one of them, the fiancee I believe, is the reincarnation of Hsiao-Yen. I only know this because at the culminating battle scene (in which the sister throws a mean magical boomerang), Wutung strikes the fiancee on the shoulder. Out comes an outpouring of energy over which the face of Hsiao-Yen is superimposed. She appeals to the sex demon to choose love over lust, and such is the power of love that even a lust-demon gives in before its might-- and thus the two of them vapor off, ending Wutung's threat to humankind.

The camera-angles depicting all the sex positions are at least more imaginative than they were in GHOST 1. But the last-minute appeal to righteousness strikes a false note, given that the whole movie has been all about depicting as much lust as its makers could conceive, for an audience that wanted just that. So no, a final coda about the power of love just doesn't hold water.