Back in the early ’90s, I saw an episode of the British TV show, The Incredibly Strange Film Show, with host Jonathan Ross, which features some of the best of cult directors, from Ted V. Mikels to George Romero. In one of the episodes, it featured Stuart Gordon in one part, and then Hong Kong producer/director Tsui Hark on the other part. One of the films they showed clips from blew me away, showing me creatures and monsters that I had never imagined before. From a long-tongued tree-demon, to stop-animated undead, to flying heads, and so much more. It was from the film A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). I knew I had to find this movie and immediately started my search. My first copy was a shabby looking bootleg on VHS, with no English sub-titles. And I just loved it. To this day, it remains one of my all-time favorites.

The film was so popular, it not only made two sequels, but it spawned a whole sub-genre of “ghost” movies, even a popular series called Erotic Ghost Story. Go figure. But it also made a star of the alluring Joey Wang, who played the ghost in the film series.

Why am I mentioning this? Because the Chicago’s Music Box Theatre announced they will be doing a Hong Kong Cinema Classics series next month. While most of them are action films, and a lot of those being John Woo classics, such as The Killer (1989), Hard Boiled (1992), and all 3 of the A Better Tomorrow films, they will also be screening all 3 of the films in the A Chinese Ghost Story series. I never had the opportunity to see any of these on the big screen, so now, once again, the Music Box is helping me fix one of those life mistakes.

They only have the first two films listed, but I believe the third film will be added shortly. But the first two are screening on Friday, Sept. 5th & 6th, at 11:45pm. While I would recommend every film they have listed in this series, because we’re talking horror here, I cannot recommend enough to go out and see at least the first film in the series. It is beautiful, haunting, gorgeously shot, some amazing fighting, swordplay, and wire work, and some of the most original monsters you’ve ever seen. For the latest updates, head to the Music Box’s page HERE. Hope to see you there!