Overall Grade: A (93%) Very good, a little TINY bit of nudity, a few minor swear words and some little bits of violence

Heather's A Chinese Ghost Story Review

A Chinese Ghost story is definitely something you should look into if you're looking for something safe to watch around kids that ISN'T Pokemon. Just thought I'd say that right away.

It is a typical tale of "timeless love" and "good and evil." It's got high points and low points- the only low ones being that it's hard to follow at times. A Chinese Ghost Story isn't incredibly plotty, but events conveniently happen a lot.

The actual story comes about when a tax collector name Ning has a scary daydream about a ghost. It chases him through water, and changes its shape often. At the very end, it changes into his ex-girlfriend, Xiu Lan. Ning wakes up, continues on his way, and recalls that he got his dog, Solid Gold, from Xiu Lan.

While collecting his debts, he goes into a town that seems to be occupied only by the dead. He meets up with Xiu Xien, a ghost who ends up saving his hide later on. With that all said and done, he wants to be her friend. There's several issues that come along with being a friend to a ghost, though: There are ghostbusters out there who want to ruin your friendship, the sun will burn your little friend to ashes if it touches them, and ghosts lie and cheat-all the time. So Ning and Xiu Xien decide to take a ride with Solid Gold on the Reincarnation Train, be reborn, and find each other again. It's all part of the Plan, apparently, and someone's always ruining everyone's plans. Hmmm....

There is a little shot of nudity (a baby boy and stuff), some violence, blood, ghosts, and a couple of mild swear words. Nothing bad, trust me.

Heather's ratings

Storyline

5/5 It was very original.

Character Development

5/5 It was good.

Plot Depth

5/5 Pretty lovey-dovey and stuff.

Music

5/5 Very traditional Chinese music, but there were several vocalized themes, too. And whoever sang that Dark Mountain dude's some was a goooooo singer.

Sexual Content

5/5 None.

Nudity

4/5 That little baby-boy shot.

Violence/Gore

4/5 A tiny bit of blood and some ghost-killings.

Animation

5/5 It was well-enhanced with computer animation, and also, the character design was very unique.

Profanity

4/5 I think they swore three times, but not bad words.

Overall goodness

5/5 I really liked this one because people of all ages can enjoy it.

Totals: 47/50, or see it because I said so and because it's probably gonna end up being an ANIME CLASSIC. Or something.

Megan's A Chinese Ghost Story Review!

At first, this thing was like "WHAT? Who's this kid? What the heck is with him? Who's Lan? What's going on? What's that gold thing?" Various questions follow such as "Why does he suddenly scream 'RAPE??'" or "Why does he bother to announce that the water tastes awful? Only a few of the above quesitons were answered. That thing was a dog. It's name was Solid Gold. And the kid is Ning. Nice kid, even if he's dense as a rock. While out collecting debts one day (or I suppose I should say NIGHT), he comes across a very strange town where everyone seems to be dead. A woman named Xiu Xien (that's Siu Seen, for those who do not know Chinese pronunciations (that's me) her translated name is Shine) takes him with her and weird thigns happen with monks taking away stinky smells I think THEY secretly caused and tried to pass off as demons. Tornado Up And Coming, don't you try to tell me that you didn't have Mongolian Stir Fry! I can smell it!

In any case, Xiu Xien is a leetle weird in her strange ways. She can't be in the sun. A common thing for ghosts. ^_- Other things happen with Staircase Boogies, Reincarnation Trains, weird old men crying like babies, naked little babies, people who have very large nostrils sucking up other people.

Megan's ratings

Storyline

5/5 Not all THAt deep, but very original!

Character Development

5/5 We all change and grow and learn lots of things like PEACH BLOSSOMS!

Plot Depth

5/5 Deep and meaningful crap.

Music

5/5 Very traditional stuff. And some hard rock traditional.

Sexual Content

5/5 NAKED BABIES! There was no sexual content. Well, if you tried really really hard and had an extremely perverse imagination. . .

Nudity

4/5 A naked little baby boy in the end. Apparently, he had to pee. So let's whip off his pants.

Violence/Gore

4/5 Some little stuff. Not much, but hey, we tried.

Animation

4/5 The computer animations and the cel animations were a little. . . off. It was all good, though.

Profanity

4/5 Maybe two or three times, and not even BAD ones at that!

Overall goodness

5/5 Lovely (every DAYYY!)

Totals: 46/50, EEKY EEKY!

TOTAL SCORE : 46.5/50 GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

And here's a little reccommendation: If you rent it (or buy it) get the subbed version. Pioneer did the dubbing... so... it's kinda loud and off. We watched it subbed in Mandarin, though, and it was very good that way.

***We rented it on DVD, uncut!***