A Wicked Ghost
A Wicked Ghost is a 1999 Hong Kong horror film directed by Leung Hung-wah, starring Francis Ng, Gigi Lai, Gabriel Harrison, Edward Mok, Nelson Ngai and Celia Sze. It was followed by A Wicked Ghost II: The Fear in 2000 and A Wicked Ghost III: The Possession in 2002.
| A Wicked Ghost | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Traditional | 山村老屍 |
| Simplified | 山村老尸 |
| Mandarin | Shān Cūn Lǎo Shī |
| Cantonese | Saan1 Cyun1 Lou5 Si1 |
| Directed by | Leung Hung-wah |
| Produced by | Leung Hung-wah |
| Written by | Leung Hung-wah |
| Starring | Francis Ng Gigi Lai Gabriel Harrison Edward Mok Nelson Ngai Celia Sze |
| Music by | Simon Leung |
| Cinematography | Ally Wong |
| Edited by | Ng Wang-hung |
Production company | Times Production Ltd. |
| Distributed by | Universe Films Distribution Co. Ltd. |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese |
Plot
Ming, Annie (Ming's girlfriend) and three other friends (Rubbish, Big B, and Biggie) play a game of "contacting ghosts". They mix their blood with water, drink from the mixture, form a circle by holding hands, and inhale fumes from the burning of oil extracted from a dead body. Ming backs out before the game starts. While the others are playing, Ming sees a long-haired female ghost in a blue dress appearing near them, and immediately stops them. The three friends meet their ends not long later: Rubbish dies from a heart attack on the same day, Big B falls to his death from a rooftop, and Biggie strangles her mother to death before committing suicide.
Ming's sister, Cissy, is worried that something will happen to her brother after hearing about the incident. They seek help from Fa-mo, a drama teacher who knows a lot about the supernatural. They attempt to trace the origin of the oil but to no avail because Rubbish, the only person who knows, is already dead. In the meantime, Annie gets possessed by a ghost, who tells Ming that she has only three days to live. Cissy's fiancé, Jack, who is sceptical about the supernatural, encounters a ghostly old man in the toilet. After doing some research, Fa-mo learns that Rubbish and Jack live in the same town, which is situated near a village where a bizarre incident happened nearly 100 years ago: 66 villagers died mysteriously over three days.
Ming and Fa-mo find Lee Keung, a bearded old man who lived in the village in his childhood. He reluctantly tells them the story of Cho Yan-may, a Cantonese opera singer who treated him like her nephew and gave him a bracelet. Cho's husband framed his wife for adultery so that he could get rid of her and marry another woman. The villagers believed that Cho was guilty so they beat her to death and abandoned her body in the wilderness. Lee approached her dead body, cried and told her the truth about her husband. Cho's hands suddenly sprang up and stretched towards the sky. Over the next three days, Cho's vengeful ghost caused 66 villagers (including her wicked husband) to die in unnatural ways. On the third day, Lee pleaded with her to spare everyone and attached the bracelet to her wrist. Her arms fell back to the ground and she became peaceful.
Lee then brings Ming and Fa-mo to Cho's burial site to find her remains but the area has been dug up to make way for construction works. On the way back, they drink from a freshwater pool and see Cho's ghost in the water. Ming believes that Cho's remains have been accidentally dumped into the pool. Later, while walking along the streets, Lee hears Cho's voice calling out to him and follows it to an alley, where a metal bar falls on him and kills him. One night, Jack has a terrifying encounter with Cho's ghost at home. In the meantime, the possessed Annie attempts suicide by overdosing on drugs but Ming stops her in time and brings her to hospital.
By then, Fa-mo has figured out that the problem lies with the water from the freshwater pool, which is also the water source for the village. Cho can channel her vengeful aura through water and cause people who drank the water to experience hallucinations and die in unnatural ways. Ming and Fa-mo go to Jack's home and see him, in a trance, trying to force Cissy to drink a glass of the "polluted" water. After knocking him unconscious, they tie up him and Cissy to prevent them from hurting themselves or each other before returning to the pool. Ming dives in, finds the bracelet, and dives in again to search for Cho's remains. On the second dive, he passes through a supernatural portal and finds himself in the wilderness beside Cho's dead body. After seeing his doppelgänger among a procession of ghostly figures, he tries to attach the bracelet to Cho's wrist but her outstretched hands strangle him to death before he could do so.
Upon seeing Ming's dead body surfacing, Fa-mo rushes back to Jack's home and drinks the "polluted" water so that he can see Cho's ghost and confront her. When he hugs Cissy, whom he has a crush on, she transforms into Cho. He realises that this is an illusion so he embraces her even more tightly. Thinking that they truly love each other, Cho's ghost spares them and disappears. Jack regains consciousness and becomes unhappy when he sees Fa-mo embracing his fiancée. Cho's ghost suddenly appears beside him and he screams. The end credits start rolling against a background of a ghostly hand emerging from the water surface.
Cast
- Francis Ng as Fa-mo
- Gigi Lai as Cissy
- Gabriel Harrison as Ming
- Edward Mok as Jack
- Chow Yan-yan as Cho Yan-may
- Nelson Ngai as Cho's husband
- Celia Sze as Annie
- Lui Tat as Lee Keung
- Cheung Yue-lee as Lee Keung (boy)
- Lam Suk-yan as Biggie
- Joseph Tang as Rubbish
- Man Yeung as Big-B