A Chinese Ghost Story was a charming supernatural romantic comedy with some martial arts. Its story was simple and silly, but straightforward and cohesive.
The sequel is a mess that fails on every level.
Things begin well enough. The first film's protagonist encounters cannibals, gets arrested, escapes jail, meets a sidekick, and encounters ghosts. So far so good.
But then things go totally off the rails. Revolutionaries mistake for brilliant scholar FOR NO REASON. One of the revolutionaries looks exactly like the ghost lover from the first movie, but it's just a coincidence. She and her sister fall in love with protagonist for no reason other than that they think he's this famous guy. And everyone keeps thinking he's the guy even though he is clearly incompetent in every way.
The story is convoluted and is a mix of stuff that is incomprehensible and stuff that is comprehensible but stupid. The inane plot is simply used to string together various action sequences involving unrelated demon attacks. In the original, the story and supernatural elements supported each other; here they're just thrown next to each other.
I am perplexed by so many positive reviews, since it's less funny (although there are cute things like a freeze-spell gag), more poorly structured, and far less romantic. My guess is these are people who like the wire-fu martial arts, which are a greater part of this movie. Like the first one, the effects are pretty awful, but they might be marginally better and there's a lot more of that nonsense, so I guess if you're big on cheesy, low-budget martial arts scenes then this might have something to recommend it.
But it's awful and you should ignore anyone who tells you it's good. Don't watch it.
The sequel is a mess that fails on every level.
Things begin well enough. The first film's protagonist encounters cannibals, gets arrested, escapes jail, meets a sidekick, and encounters ghosts. So far so good.
But then things go totally off the rails. Revolutionaries mistake for brilliant scholar FOR NO REASON. One of the revolutionaries looks exactly like the ghost lover from the first movie, but it's just a coincidence. She and her sister fall in love with protagonist for no reason other than that they think he's this famous guy. And everyone keeps thinking he's the guy even though he is clearly incompetent in every way.
The story is convoluted and is a mix of stuff that is incomprehensible and stuff that is comprehensible but stupid. The inane plot is simply used to string together various action sequences involving unrelated demon attacks. In the original, the story and supernatural elements supported each other; here they're just thrown next to each other.
I am perplexed by so many positive reviews, since it's less funny (although there are cute things like a freeze-spell gag), more poorly structured, and far less romantic. My guess is these are people who like the wire-fu martial arts, which are a greater part of this movie. Like the first one, the effects are pretty awful, but they might be marginally better and there's a lot more of that nonsense, so I guess if you're big on cheesy, low-budget martial arts scenes then this might have something to recommend it.
But it's awful and you should ignore anyone who tells you it's good. Don't watch it.