Nine Girls and a Ghost (2002) | Hong Kong Movie World film review

Nine Girls and a Ghost (2002)

aka: 9 Girls and a Ghost Mandarin Films Ltd.

Cast: Edison Chen, Cookies (Stephy Tang, Miki Yeung, Theresa Fu, Helena Ma,

Serena Po, Angela Au, Kary Ng, Elaine Ho, Gloria Chan), Cyrus Wong,

Philip Chan, Amanda Lee

Cameo: Nelson Cheung, Tats Lau, Chapman To

Presenter: Peter Chan, Raymond Wong Writer: Raymond Wong, Simon Loui Music: Lincoln Lo

Editor: Poon Hung Producer: Simon Loui Executive Producer: Philip Chan Director: Chung Shu Kai

Genre: Comedy | Romance | Ghost

Nine Girls and a Ghost Edison Chen and Stephy Tang

Though the teeny bopper audience it's targeted to may not be as jaded by the clichés rehashed in

Nine Girls and a Ghost, there's still little to recommend about this half-hearted effort.

For the uninitiated, COOKIES is a pop group made up of 9 perky teenage girls. That's a lot of

dead weight, so the filmmakers focus on the cutest Cookie, Stephy Tang. Stephy goes to an all

girls school and plays on the Cookies basketball team with her friends, who are rivals with the

evil Pizza Team.

Stephy's dad (Philip Chan, who also executive produced) buys her a Mini Cooper, but the

jalopy turns out to be posessed by none other than its former owner Edison Chan, who

materializes from the tailpipe in a spout of bubbles.

It seems that Edison was a successful businessman who died young, and now he wants to find

out why. In return for helping him discover his past, he uses his ghostly powers to aid Stephy

and her pals to cheat on exams and trounce the Pizza Team in "Shaolin Soccer" style basketball

and volleyball matches.

As a vehicle for Cookies, Nine Girls and a Ghost satisfies its basic criteria and nothing more.

Most of the girls character's are barely developed- this is Stephy's movie, and she's clearly the

best actress of the group. Surprisingly, the filmmakers fail to capitalize on Cookies' music to

enliven things. There's only one musical number, a lazily choreographed performance of their

first hit.

Cyrus Wong Ka Ming plays Stephy's geeky brother, Amanda Lee appears as a strict

basketball coach, and Chapman To cameos as a wannabe brother with dreadlocks and a

Michael Jordan jersey. There are no traditional horror elements, though believe it or not,

ghost movie veteran Simon Loui actually helped write and produce Nine Girls and a Ghost.

Maybe he should leave that off the resume.

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Related viewing: Happy Ghost (1984) Raymond Wong, Loletta Lee

Let's Go Slam Dunk (1994) Ekin Cheng, Teresa Mak