Huang jin dao shi

This is a ghost comedy from Hong Kong, called "Mad Mad Ghost" in English. It features Lam Ching-Ying as Uncle Ying, a Kung-Fu master who rents a loft to teach his students and starts contacts with previous occupants and a ghost wedlock.

There is the usual Taoist magic and martial arts action in this ghost movie, but well into the 1990s, this genre has been losing steam and this movie was no exception, even with Lam Ching-Ying in it. Even though he is the only saving grace in the movie, there were very few charms, suspense and intrigue that are usually found in the earlier horror and ghost comedies. Even the comedy is immature and tacky at best. The plot goes all over the place and the acting was really goofy and subpar.

It won't hurt to give this one a pass.

Grade D-

More of a straight comedy than a horror comedy, Mad Mad Ghost is much more concerned with daffy laughs and social issues than with scares.

Lam Ching Ying is a Taoist priest who, along with his bumbling disciples, moves into a house haunted by a ghost couple: a meek, traditional woman and her abusive husband. Lam helps her rid herself of the brute, and takes her on as a sort of teaching aid in order to help develop his students' ghost-battling skills.

Meanwhile, the easily scared ghost lady works on becoming a more formidable ghost, and also emancipating herself as a woman. None of this is as serious as it sounds, however, with the students constantly behaving in ridiculous, unpious ways and the ghost lady going shopping, visiting a disco, and taking on a new Madonna-inspired persona.

Another current running through Mad Mad Ghost is Chinese patriotism. Lam, in some of his introductory lecturing, explains that the ancient Chinese view of the universe has a "scientific" basis equivalent to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. European chess, he later adds, also has its origin in a Chinese game.

There's also a definite anti-Western feeling to the film. Two woodenly villainous men posing as missionaries wanting to rent Lam's house are actually only interested in a stash of gold buried in the courtyard. At the end, when the two of them start blasting the house apart with machine guns and calling everybody "Chinese dogs", one of them remarks that it's "as exciting as the Vietnam War."

A sometimes awkward mix of several styles and thematic concerns, Mad Mad Ghost isn't completely successful. The ghostly spousal abuse, for instance, while played as comedic, comes across as overly brutal considering the tone of the film. The laughs are hit-and-miss and almost always of the dumb, mugging variety. There's also some cheap and very visual toilet humor, which may turn off some viewers. For the brave, however, Mad Mad Ghost ought not to be a complete waste of time, as it does have an often infectious energy and somewhat likable cast of characters.

ah, another Lam Ching Ying ghost movie! pure comedic gold! Uncle Ying is a fortune teller / Taoist Priest with a failing business and 5 apprentices. He takes a janitor/nightwatchmen job at a soon-to-be remodeled house, only to find its haunted!

8/10! you might want to see 'Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind' for a better performance.

Lam Chin Ying most definitely wins as the most stereotyped actor of the century. After his infamous role as Mr. Vampire, he would forever be known as the Taoist priest that hunts down ghosts, demons and vampires (all but for a few other exciting roles).

In Mad, Mad, Ghost - we are treated to a more fair priest, as he takes pity on a female ghost who is being abused by her ghost husband. In a short tale of revenge against, LCY and his 5 students, we soon ind out that this is just another story alongside the one where the bad guys want the gold they buried in the same house, before Lam and his team moved in.

This is delivered in mad-cap style as the good guys and ghost take on the OTT Mark Houghton and Eddie Maher in some crazy action sequences!

Its not a bad film, but only real HK or Lam Chin Ying fans will really enjoy it. Some hilarious moments definitely, and fun action that reminded me of the crazy, Vampire Settle On Police Camp.

This is another in the endless round of ghost films churned out by the Hong Kong film industry. It concerns Master Ying, who moves to a place inhabited by married ghosts. The husband routinely beats the wife and it is not pretty. She comes out of his clutches and comes to life. You get the usual assortment of bumbling colleagues and the movie goes along at a Hong Kong like frenetic pace. It is not horrible, but terribly inessential. My favorite part is way in the second half, when the pretty female ghost leaves the confines of the home and goes shopping in Hong Kong. But, the problem is it takes a long time to get to it. There are subplots here, but they are not intriguing enough. I barely rated this film a 5. If you like Hong Kong ghost movies, this should be way down your list of viewing. If you don't, or think you won't, just skip it.