Sien lui yau wan

I watched the morning news programs for discussions of Juneteenth and Gavin Newsom’s mask order before going over to the laundromat and taking a walk around town.  When I got home, I sat down to watch “A Chinese Ghost Story” from 1987.  It had Leslie Cheung as Ning Choi-san, a debt collector who was clumsy, and Joey Wong as Nip Siu-sin, a woman who is cold to the touch and doesn’t seem like a normal person.  It was fun to watch this movie with the special effects before the age of CGI, with reverse shots, and some Harryhausen animation of skeletons.  There were plenty of flowing robes and characters flying around.  Some attempts at humor were not especially funny, and I would not put Cheung on the list of greatest actors.  Some of the key points of the action scenes were shouted out suddenly, like not letting someone’s tongue touch your mouth.  Oh, yes, there was that huge tongue that was long enough to appear on a Rolling Stones album cover, I think.  I think of this film as much older than “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which is now twenty years ago.  “A Chinese Ghost Story” is enjoyable to watch.  It should have been one of the Flashback Thursday features before they went away a few years ago.  I was reminded of how conservative these Asian films are in displaying any kind of nudity.  It does make the kisses between the two principals more meaningful that way.  I’m not sure how this material could sustain the two sequels that were made.  I would like to know who the cult followers of this movie are.  Supposedly there is an entire generation born in the 1980s who are big films of this film.  It’s almost like this is the “Grease” of Chinese movie fans.  Joey Wong’s appearance in “A Chinese Ghost Story” led to her becoming a star in Japan and South Korea.  Her last film was “Shanghai Story” in 2005.  She is now 53 years old and living in Vancouver.  Leslie Cheung was a pop star in the 1980s, and he appeared in films like “Farewell My Concubine” and “Happy Together.”  He was 46 when he committed suicide on April 1, 2003, jumping off the 24^th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong.  The director Ching Siu-tung was born in 1953.  He worked as an action choreographer on films like “Hero” in 2002 and “House of Flying Daggers” in 2004.  Some of the people who died on September 9 include Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1901), John McGiver (1975), Patrick O’Neal (1994), Bill Monroe (1996), Burgess Meredith (1997), Catfish Hunter (1999), and Larry Hovis (2001).  Today is a birthday for Hugh Grant (60) and Angela Cartwright (68). According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for September 9, Elvis Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.  In 1971, John Lennon’s “Imagine” album was released.  In 1988, “Running On Empty,” starring River Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, and Christine Lahti, was released.  In 1991, “The Maury Povich Show” debuted.  In 1997, Burgess Meredith died at his home in Malibu at age 89.