Strange Tales of Liaozhai 聊斋
18 January 2007Yes I do enjoy Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese Soap Operas, though the ones I watch are nothing like American soap operas. Most featuring crazy martial arts, and this one being a supernatural tale, or tales I should say. In fact this is actually 6 tales, all adapted from the STRANGE TALES OF LIAO ZHI novella, the first of which was adapted into Tsui Hark’s A CHINESE GHOST STORY, so of course I had to see it, and like all Chinese Soap Opera’s I have seen I loved it. Of course some stories are better than other’s, but they are all enjoyable. This is an excellent series that I recomend highly. with 6 stories, it has something for everyone. And it is really long, which is why I have not been posting too many reviews of late!
REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS…
The first story is the one that inspired A CHINESE GHOST STORY. It is the story of Ning CaiChen a bumbling and innocent self described Post Horse who brings messages and things to people who are too far out of the way to get regular post service. Ning CaiChen goes to a small village where the students are missing their teacher, and sets out to find him, he is Chen Santai, but Chen Santai went to a temple in an evil village and was killed by the evil demons who dwell there, but his body was taken by the Black Mountain Old Monster to use as his own.
Ning CaiChen tracks down Chen, but first runs into Yan Cauxia a blind Taoist Priest (Eric Kot Man Fai) who saves him from some demons. Ning CaiChen then meets up with a fox spirit Xiao Ching, who along with her sister Bing Er work for grandma the Tree Monster who desires human male souls to make her more powerful. The sisters are meant to give the man perfect dreams so they die happy and content and the souls are the best, but the sisters are cursed to turn to dust if they ever fall in love by Grandma, which happened to their eldest sister. Xiao Ching tries to find Ning CaiChen’s dreams, but he has no big aspirations, and realizes he just wants to be with her, and they begin to fall in love. And we learn the priest was blinded fighting the Black Mountain Old MOnster, and was then found by the Tree Monster who loved him and took care of him, and had a child with him, nursing him back to health, but when he realizes that she was a monster he turned on her, and killed their child, and she was crushed and started seeking out men’s souls. We also learn it was she who blinded him.
The Black Mountain Old MOnster wants to marry Xiao Ching, and kills her sister and attacks the tree monster, who eventually must work for him. Xiao Ching takes a potion from the priest so she can have one good night with her love before she turns to dust, but their love saves her, but then the Old Mountain Monster takes her. The priests ex wife ends up attacking, but instead gives her power to the priest since she has realized love still exists thanks to Ning CaiChen and Xiao Ching, and they end up all fighting the monster, though she is mortally wounded. The priest admits he was wrong, and that he still loves her before she dies. The 3 then battle the old monster, with Ning CaiChen playing Chen Santai’s flute to distract the Old Monster and they defeat him, but Xiao Ching is killed, but no longer cursed so she will be reborn. Ning CaiChen heads to Xiao Chings homeland to settle and finds Xiao Ching re-incarted as a butterfly, and realilzes he can still spend his life with her.
The Priest and Ning CaiChen.
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I always Loved a Chinese Ghost Story and it is interesting to see this different adaption of the story. It makes me want to read the actual story, but I don’t think it has ever been translated into English. Oh well, at least I can have the films and this soap opera.
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The second tail really had me fooled for a good while, and I really got into it. The first episode had me tricked completely though as to where it was going. This begs the question of why do women fall for bad bad men….
This is the story of Wang Anxu, an artist and scholar who is married to the beautiful and high class Chi Hui.
Chi Hui.
Chi Hui has a beautiful and faithful maid named Zi Yan. Chi Hui becomes convinced that Zi Yan will steal her husband, so she plots to make her out as a thief. Zi Yan is to be cast out, but instead she kills herself by throwing her body into the well. Chi Hui is then disturbed by the ghost coming back, and starts to freak out. And we come to think that Zi Yan will be the villain, but we are of course wrong.
Wang Anxu ends up doing artwork for the Emperor and for his Mistress Shi, and they see the beautiful princess Ming Xia, as well as Chi Hui’s cousin Shi who wants Wang Anxu to paint a beautiful picture of a woman for him and brings Wang Anxu a special paper made out of human skin, and he finally paints a painting for Shi, who ends up giving the painting to him, and the woman in the painting comes out, coming to life.
Wang Anxu while out on the town sees a woman, the actress Ruan Han Mei, who he mistakes for his old lover San Niang, who it turns out he drove to her death, in fact causing her to be burnt to death. When Ruan Han Mei runs away from her masters, Wang Anxu takes her in, and has her stay at his art house, which is in the Plum Grove, and he loves her, and wants to stay away from his wife.
San Niang
He ends up going to a Taoist monastery and a priest sees that he has been affected by a ghost, and when he returns to the Plum Grove he sees Ruan Han Mei with her face off, and she is burnt, and she puts on the skin painting to cover the burns on her face, because it is San Niang. We learn that San Niang was a high class courtesan, who did not sell her body, but her skills. Wang Anxu courted her, and they fell in love, and she gave him everything so he could go and become a scholar, and promised to come back and marry her. Eventually she came to the city to find him, but he was already interested in Chi Hui, San Niang had had a kid. He gave away the kid, and ended up burning her in his house. And she as a ghost was willing to forgive him, but again he is evil to her, and uses charms to trap her, and then is going to burn her in his plum grove, but she is saved by Cousin Shi, who dies trying to save her.
San Naing comes back to take revenge on Chi Hui, but he is helped by the priest, but still she eventually manages to take out his evil heart. And even after San Niang has told Cui Hui that Wang Anxu will just kill her when he is done with her, she insists the priest help him back to life. So Wang Anxu is brought back.
Then he finished his painting for Mistress Shi, which is the excuse he used to stay with the ghost San Niang, but while there he sees the Princess Ming Xia again, and he starts to court her. and during Chi Hui’s childbirth, he has the midwife kill her. Wang Anxu then marries Ming Xia, but on his wedding night we see both Cui Hui and San Niang as ghosts ready to take revenge.
Ming Xia nd Wang Anxu
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I may be a sucker, but I really enjoyed this and got into it, and felt bad for all the women.
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The 3rd story is a fun one, the story of a moron, whose father is owed a favor and gets him a wife, but a special wife.
Wong HUngli saved a wolf in the past, and it turned out to be the thousand year old wolf Yu Yuji who has a child Xia Cui who she hates because she reminds her of the husband that left her.
Yu Yuji
Xia Cui
Xia Cui is nice and curios and has learned some of her mother’s powers though her mother won’t train her, and always works with the Pearl of the Night which she stole from Heaven. Wong Hungli and his wife have a moron of a son Wong Yuan Feng, who they want to be taken care of, so they want a wife, and Wong Hungli asks the Fox, and she forces her daughter Xia Cui to marry him. At first she just plays with him and makes of a fool of him, but she does help him to study. Eventually she falls more and more for him, as he is a kind sort.
XIa Cui and Wong Yuan Feng playing as emperor.
Eventually she wants to try and make him smarter, but her mom won’t help, so she gets help from her mom’s evil sister the snake Sheji, to help her use a snake to transfer her own energy into her husband Yuan Feng. SHe is successful and Yuan Feng is smarter, but he is now a bastard, and it turns out he is under the power of Sheji, who has also become the Empress. And he is now a brutal fighter and evil man.
Wong Yuan Feng as a warrior.
Yu Yuji and Xia Cui when attacked by Wong Yuan Feng.
He goes on the emperor’s orders to capture all the foxes in the bamboo forest and even fights his own wife. And Yu Yuji is captured by Sheji. Xiao Cui gives the pearl to Sheji in exchange for her mom’s life, but Sheji betrays them and sends Yuan Feng after them, but he can’t hurt his wife, and instead he is badly hurt. Xiao Cui tries to save her husband, but her mom, moved by the love, vows to help her get the pearl back and save him, she does this by using his body. Sheji is betrayed at the palace, and is wounded, and the mother and daughter attack and get the pearl, and Xiao Cui saves her husband, while her mom fends off the God of Thunder who is there for the Pearl, and he wins and takes the mother and daughter back to heaven.
Yuan Feng is saved, but a moron again, and he misses his wife, but she manages to come back.
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This was cute, and I really enjoyed it.
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The 4th story is kind of brutal. My least favorite,maybe only because it does come down to that many men are evil at heart, though there is still goodness and love in the world at least.
This is a story about a bet between 2 underworld judges Judge Situ and the Redfaced Judge Lu who decide the fates of ghosts that have entered the underworld.
Judge Lu
They make a bet about the nature of man, weather a stupid person would be good or bad if he was given a smart heart. This is because they got the ghost of Bai Yang an illiterate pharmacist who was killed by the court for giving medicine that killed people, but he was tricked by an evil pharmacist. His son Bai Yongchong has tried to clear his fathers name, but with no success, and is very poor, and all he can do is re-open his father’s store (where he helps a stinky taoist priest which will help him greatly later), and keeps trying to see his fiancee who he loves deeply.
This is Bai Yongchong
His fiancee is Zhang Xiao Man. There families had promissed them at birth, but they are actually deeply in love, though the Zhang family is high class and trying to do everything to stop the marriage as they hate Bai Yongchong.
Bai Yongchong and Zhang Xiao Man in one of the times she has snuck out to see him.
Judge Lu meanwhile has picked his target, and he wants to give a smart heart to Zhu Erdan, who is an idiot, but kindly and takes care of his father, and has a kind though not beautiful, but martial arts skilled wife Shaorong who cooks stinky tofu to pay for them to live.
Shaorong and Zhu Erdan.
Judge Lu takes the smart heart of a scholar (who fought with Bai Yongchong just before he died), and while he gives the smart heart to Zhu Erdan, Bai Yongchong is blamed for the scholars death, and the now smart Zhu Erdan must defend him in court, which he does, but he also falls for the beatiful Zhang Xiao Man. And Zhu Erdan slowly becomes more evil. He defends people in court who are unprincipled, and does it for money, and he covets Zhang Xiao Man.
Then when Zhang Xiao Man goes out to meet her lover, she goes to the wrong temple and a man tries to rape her, so she dies instead of being raped. Zhu Erdan watched this, but instead of helping went and got Judge Lu, and when they find the dead body he convinces Judge Lu to exchange her head with the head of her wife.
When Bai Yongchang finds out, he accuses Zhu Erdan of killing Zhang Xiao Man, but Zhu Erdan gets off with the help of Judge Lu and tries to have Bai Yongchang put away.
Meanwhile in hell Zhang Xiao Man is causing trouble for Judge Lu because she wants her head back and wants to see Bai Yongchang before she is reincarnated.
When Bai Yongchang gets out of jail, he decides to kill himself so he can see Xiao Man, but he meets the old Taoist who helps him leave his body and go into the undeworld so he can see Xiao Man, and get some justice. He ends up talking to the Yama, the king of hell, who makes Judge Lu return the head to XIao Man’s body and to Shaorong, but Zhu Erdan is still out and he kills the body of Bai Yonchang. Then it turns out the Taoist was in fact the emperor of the east mountain from heaven, and he allows Bai Yongchang to come back to life with Xiao Man and they are allowed to grow old together.
And the punish Judge Lu and Zhu Erdan. When Shaorong is giving birth, Zhu Erdan asks to save the baby, and so his kind wife Shaorong dies, and his son turns out to be Judge Lu who makes his life miserable.
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The fifth story was quite enjoyable, and honestly it tricked me like the second did, having different characters than I thought.
In this story the sneaky Tao Wangsan returns home with his college friend Jiang Qianqian, and helps her from some ruffians on the way. When they get to her house, she reveals herself as a beautiful woman, and Tao Wangsan (who already knew, but didn’t let on) pursues her as she is rich and can make his life better, though he doesn’t truly love her. Her mean father Vice Minister Jiang won’t let Tao Wangsan stay with them, so he stays at a hotel, and meets a local Taoist priest Tian, who is unskilled, but they become friends. Eventually Tao Wangsan moves into the haunted villa of the Jiang’s, Jiang Villa, where one of their servants Chunhua, was with a Zhang, who was killed by a group of ghosts.
The ghosts are led by Qiurong, and have the beautiful Xiao Xie as well as a boy ghost Xiao Bia and other ghosts. Tao Wangsan does not believe in ghosts, though he does start to fall for Xiao Xie before he knows she is a ghost. The Ghosts are free spirits who have not gone to hell, so the Black Judge will want them in the underworld.
Xiao Xie.
At first Tao Wangsan is scared, but then he is having trouble with Qianqian, whose father is having a contest with the smartest scholar and the best fighter to see who can marry her. Tao Wangsan gives the ghosts each an umbrella, and walks with Xiao Xie outside, holding the umbrella, and because she loves him, she helps him win the contest.
Then when he is attacked by the ruffians, Qianqian sides with her father, and doesn’t say he helped her with them, so he is taken away and beaten almost to death, and it is only because Xiao Xie goes out and is hurt by the sun, that he is saved. She then goes and gets the priest to help him, so he can recover.
Tao Wangsan realizes he loves Xiao Xie, and must break up with Qianqian, which he does, but doesn’t realize how evil she is, and that she wants revenge. She conspires with her father.
You see the servant Chunhua was so freaked out by ghosts, and Qiurong took over her body to talk to the vice minister to find out about her life, and realizes that she was a maid of his grandfather that drank poison, but the grandfather did not, and it is the scandal of the family. So Vice Minister Jiang kills the servant girl and has Tao Wangsan blamed for the murder. Xiao Xie helps him in prison, and the priest does special magic to bring bank Chunhua, which he does, and she awakens at the court and tells the court that Vice Minister Jiang killed her, but Qianqian whose fault it was is killed to bring Chunhua back to life. And the Jiang family name is ruined and the Vice Minister kills himself.
Then the Black Judge comes and takes everyone but Qiurong and Xiao Xie, so the priest makes a special magic to help them re-incarnate, but Tao Wangsan accidentaly rips one, so there is only one. Xiao Xie wants to give it to Qiurong, but instead Qiurong realizes she has finally given up her hate, and allows herself to be destroyed by the sun. Then Xiao Xie must leave, but just then the funeral of the vice minister and Qianqian goes past and Xiao Xie disapears. Then Quirong’s coffin bursts open and she sits up scattering the crowd, and it is the spirit of Xiao Xie in the body of Qianqian and she is able to marry Tao Wangan and live together happily.
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A very enjoyable story about the power of love.
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The sixth story was also quite enjoyable, a tale of love against the odds and with some big Hong Kong actors. Of course this made it pretty gut wrenching throughout, but still enjoyable.
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This is the story of the Sun Zichu, a lower class man with six fingers on one hand, who is the most talented veterinarian around. He spends all his time saving and thinking about animals. It takes his best friend Gao Junning, a skilled martial artist, to drag him out at a flower viewing festival, trying to get him to see the most eligible woman in the town, Zhao Bao, but Gao Junning isn’t interested.
Zhao Bao.
Zhao Bao and her maid Xio Rong
At the Festival a rich and spoiled man named Chao Shaoan (Cheung Tat Ming) comes and is his usual arrogant self. He wants to marry Zhu Bao, but she has already refused him, so she puts him down again, and he and his people hurt her talking bird Bei Bei, which Zhu Bao’s maid Xio Rong takes to Sun Zichu to help.
Zichu then sees Xio rong and Zhao Bao at the fair, and unlike what he thought, he is instantly enthralled with Zhao Bao, who was playing mind twisters, and in fact got ones that the very intelligent Sun Zichu could not get, so she is as smart and kind as she is beautiful. Sun Zichu is so enthralled that his soul comes loose from his body, and he follows her to her house, but can’t communicate. Junning finds his friend, and with Gui, Sun Zichu’s servant, they take him back to his house, but it is a traveling Taoist priest Lu Benshan who is passing by that brings Sun Zichu’s soul back to his body, and gives him and Sunning charms to protect them.
Then the next day in a small rain shower Sun Zichu and Gui take shelter in a pavilion, as does Zhao Bao and Xio Rong and they quickly start talking, and spend the day together and fall in love, making a date for 5 days in the future.
The spoiled Chao Shaoan is so angry he gets his nursing mother, a power taoist named Lady Miao (Cheng Pei Pei once again playing evil. Damn I find it hard to see her playing evil, after seeing her always play good in so many Shaw brother’s movies) to help him curse Zhao Bao, and makes it so that he memory disappears, and every day she thinks it is the day of the fair. So when Zhao Bao next sees Sun Zichu, she is rude and doesn’t even know him, and Sun Zichu is crushed.
Then Sun Zichu and Junning head to Zhao Bao’s house to spy, and see her seemingly sleepwalker, and walking to the city to where Chao Shaoan is, as he is using Taoist spiritual incense to control her. They beat him, but Lady Miao shows up, and they are only saved by their charms from Priest Lu. Xio Rong then shows up and takes her mistress home. The next day Sun Zichu talks with Xio Rong and finds out about the disease, he then decides to see Zhao Bao every day and make each day happy for her.
Zhao Bao’s father has left town to go and find a high class husband for his daughter, leaving her with her sister, who is back at home after a horrible marriage. At first she doesn’t like Sun Zichu, but once she sees how earnest he is, and how happy he makes her younger sister, she lets him spend each day with Zhao Bao. Things go well, though her memory never improves.
One day Zhao Bao is so mean to Sun Zichu, and even makes him cut off his sixth finger if he loves her, which she does. And is depressed by her action, which she doesn’t understand (She is actually being controlled by Lady Miao).
When Sun Zichu returns the now healed Bei Bei, Zhao Bao is surprised that her bird could be fixed in one day, but Bei Bei tells her the truth, and Zhao Bao comes up with a plan. She doesn’t want to ruin Sun Zichu’s life, so she vows to never let him see her again, and makes her maid and sister help,and writes herself notes to explain things every morning to herself.
Sun Zichu is crushed, but vows to become a physician so he can fix his love, but then he realizes that no medicine may help, so he heads out to find Priest Lu, who he does find, and who believes it is magic. As they head back Zhao Bao gets a note saying to meet someone at a temple with a cure. She and her maid head to the temple, but it is actually Chai Shaoan, who knocks out Xio Rong and kidnaps Zhao Bao with the intention of raping her and forcing her father to let them marry. Bei Bei escapes and gets to Sun Zichu. The Priest transfers his soul into the bird, so Sun Zichu can fly and save his love, which he does, attacking Chai Shaoan, and as they try and escape they are attacked by Lady Miao, but priest Lu helps them escape.
Bei Bei dies, but not before Sun Zichu is returned to his body. Then the priest tries to help Zhao Bao, which he realizes he can’t do till the morning when Taoist powers are stronger because Lady Miao has been so cruel in her curse. He manages to save her in the morning, but he himself is killed, and sent to heaven.
Zhao Bao now remembers everything, and wants to marry his love, but her father returns and does not accept him. He vows to come in first in the Physicians examination and then marry Zhao Bao, but while studying he dies, actually cursed by Lady Miao since he again fought with Chai Shaoan who lost an eye when he fell, and has been put in prison for his attempted rape.
In hell Sun Zichu finds that the Judge is in fact Priest Lu, so he tries to get Judge Lu to help him and make things right, but he can’t. Sun Zichu refuses to forget and be reborn, in which case his spirit will be torn apart, but he wants to remember his love.
In the real world Zhao Bao is so distraught that she kills herself so she can be with her love. She can be revived if she wants to in 12 hours, but she would rather spend 12 hours with her love than a lifetime alive. Things look bad for them, but then the spirit of Bei Bei in human form comes and makes trouble in Hell to get them help to see the king of hell. They finally see him, and he looks into the real world and sees just how evil Lady Miao is, and vows to help the couple, and allows Sun Zichu to be reborn into his body as he is being carried to burial. Zhao Bao also returns to her body, much to the delight of her family who vow to allow her to marry who she pleases. Sun Zichu vows to come in first on the exam anyway, which he does with Zhao Bao’s help, and they are about to be married, when Lady Miao shows up again, and this time takes Zhao Bao to marry Chai Shaoan. Sun Zichu of course follows and is attacked by Lady Miao. Meanwhile Zhao Bao manages to talk some sense into the spoiled Chai Shaoan, because he doesn’t really understand what love is, and since she doesn’t love him they could never be happy. Chai Shaoan then tries to stop Lady Miao, but she refuses and is going to kill Zhao Bao too, but Judge Lu comes and kills her. She is irate, but he shows her the book of deaths, where she was supposed to have a long life because of deeds in her past life, but because she was so evil she lost her privileges and is now destined to die.
Judge Lu then brings Bei Bei back to the newly married couple, and they are able to live happily ever after.
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A lovely love story, even if it is sad watching it.
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Overall a great series, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Chinese soap operas!!!
One Response to “Strange Tales of Liaozhai 聊斋”
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May 24th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
excellent storytelling!!!