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金燕子 (1987)
Golden Swallow


Reviewed by: Sydneyguy
Date: 07/21/2006
Summary: Yikes

A low budget ghost/fantasy movie with limited action and when there is no action, it almost feels like its a filler (the love story angle) until the end fight. Nothing to recommend here, there are plenty of better movies of this genre out there.

The two leads can not carry this movie while the supporting cast are cartoon characters, Norman Chu is only seen at the beginning and end of the film posing as the all mighty swordsman, and Richard Ng and Eric Tsang are annoyiing!!

Worth a miss!!

Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: danton
Date: 01/03/2002

Late eighties ACGS ripoff with Cheri Chung in the Joey Wong role as the beautiful and deadly ghost who falls in love with a human. This movie is probably the best of all the ACGS imitations I've seen. Some fresh twists to the plot, beautiful cinematography, good performances by the leads. Recommended.

Unfortunately, not released on DVD, and the Mei Ah VCD comes without English subtitles. However, Sensasian has a decent Malaysian VCD version with good picture quality, original Cantonese soundtrack and none of the annoying Malay subtitles on top of the Chinese/English subtitles.


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 11/18/2001
Summary: Pretty Ghost Story

GOLDEN SWALLOW - A very nicely photographed rip off of A CHINESE GHOST STORY. The VCD has great picture quality (well, about the same as a Mei Ah DVD), but a noticable lack of English subtitles. I'm not sure whether this diminished or increased my enjoyment though. So much of the plot is lifted wholesale from ACGS that there was no problem following what was going on, although the bickering between unlikely Taoists Eric Tsang and Richard Ng might have been amusing to understand. Without words though, I was able to simply watch the film on an aesthetic level, and it was quite rewarding as such. The aesthetic is lifted straight from ACGS, and Cherie Cheung doesn't come close to Joey Wang's ghost with a heart, but the overall look of the film was very nice, with some really beautiful shots.


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 12/23/2000
Summary: Dull CGS Clone

I'm with Dan L, but I'll be less kind. This film is yet another example of "a great cast doesn't necessarily mean a great movie". This said, I'm still amazed this director managed such a lame effort with such great talent (except for Anthony Wong the lesser, who seems to ruin any film he's in).
Even the great 60s actress Ivy Ling Po doesn't get to show her full range. He seems to have watched CGS, then taken out all of the good bits !
And even though Cherie's a cutie, she isn't a patch on the luscious Joey Wang. I cannot recommend this film.

Reviewer Score: 2

Reviewed by: hkcinema
Date: 12/08/1999

I would describe this as A CHINESE GHOST STORY extra light. Ascholar (Wong) rescues a little swallow. The swallow turns out to be a female ghost (Chung), who ends up falling in love with the scholar. Problem is, the ghost serves a female demon, who is not about to let her go. A semi-tragic love story ensues, with an entertaining finale. The film is a rather blatant rip-off, adding nothing new to the ACGS formula. The actors are so-so, some good flying and OK swordsfights. All in all, just rent ACGS again.

(5/10)



[Reviewed by Dan Liatowitsch]


Reviewed by: hkcinema
Date: 12/08/1999

Handsom, kindhearted scholar Lao Chih-Chiu (Anthony Wong), enroute to meet some silk merchants at Black Mountain, saves a golden swallow, meets and befriends two sword bearing priests, nearly killed by a hoard of thugs, and nearly chilled by demon Hsiao Hsueh (Cherie Chung). But actually Hsueh was the golden swallow that Chih-Chiu saved and due to his humane act, she falls for him which is generally a no-no for demon Hsueh, because according to her beastly looking matron, "There's only one kind of man, the edible ones." Golden Swallow is very much a bite off "Chinese Ghost Story", the plot is the same but tottering more on the comical side. There's lots of wire stunts and cascading shawls and the main musical theme solidifies the melodrama. And if demons look like Cherie Chung, then the dark side can't be all that bad.

[Reviewed by Jennie Tam]