FILM (1960)

The Enchanting Shadow Betty Loh Ti, Chao Lei, Yang Chi-ching, Tang Jo-cheng Director: Li Han-hsiang

When Qing dynasty scholar Pu Songling went about compiling ghost stories in the late 17th century, nobody could have foreseen that the resulting Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (aka Strange Tales of Liaozhai) would become an influential source for 20th-century films. From the Shanghai silent The Flesh Soup (1923) to Hong Kong's soft-core Chinese Erotic Ghost Story (1998), there have been supernatural sagas based on Liaozhai, a tome that has proven to be adaptable to cultural shifts and technological advances.

One of the best of these adaptations is The Enchanting Shadow (1960), a beautifully crafted work whose title spirit is exquisitely evoked by Betty Loh Ti in what would be the most lauded role of a career cut short by suicide at the age of 31 in 1968.

The story has been remade so many times that Wang Yue-ting's script contains few surprises and even fewer edge-of-your-seat thrills. What makes The Enchanting Shadow so compelling is the manner in which director Li Han-hsiang, one of Hong Kong's most meticulous mid-20th century cinematic stylists, uses moody studio sets, saturated Eastmancolour, and scrupulous attention to props and costumes to create a milieu so palpable that it feels perfectly natural for a ghost and mortal to fall in love.

Chao Lei plays scholarly rent collector Ning Tsai-chen who seeks lodging in a deserted temple because of a room shortage in town. There, he meets the lute-playing Hsiao Chien, a seemingly innocent girl next door who resides in a lavish adjoining courtyard with her fearsome grandmother, Lao Lao (Tang Jo-cheng).

But at daybreak Ning discovers the courtyard in ruins and Hsiao Chien's increasingly aggressive seductive advances have a sinister ulterior motive.