'The Ethereal Spirit of a Beauty') is a 1987 Hong Kong horror film starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma, directed by Ching Siu-tung and produced by Tsui Hark.

Ning Choi-san, a timid debt collector, goes to a rural town to collect taxes but fails and runs out of money.

That night, he meets a beautiful and alluring young maiden, Nip Siu-sin, and falls in love with her.

In the morning, however, after he recalls that night's events, he becomes increasingly fearful and superstitious because Yin Chik-ha, a Taoist priest, told him that the people he saw in the temple are ghosts.

Nip tells Ning her story of how she became eternally bound to the servitude of a sinister Tree Demoness.

Yin reluctantly opens a temporary portal into the Underworld and brings Ning along to search for Nip.

Producer Tsui Hark was interested in creating A Chinese Ghost Story as early as 1978, where he suggested it as a television production at TVB.

[9] Ching Siu-tung had previously worked as a director and an action choreographer on various Film Workshop productions such as Peking Opera Blues and A Better Tomorrow II.

[11] The film script called for a giant slithering tongue and zombies, which were developed by Cinefex technician Man Xian Liang, who taught himself stop motion animation in order to make the effects happen.

[9] Wong was primarily known for writing songs for pop stars and television programs and completed his first score for Hark's Shanghai Blues.

In memory of the late Leslie Cheung, director Ching Siu-tung and producer Ng See-yuen re-released the film in cinemas across mainland China on 30 April 2011.

He received a telephone call at the last minute from Wong's father, stating that the actress was in poor health and not in good condition to attend the premiere.

[26] From contemporary reviews, Walter Goodman (The New York Times) noted poor subtitling on the print he viewed, opining that "If there are any Eastern profundities emanating from the temple, this Westerner did not recognize them."

"[28] The review went on to state that the "storyline portray the beauty and grafility of life on earth" which led to "an entertaining love story with a tantalizing horror background, mixed with fantasy escapism that won't insult adult viewers.

"[28] From retrospective reviews, The Guardian described the film as "one of the breakthrough films of modern Hong Kong cinema" and that it was "dubious knockabout comedy [...] spiced with frantic set piece stunts (mid-air fights, thousand-foot tongues); not for those who value comprehensibility over panache.

"[29] Empire gave the film four stars out of five, noting "gorgeous imagery" and that it was not "quite as completely demented as Mr Vampire, but it is truly strange.

"[30] Donald C Willis wrote in his book Horror and Science Fiction Film IV that A Chinese Ghost Story was "an entertaining fantasy extravaganza" and that "the movie is very inventive, occasionally even poetic, but not quite moving".

"[2] In mainland China, before the film was officially released in 2011, it was already widely circulated through unofficial channels- including smuggled videocassettes, pirated VCDs and DVDs, and later, video-sharing websites- and celebrated as a cult classic.