Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Erotic Ghost Story 2: Diagonal Pictures
Rating: USA: Unrated

Back in 1990, the original Erotic Ghost Story hit the screens in Hong Kong. Based loosely on a story by Pu Songling (an author from the Qing Dynasty period) the film has something of a cult following—due largely to the presence of the busty Amy Yip. Overall, Erotic Ghost Story was a fun and occasionally steamy softcore flick about three fox spirit sisters who are seduced by the demon Wu Tung, who takes human form. The movie managed to combine Chinese folklore with lots of nudity and sex, and was a success at the box office.

Naturally, this success inspired not only a flood of other Category III sex films dressed up in historical garb (including Sex and Zen, another Amy Yip film, which is probably the high water mark for this particular subgenre), but also several sequels bearing the Erotic Ghost Story name. The first of these hit theaters in 1991, and was the imaginatively titled Erotic Ghost Story 2 starring none other than Anthony Wong (Ebola Syndrome, Hard Boiled).

Wong takes over the role of Wu Tung (who was vanquished by the fox sisters at the climax of the first film). It seems that Wu Tung has moved on with his life, falling in love with a human woman named Hsiao-yen…but as luck would have it, this union cannot be permitted to continue. Two Buddhist nuns show up (one of them is Amy Yip, who only appears in this one scene, despite being mentioned in the cast list), battle Wu Tung, and burn Hsiao-yen at the stake (but not before shooting her essence into a newly born baby girl).

Wu Tung doesn’t take this well, and to atone for their transgressions, the village holds a lottery each month. The ‘winner’ of said event is taken to Wu Tung’s cave, and then sent to the demon underworld to be his sex slave. Here she’ll spend her time pleasing the silly looking demon (who jaunts around in some giant plastic shoulder pads, a bad ‘80s style glam rock wig, kabuki face paint, and a smile—and who is also endowed with a large penis tail) and watching his naked female demon concubine dance around naked while pouring copious amounts of hot wax on her naked breasts.

Meanwhile, the village chief’s daughter, Yu-yin (May Law) falls in love with oddball fisherman Shan-kan (Lui Siu Yip). Unfortunately for the young lovers, Yu-yin’s number comes up in the next lottery and she’s slated to spend some time in Anthony Wong’s demonic love shack. Undaunted, Shan-kan ambushes Wu Tung when he comes to the surface to claim his new plaything and does some damage to the demon (who’s smitten with Yu-yin, because, you guessed it, she’s infused with the spirit of Hsiao-yen). He escapes with his love, and Wu Tung skulks back to the underworld where he plans on healing his wounds in some weird cocoon-like chamber. His demonic girlfriend vows revenge.

Long story short, only Yu-yin and Shan-kan have the ability to stop Wu Tung (and it’s because they’re both virgins—although they’ll have to consummate their relationship in order to gain the power to defeat the demon. Eventually, they (along with Shan-kan’s sister) wind up in the underworld (Shan-kan in a block of ice). Yu-yin must rescue her beloved and together, they must defeat the demon.

While the plot synopsis makes it seem as though this film actually features a plot, trust me when I tell you it doesn’t. There’s a very basic story here, but unfortunately, it’s often tossed aside in order to spend long stretches of time showing Anthony Wong sulking in demon land (Wong’s dialogue in the film consists mostly of growls) or watching supporting characters have sex. Everything else here tries to come off as artsy or pretentious, but the production values are so low that it just winds up looking hokey.

Honestly, if I had to describe Erotic Ghost Story 2 in one word, that word would be something along the lines of banal, or maybe even puerile. This is a softcore sex film that’s far more tedious than titillating, and because of that, making it through the ninety some minutes of screen time takes an extreme amount of determination. I won’t lie—there were many times when I was ready to throw in the towel. I persevered though, and my efforts went completely unrewarded anyway.

It’s hard to say exactly where this film went so wrong—I mean, upon a casual inspection, it seems to have a lot going for it. We’ve got a woman burned at the stake (in one of the film’s best shot scenes—there are some nice visuals here), lots of naked women and celluloid-style sex, demons from the underworld, a dwarf monk who turns himself into a flying fireball, a demon having sex with a woman who’s been torn in half (and her top half continually complains that she’s not getting any satisfaction), and a story with some intriguing fantasy elements. On top of that, we’ve got Anthony Wong in a starring role—an actor who makes all the films he appears in better just because he’s in them.

Part of the problem stems from the poor production values. This isn’t a pretty film by any stretch of the imagination. It features lots of garishly lit sets that are obviously sets (check out the icy stalagmites in Demon land or the underwater pool), a bland and uninteresting cast, awful music (including an obnoxious series of saxophone solos) and very little in the way of artsy direction. Clearly, this film was churned out in short order to capitalize on the success of the first film and cash in on a new trend before it became passé.

Most of these faults would be forgivable if the sex scenes were really good. Let’s face it, while a story is nice, the average person picking these films up is often just looking to ogle some naked women. Unfortunately, the film even manages to fail on this level.

There’s no real shortage of sex here, nor lack of variations in the participants (we’re treated to several ménage a trois, a lesbian scene, regular sex, demon/human sex, and a shot of guy doing it with a pig) but most of it just seems plain or perfunctory—most of which is attributable to the direction of Lam Ngai Kai. Lam seems to be operating under the impression that just having lots of naked flesh and moaning people onscreen is enough to make a scene erotic—well, it’s not. The reason films like the original and Sex and Zen work is because they not only offer up lots of naked flesh, but they also showcase some kind of relationship between the characters or some humor in the proceedings. The sex here simply seems gratuitous…and I’m not generally opposed to gratuitous sex, but most of the sex here seems to have been included just to get one more scene in to pad the running time.

Not all of the sex is bad, though. The film does feature one extended scene--a threesome between a husband, wife, and the female demon on a bamboo jungle gym-like contraption—that’s pretty good. It’s not the greatest scene you’ll ever see, but I felt like I should mention any of the plusses I could find in this film.

The final straw that breaks the camel’s back is the flat performances of the lead actors. May Law is simply awful for nearly the entire film—she’s rather plain and just too timid to make anyone believe she’d go into the demon’s world and take on Wu Tung. Lui Siu Yip is no better, though—he was clearly chosen for this role because he could do the nude scenes, not because of any on camera charisma. Had Amy Yip (or even the actress that played Shan-kan’s sister) taken over the lead role, this film might have worked as a ‘so bad it’s good’ styled B movie. Unfortunately, Anthony Wong’s left out to dry here—hampered both by the lame script that buries him under an absurd costume (and offers him little dialogue) and the fact that there’s no one to bounce his performance off of.

The film did cause a bit of an uproar when it was originally released since it featured Anthony Wong in a scene with full frontal nudity (although, it’s a medium shot and you can’t really see much of anything)—females could appear completely naked in films, but men generally didn’t.

The film is available on DVD, with English subtitles. The subs are readable, but suffer from the usual grammatical, spelling, and usage errors that plague so many of Hong Kong’s films. The picture is decent, presented in a widescreen aspect ratio. The film offers a few extras—star bios and some trailers, mostly. Not the greatest package, but probably better than this film deserved.

With a little more time (to figure out how to make the story essential and not just a device to get us from one sex scene to the next) and a better director, Erotic Ghost Story could have been a worthy successor to the original film—and another cult Hong Kong sex flick. Instead, it’s just a garish mishmash of bright colors, hokey sets, uninteresting lead characters, and bland sex scenes that bores far more often than it arouses. Anthony Wong is wasted here, and even his presence can’t save this mess of a film. Avoid this one, rent the infinitely superior Erotic Ghost Story or the classic Sex and Zen instead.


Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV