Chinese ghost story

Medieval China A young wandering theological scientist Lin sees himself in a dream with a girl. At the wrong moment, they are attacked by something, and he wakes up.

In the morning, Lin arrives in a city where revolutionary sentiments are strong, as a result of which the search and trapping of fugitive criminals is actively practiced. Warriors stop people on the street and check with portraits of fugitives. Lin tries to find an overnight stay, pretending to be a tax collector, but the owner opens it and drives him away. People offer him the temple of Lan Ro as a place where you can spend the night for free, and show the way. Lin gets to the place already at night. The temple is abandoned. At the entrance, Lin sees two fighting warriors. At some point, the hero happens to be between them. Then the soldiers inform the hero that this battle has been going on for seven years, with interruptions, in different places. One of them invariably wins the victory, and the second, the bearded man, stubbornly pursues his opponent Xia-Hu after each defeat. The bearded man accuses the enemy of incompetence, in response receives a charge of excessive emotionality. Lin tries to reconcile them using the “common truths”, and then Xia-Hu removes the sword, telling Lin that he was knocked down by an impromptu sermon from a fighting spirit, and leaves. The remaining bearded man rudely informs Lin that this is a very dangerous place, which is better to stay away from, and suddenly flies up and disappears. Lin, despite the warning, remains to spend the night in the temple. In the open window, he is watched by the very girl he saw in a dream at the beginning of the film. Then she flies away through the air, closing the window.

Xia-Hu, bandages the wound received in the battle with a bearded man, a rag soaked in the river. A girl washes herself in the same river. Seeing her, the warrior runs after her and catches up and fells to the ground.

Lin goes to bed. On his bed he suddenly finds a blood stain. At this moment, a sharp wind blows, and in the attic of the temple numerous corpses lying there begin to move. Something through the mouth penetrates into the body of Xia-Hu and turns it into the same corpse. A bearded man runs up to the murdered man, intending to bury him with dignity. But the corpse comes to life and tries to attack the former enemy, and he thrusts a needle into his head. Blue light flashes, the corpse throws back, and the bearded man burns it, casting a spell.

The dead in the temple see Lina and begin to spy on him. Hearing a suspicious noise, the hero turns around, and they hide in the shade. Deciding to check the attic, Lin begins to climb there, but suddenly he hears music in the forest surrounding the temple. He goes to the sound and sees the same girl playing the lute in the gazebo, which says that he came to these places in vain. At this time, a bearded man runs out of the bushes. Dropping Lina into the river, the girl runs away, forgetting the lute. Intending to give the instrument, the hero grabs it and runs into the forest. The bearded man runs up to the arbor, sees that there is nobody there, and pursues Lina through the trees. Lin stumbles upon a girl who is sure that he is chasing her. A bearded man jumps from a tree, and they both run away. On the way, the girl talks about the warrior as a very dangerous man, a robber who intended to kill her. Stumbling, both fall next to the cobra, which immediately attacks. Lin tries to trample the snake with its feet, then throws it up. The girl closes it with herself and at the same time blows towards the snake, which immediately is tied in a knot on a branch. Then the girl tells Lina that the bearded man is a monk from the Lan Ro Temple. The monk runs out of the forest, and they continue to run on. Lin offers the girl help: he will distract the bearded man to buy time for her. She agrees and calls her name - Lip Xiao Qin. Lin promises to come to her the next night and runs towards the monk. The linden flies up into the air and lands on a tree, from which it watches as a young man tries to distract the monk, depicting the cries of animals. The monk realizes that this is a man, and draws his sword. Then Lip takes off and, having ordered Lina to run, attacks the monk. The monk throws a needle at her like the one with which he defeated Xia-Hu, not noticing that someone else was watching the battle from the bushes. A long branch suddenly grows out of the ground, into which a needle pierces. The branch flashes, and the observer flies through the air. A female voice from the forest teases the monk and explains that everyone who died in this forest deservedly died. The monk blows a burning branch with one breath and promises to kill an invisible interlocutor. Deciding to get out of the bushes, Lin sees a piece of white cloth next to him with a letter from Xiao Qin, "you have a heart of gold, but we better not see each other again."

The living dead in the temple begin to descend. Entering Lin accidentally overturns the stairs, and all the corpses fall through the floor, breaking it. Closing the hole, Lin goes to bed. In the morning, a monk comes to the temple and tells the hero to leave, since there are ghosts in these places. Lin accidentally falls into a hole in which the dead are hiding, but the monk pulls him out in time - the dead only have time to tear off a piece of his shirt. Later, Lyn accidentally drops a cannon into a hole and descends behind it, crushing one of the deceased by the stairs. Completely by accident, throwing a torn board, he knocks down the dead, who intend to attack him. Then the hero opens a window, sunlight enters the room, and the corpses evaporate. Lin doesn't notice anything. Turning away from the window, he finds the potato in a pool of mucus left over from the corpses.

In the city, people are surprised that Lin spent the night at Lan Ro Temple and survived. Answering the questions of the crowd, the hero sees a wedding procession passing along the street, in which Xiao Qin acts as a bride. When the procession passes, Lin goes to the painting shop, where he had previously seen a portrait of Xiao Qin. There is no portrait in the shop, although no one bought it.

At night, Lin returns to the arbor, but after hearing a rustle in the forest, he runs away and soon sees a big house, and Xiao Qin is in his window. Seeing the hero, she closes the window. Then he climbs up the tree. Having realized that Lina will not succeed in getting rid, she hides him in the water, as the mistress of the house, who has a sensitive sense of smell, approaches her room. The mistress accuses Xiao Qin of hiding a living person and beats her with a whip, after which she demands to find this person, threatening to destroy the urn with the ashes of the guilty, as a result of which there will not even be a ghost left from her. The hostess also reminds Xiao Qin of the engagement with a certain Black Lord, the wedding of which will take place in three days. The sisters dress her in a wedding dress. At this time, Lin emerges for a second to take a breath of air, and the mistress senses it. To distract her, Xiao Qin allegedly accidentally tears the dress. Then she puts the mistress and sisters out of the room, explaining this with a desire to take a bath. When everyone leaves, she expels Lina, promising to come to him in the temple. Arriving, she gives Lina the same portrait that disappeared from the city shop, and demands that he leave.

In the morning, in the city of Lin, he sees an announcement about the wanted monk.

In the evening, he is going on the road and calls Xiao Qin with him. They confess their love to each other, then Xiao Qin explains that she is not a person, and flies away, telling him to leave with the monk. Soon, Lin stumbles upon her sisters. They intend to give it to the mistress, but a monk comes to the rescue, who kills one of them. Xiao Qin is also nearby. Lin urges her to go with him to the city to a judge and talk about a new crime bearded man. She refuses and disappears. He goes to court alone. It turns out that the wanted criminal is recently caught and just looks like a bearded man (the only difference is that the criminal has a scar). For protection from the bearded man, the judge requires a lot of money. Bearded man also lead. The judge does not believe in the story of the murder and requires evidence, asks about the crime scene. Lin calls the temple of Lan Ro, and in the courtroom the fire goes out right away, a strong wind starts to blow, people panic. The bearded man tells Lina that the murdered woman was a ghost, like everyone he saw in that house. The judge and his assistant laugh and end the investigation. The bearded man says that no one has lived in a house in the forest for a long time, there is only a cemetery. In evidence, he brings the hero to this place, and there really is a cemetery. Ling is finally convinced that Xiao Qin is a ghost. The monk tells him to leave these places, but soon changes his mind. He intends to use Lina as a bait for ghosts. To protect, the monk gives Lina a bell so that she can call for help, and a "diamond sutra" that drives away ghosts.

Xiao Qin arrives at night. She is upset that Lin no longer believes her. She convinces him that not all ghosts are the embodiment of evil, and calls the only way to save her from the mistress - to bury the urn with her ashes in the family cemetery. Lin warns her that the monk wants to kill all the ghosts here. At this moment, the wind rises, the roots of the trees crawl out of the ground, and the heroes try to escape, but the temple entangles the long tongue of the forest owner. Lin is trying to drive away the mistress with a “diamond sutra,” but it fails. Xiao Qin comes to the rescue, but the hostess seizes her, and he tells Lina to run away without looking back. However, he looks around, and Xiao Qin's cloak, showing him the way, disappears. A forest owner is attacking Lina, but a monk who has arrived in time is saving him. He drives away the mistress with the sword of good deeds and takes on Xiao Qin, whom he injures with a needle. At this time, the mistress returns, and Lin, taking advantage of the fact that the monk was distracted, saves his beloved. The monk, captured by the mistress, tells him to run away. The hostess captures Lina with tentacles, but the monk cuts them, and she escapes, taking Xiao Qin with her.

In the afternoon, the heroes go to the chapel, where the remains of Xiao Qin are hidden. She leaves the urn with her ashes. Letting him and Lin alone, the bearded man leaves. Soon, he begins to hear strange rustles and realizes that the ghosts are ready to attack. Xiao Qin suddenly disappears, and the heroes realize that she was taken. With the help of the sword of good deeds, they penetrate into hell, where they are waiting for the Black Lord with his guard. The monk gives Lin his sword and sends it to help Xiao Qin, and takes over the Guard of the Lord. Lin frees his lover and returns the bearded sword. The Black Lord steals the souls of Lin and the monk, and Xiao Qin, to save them, pierces the evil spirit with a sword. Souls of heroes return to bodies, many other souls are also freed. From the rising wind, sheets with a “diamond sutra” fly out from under Lin's clothes, which are clinging to the Black Lord. He is in pain. The monk finishes him with a sword. The heroes return to the land where Xiao Qin finds peace. Lyn and the bearded man leave, erecting a monument to her.

• Leslie Chun - Lin, a wandering theologian;
• - Lip Xiao Qin, a ghost girl;
• - bearded monk, warrior and exorcist;
• Lam Wai - Xia-Hu, a warrior, a longtime bearded antagonist;
• - forest owner, leader of ghosts in the vicinity of the temple of Lan Ro;
• - city judge;
• - court clerk;
• Huang Ha , the innkeeper, who refused Lina a lodging for the night;
• Sea Mayi is a dealer in paintings.

• The forest owner and the Black Lord do not appear in Chinese mythology.
• The prototype of the Black Lord may be Sauron from the epic of J.R.R. Tolkien " The Lord of the Rings ", but there is no apparent similarity between them.
• A diamond (aka diamond ) sutra exists, but has nothing to do with the expulsion of evil spirits. It describes the behavior and mindset of bodhisattvas . The film features a copy in Sanskrit, but in the III-IV centuries the sutra was translated into Chinese.
• The weapon used by the bearded man in battles with ghosts in Chinese mythology also has no real prototypes.