User Reviews

This film has recently been released on the "grey" market legally tolerated release of films with questionable copying license) as "Way of the Fox". When I first saw it I was impressed with what I believed to be a well-made B-movie prototype used for Ching Siu Tung's "Chinese Ghost Story" trilogy. But apparently, "Fox" was produced after the first 2 "Ghost Story" films, simply based on the same literary material. In which case, I must admit disappointment.

"Fox" is a well-made Action/ Romance/ Adventure/ Fantasy film, with fairly strong performances by all concerned. The story is a folk-tale, about the spirit daughter of the god of foxes, forced into service to the god of snakes, falling in love with a human scholar/ priest who happens to know a warrior/ priest who is dedicated to destruction of all such spirits. the problem is that Ching Siu Tung's variation of this story, which studies it in detail, is such a magnificent monument in the Hong Kong "New Wave" of the later '80s/ early '90's, one has to wonder why anybody would try to compete with it in such a compressed and low-budget version of the same story.

An enjoyable B-movie on its own terms; try to forget that you've seen it before in better detail. Compare it instead to the earlier. 1970's effort at filming this story, "Killer of snakes, Fox of Shaolin" (w/ Carter Wong), which, if it weren't so slow, would be laughable.

"Ghost of Fox" is no "Chinese Ghost Story" - but at least it isn't a "Killer of Snakes" either.

Inevitably to be compared with "A Chinese Ghost Story", I think this film is a bit more enjoyable, especially for lovers of strange HK cinema. Points of interest:

1. The many lifted elements from "Conan The Barbarian" - snake-as-arrow, fighting off spirits above the hero's body, the soldier's armor, even down to the King's Thulsa Doom transformation. I expected to hear Basil Poledouris's music at any point!

2. Speaking of which, the lifted music is enjoyable. I know I heard a Raiders of the Lost Ark cue, maybe some Rambo music. See what you can spot!

3. The temple sinking under water as everyone is praying inside. I'm speechless...

4. The visual effects are delightfully corny. Rays, flames, vampire magic, all done in a low-rent Ghostbusters style drawn fashion.

Give it a go. It can be found on a twofer DVD along with "Ninja Killer", usually for only a buck or two.

Oct 2023

Ghost of the Fox on imdb, or Way of Fox if you are looking to buy it on dvd, as it only seems to be available on a 2 films on 1 dvd, with a ninja film.

I really like this film starring Sibelle Hu, its my sort.

Anyway it is very clearly the same story as "A chinese ghost story" although it doesnt have any deliberate humour which can be found in the "A chinese ghost story films" particularly the sequels.

What is does have is several scenes blatantly lifted from Arnold Schwarzeneggers version of Conan the Barbarian, so it seems a really odd mix but it works.

My score is 8 snake arrows out of 10.