Picture of a Nymph Blu-ray Review

88 Films

Blu-ray Release: March 10, 2026

Video: 1.85:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Cantonese LPCM 2.0 mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 97:58

Director: Wu Ma

Shih Erh (Yuen Biao), a Taoist monk disciple, takes in a scholar named Tsui Hung-Chuen (Lawrence Ng) after he inadvertently burns down his house battling a demon. Shih Erh and his master Wu Men-Chu (Wu Ma) house and attempt to protect Tsui from the demons and spirits that lurk nearby; however, Tsui encounters a benevolent female ghost named Mo Chiu (Joey Wong), who is confined to the hands of the wicked King Ghost (Elizabeth Lee). As Tsui falls in love with Mo Chiu, he paints a portrait of her, which the spirit uses to conceal herself from the King Ghost's clutches. (From 88 Films’ official synopsis)

Ching Siu-tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) was, in some ways, the creative peak of the Hong Kong New Wave era’s xianxia movement, as initiated by producer (and some say co-director) Tsui Hark’s Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain in 1983. The genre was already steeped in imitation and homage, so it came as no surprise that Ching’s film led to three official sequels, an animated film, a 2011 reboot, and an array of movies that liberally ‘borrowed’ the imagery and other elements that made it a hit.

Released less than a year after Ching’s film (and not to be confused with Anthony Spinelli’s Portrait of a Nymph, also released in 1988), Picture of a Nymph is one of the best and perhaps the most shameless of the Chinese Ghost Story cash-ins. It blatantly appropriates aspects of its predecessor's plot and visual identity, and recycles characters, to the point that it employed the same lead actress, Joey Wong, and male supporting lead, Wu Ma (who, once again, sings his theme song). To streamline the process, Wu, a proven filmmaker in his own right, acted as director and co-writer with Chan Ka-Cheong, who reteamed with Wu for another Chinese Ghost Story-alike, The Chinese Ghostbuster (1994).

Furthermore, in Chinese Ghost Story, Leslie Cheung plays a humble, nervous tax collector who finds bravery after falling in love with a ghost and, in Picture of a Nymph, Lawrence Ng plays a humble, nervous scholar who finds bravery after falling in love with a ghost. Yuen Biao’s character doesn’t have a direct counterpart, but he bears a resemblance to the character he played in Zu Warriors and his friendship with Ng mirrors that of Yuen and Mang Hoi’s friendship in Zu Warriors. Also, Elizabeth Lee Mei-Fung portrays the gender-bending main villain, King Ghost, not to be confused with Lau Siu-ming’s gender-bending main villain, Tree Demoness.

Picture of a Nymph is certainly an attractive film and one that makes good use of the Chinese Ghost Story standard of combining comic book action with cutesy jokes, sentimental melodrama, and spooky imagery. Wu and his cohorts can’t quite reproduce Chinese Ghost Story’s sense of aching romanticism – there’s no equivalent to Chinese Ghost Story’s achingly romantic bathtub scene, for instance – but they are capable of creating beguiling visuals with gorgeous production design and photography. The sweet bromance between Yuen and Ng also tends to make up for unearned sentimentality seen elsewhere in the film.

Producer Sammo Hung’s stunt team’s lively action is bolstered by Wu’s use of dynamic, Ching Siu-tung-like compositions and Sam Raimi-inspired roaming cameras. There isn’t a lot of direct hand-to-hand fighting or complex use of weapons, but there are some very cool set pieces, such as Yuen’s introductory fight against a demon with prehensile hair (perhaps shades of Hung’s character from Zu Warriors?), Wu’s faceoff against King Ghost and his (their?) minions, who wield bright red umbrellas as if they were one larger organism, and a wonderfully absurd climactic fight between palanquins.

Video

Picture of a Nymph didn’t have an official US VHS release, but did make it to R0 DVD from Tai Seng in 2001, though it was a non-anamorphic PAL to NTSC transfer. 88 Films is bringing the film to Blu-ray simultaneously in the US, UK, and Canada using a new 2K scan of the original negative. The image quality is typical of newer 2K remasters of Golden Harvest releases. It improves upon the noisy HD transfers of the early Blu-ray era, but doesn’t quite have the texture and natural grain clarity we might expect from a full 4K scan. The transfer really shines in terms of its color quality. Contrasting hues are neat, blended hues are delicate, and the searing reds bloom without creating noticeable noise issues. The darker scenes feature nice, rich blacks and moody blue tints.

Audio

Picture of a Nymph is presented in its original mono Cantonese sound and uncompressed LPCM 2.0. Dialogue is clean and clear, though the fact that it was all dubbed in post means that the lip sync is a little odd throughout. James Wong’s synth score, while heavily indebted to his own Chinese Ghost Story score, helps set the mood with spooky horror motifs, goofball cues, two songs for director Wu Ma to perform himself, and a dreamy love theme entitled “Like a Dream,” reportedly performed by Anita Mui (according to Baiduwiki). The music is accompanied by a litany of archetypal fantasy sound effects – similar, but not quite identical to the ones here in Ching’s film.

Extras

• Commentary with Frank Djeng – Everyone’s favorite Hong Kong cinema expert and New York Asian Film Festival programmer explores the production and release of Picture of a Nymph, the wider careers of the cast & crew (I forgot that Joey Wong was a professional basketball player before she was an actress!), and connections to Chinese Ghost Story (and other films). 

• Commentary with David West – The critic and film historian’s track covers some of the same ground as Djeng, but also delves a bit deeper into some of the cast & crew filmographies, as well as the various works that influenced Picture of a Nymph, such as author Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, initially published in the 1700s.

• Image gallery

• Hong Kong theatrical trailer 

The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.