By Adrian Smith

A young, impoverished scholar is saved from a gang of thugs by a beautiful, thoughtful woman with fantastical powers who then takes him home and offers to help look after him. Little does he know that she is in fact an immortal vixen who, along with her two equally beautiful sisters (although given what the pair of them get up to together when they think she’s not looking, I hope they’re not actually sisters), is trying to attain human form after a thousand years of spiritual meditation. Once her sisters find out about the scholar, they get extremely jealous and before you can say “love square”, there’s a whole lot of sex going on between all four of them, and this naive young man is going to struggle to get any studying done for quite some time.

Taking its inspiration from The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and the ‘Liaozhai,’ or ‘Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,’ a large collection of supernatural stories published in the 1700s, where ghosts and foxes regularly interfere with the ordinary world, Erotic Ghost Story (1990) was one of the many adult-oriented films made possible by the introduction of the Category III rating in Hong Kong in 1988. Known as Cat III, this rating was the equivalent of the NC-17 in the States or the 18 in the UK and created a lucrative market for filmmakers who saw exploitation potential. Hong Kong audiences would eagerly attend midnight screenings of Cat III films to see nudity, softcore sex and graphic violence, often in the same film, usually held together with goofy comedy. A prime example, Erotic Ghost Story is a film in three acts; it begins with comedy, keeps audiences sitting up straight in their cinema seats with lots of sex and gorgeous leading ladies, and ends with an Evil Dead 2-style explosion of horror and supernatural madness.

Of the three sisters, Amy Yip is probably the best known to audiences in the West. Famed for her stunning looks, large chest (she was forever denying rumours that anything had been implanted) and sense of humour, she was a very popular star, appearing in just a few key Cat III classics like this film and then Sex and Zen, Robotrix and Erotic Ghost Story 2 (all 1991) before effectively retiring to become a business owner. There really was no other star quite like her, and it’s great to see her breakthrough role here, where shines above the rest of the cast, in part thanks to her contract clause that would not allow full nudity. The lengths the camera goes to show the audience almost everything without actually showing us anything is quite remarkable.

Erotic Ghost Story is hugely entertaining, and its popularity ensured two sequels in quick succession. They are thematic sequels with no actual plot connection, drawing again on ancient Chinese tales as well as eighties special effects horror cinema. In the first sequel Anthony Wong, another Cat III star, plays a virgin sacrifice-demanding demon who looks like a member of KISS, and features tons of dry ice, sexy women, bonkers horror freakouts and underwater kung fu. The second sequel, from just a year later, is about a man who enters a painting and finds himself in the afterlife where he must contend with yet another demon whilst also having copious amounts of sex. It’s a hard life for some.

This new Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy boxset from Imprint, limited to just 1500 copies, is a must have for any serious fan of Hong Kong cinema, or of unpredictable horror films, or of gorgeous naked women (or any combination of the three). The restorations for each film look terrific, with fabulous colours and pin-sharp imagery. It is pleasing to see that the negatives for these films, now over thirty years old (good grief, do I feel old), have been well taken care of. Each film comes with new commentaries from critics and historians, alongside a collection of exclusive new interviews with crew members and genre historians. Included on one disc is the 2018 documentary Category III: The Untold Story of Hong Kong Exploitation Cinema, which is an interesting introduction to this world of slightly unhinged Hong Kong film history. Aside from a couple of actors and Hong Kong directors however, most of the talking heads in the doc are middle-aged male white film critics and academics (and I say this as a middle-aged male white academic myself), and it is a shame that more people involved in making the films themselves, or at least more Hong Kongers, could not have been included. Despite that caveat, it is still recommended viewing if you want to put Erotic Ghost Story into context.

So, if you are looking for a spooky, funny, sexy time from an era when studios made films for grownups, you really should check out the Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy. And, in the meantime, if a beautiful, otherworldly woman in revealing attire floats towards you surrounded by dry ice, just be careful...

The Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy Blu-ray Region B boxset is available from Imprint. Click here to order.