A Chinese Ghost Story

Xiao Qian was released in the late 90s from the studio Triangle Staff. That's right, one of the studios behind Uchuu Kaizoku Mito and the studio we have to thank for Serial Experiments Lain. It's based off of the short story Nie Xiaoqian. So, let's see how it holds up as a film. Story: We follow a young debt collector, Ning as he takes a journey to forget his former beloved Lan Siu who left him on account of his ignoring her in favour of earning money. Dude, we get it you need money but a successful relationship is built on communication. You can't just ignore yourpartner. In any case, he encounters a pair of ghost busting monks who purify some evil spirits in front of him. While he runs and waves his arms about like a right useless bastard. After the excitement, he continues on his journey only to find himself in city filled with spirits and uncertain how to survive. Let's dig right into the primary issue that plagues this film. The pacing. And this isn't like yesterday's subject either where the pacing could have been better but wasn't that bad. In this it's an absolute mess. Once the film's gotten going we can't get a couple minutes between one long action sequence involving a lot of shouting and the next. Its like Ning's whole shtick is getting carried into absurd situations where he's completely useless. He's like Yamcha. There's also the big romance plot. Which is complete tripe. Our leads have no chemistry, seemingly nothing whatsoever in common and no apparent reason behind one being attracted to the other. He basically looks at her and thinks "wow, she's pretty." then she sees him and thinks "I'm going to steal his life force" but then changes her mind and falls for him for no apparent reason. Which is a general problem with the film. A lot of the "motivations" are nonsense. The ending is pretty shit too. Characters: In addition to the motivation problem, one of the big character issues has to do with consistency. I touched on that with the romance, but it goes deeper than that. There are characters who will quite literally switch their positions in five minutes without any compelling reason to do so. But the worst element of the characters has to be Ning. Not only is he pretty damn annoying, but he's a completely useless character. This isn't like Spirited Away where an everyday protagonist goes to a world of spirits and does well for themselves. This dude is completely out of his depth the entire time. And that type of character only really works in a comedy and even then you don't want them as the lead. Art: The art is a bit more mixed than the other elements. On the positive side, some of the supernatural designs look pretty good and the film does do a good job with making the city of spirits look pretty vibrant and unique. On the negative side, the animation is very clumsy and the designs for the more ordinary parts of the world are crap. There's also the issue with the CG elements not meshing well with the more traditional animation. Sound: The acting is, at best, barely passable. Maybe it's just that the script involves a lot of frantic shouting and it's really grating. Maybe it's that the actors, as a whole, sound like they don't give a shit but the consequence is that the performances just aren't very good. The music is okay. Ho-yay: There is none. Which suits me fine because, judging by what they do with the romance they do have, it wouldn't have been good. Final Thoughts: Xiao Qian is pretty bad. It's riddled with story problems, characterisation is weak and inconsistent, it doesn't look or sound good. I'm going to give it a 3/10. Tomorrow I'll end the week with a look at Aki no Kanade.

You do have to admire Tsui Hark for even daring to attempt creating an animated reinterpretation of one of Hong Kong cinema's most beloved supernatural romances. Rather than trying to outdo the iconic 1987 live-action film, this fascinating, if often overlooked, animated version reimagines the story through stylised visuals and heightened emotional clarity. It's as frenetic as any Tsui Hark production, with the animation embracing a storybook aesthetic; it's visually enthralling with lots of fluid character movement, expressive faces and backgrounds that feel pulled from classical Chinese ink paintings. Forests drift in mist, spirits glide rather than walk and the supernatural elements feel ethereal insteadof frightening. While the animation occasionally shows the limitations of its era with some uneven motion and a glaring disparity between the computer and cel animation, it compensates with atmosphere and mood. The world feels dreamlike, perfectly suited to a tale about love that exists between life and death. The film does stay remarkably faithful to the core of the legend, with the animated format allowing the story to streamline its emotional beats, if slightly less playful than in the live-action version. Ultimately, standing as a complementary companion to its live-action predecessor rather than a replacement, this animated Chinese Ghost Story trades iconic performances and kinetic action for visual poetry and emotional restraint. It's not perfect by any means, with its thin attempt at making the legend more child-friendly falling short, but it's a considerable accomplishment and just so irresistibly charming that, for any fan of the original, it's worth watching.

You provably should watch before reading this. -Last edit --------- I believe I watched this Movie/Film at my very young age, maybe when it came out or later, the thing is I couldn't really find it anywhere during year I never took it off my head, till someone once asked if it wasn't just a Dream, well maybe, cause in my head the Umbrella was Red, and she travelled inside it. There was even a scene where they stopped by a blossom tree in a little lagoon of lotus flowers in the middle of Green Plains. Also the pirate was more like sonic pirate or the onesfrom icecream, he had no legs and the robot was a ship with legs. The karneval was abit different the houses were more like the stone ones like in animes as Magi but they were way taller one above other with tons of Karvenal/Festival stuff and also those guys with long legs walking around, it was wonderfull, there was also the train travelling the universe in its way to a giant clock with clock pieces floating and etc, I didn't remember the dragon as a train but a guardian of the train or something since people where trying to capture or kill them, the part of that Tree witch was more like underwater cave and that other girl was a mermaid or something, the bad witch was their mother and wanted his soul then her sister closed the shell to stop her. Then after passing the rebirth clock, he woke up in a room with no roof doors windows (only the holes of doors windows etc) and paper chinese lamps to illuminate the place, blossom threes, etc, he went looking for her in every house.. he couldn't only find babys, he was one.. then he look up to the sky seeing the stars up there while screaming and crying.. ETC, didn't say all details but that was how I imagined.. a love story between a boy and a ghost girl ( how come I forgot that lovely dog.. maybe because my first dog got kill at my young age..it was my first friend/male dog, till then didn't have any pet that was just mine nor any male dog, my pet had 3 dogs but only a female dog survived.. later we had to give her away..etc..) old animes always look better in our heads than when watching again years later.. I kinda made it the only reason to continue here inbetween such garbage humanity, I thought about make the movie myself in 3D since I ended up studying 3D overall for 3 years, now I don't know... maybe I could make a different version but the movie exists, in my dream or memory was abit different, even the guy cards when they run away was like they grew up and made floating stairs.. Idk now. There's nothing else for me in this place The movie was released in 1997 so.. yeah older than myself , the dubbed ver was released in 2002 I guess, maybe I watched around that time or later, I was very young, like they say, before learning how to write you need to learn how to read. I believe I could read subtitles but not write at that young age.