bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Clarence Tsui

As this year’s Hungry Ghost Festival approaches, picture this: you are on the sofa and the television is showing an advertisement. Suddenly, everything goes silent and the screen turns black and white.
Against a backdrop of barely legible calligraphy, a fuzzy, faceless figure inches into view and a scroll unspools from its outstretched arm.
Ring, I heard you scream – and indeed it does bear an uncanny resemblance to the cursed videotape from the seminal 1998 Japanese horror film.
This, however, was actually a break-bumper (a transitional clip from show to advert or vice versa) for Tung Ling, a 1986 supernatural series produced by Hong Kong broadcaster Asia Television Limited (ATV).

Mention ATV and the paranormal in the same breath and My Date with A Vampire will invariably come to mind.
The 1998 series revolved around a decades-long vampiric rivalry between tortured protagonist Fong Tin-yau (Eric Wan Tin-chiu) and his Japanese nemesis (Kenneth Chan Kai-tai), as well as Fong’s proto-Twilight romance with a ghostbuster (Joey Meng Yee-man).

My Date with A Vampire and its two spin-offs/sequels (which aired in 2000 and 2004) have since become cultural touchstones in the history of Hong Kong television, but the series is schlocky stuff when compared to the paranormal serials produced by ATV in the mid-1980s.
Tung Ling – also known as Man, Ghosts & Aliens III – was part of that wave.
The series, revolving around the otherworldly encounters of a copywriter (Frederick Lam Kwok-hung) and his buddy (Tony Yeung Chung-yan) as they try to launch a spooky magazine, unleashed soothsayers, seances and spirit-induced suicides across 20 episodes.
As its English title suggests, Man, Ghosts & Aliens III was the third instalment of what would become one of ATV’s most successful productions at a time when it was starting to lose ground to rival broadcaster TVB.
The franchise, a television successor to the nighttime paranormal programmes that were radio staples for decades, was driven by a stream of scary, spectral yarns.
1984’s Tian Ling (or Man, Ghosts & Aliens I) ended with everyone being transported to outer space by a spaceship – an incredible twist that carried over to the second (and perhaps most outlandish) instalment of the franchise.

The first episode of Ling Gaai Bin Yuen Yan – the other title for 1985’s Man, Ghosts & Aliens II – begins at some point in the past with two aliens (Anthony Wong Chau-sang and Betty Mak Tsui-han) losing control of their spaceship and crash-landing on Earth.
The action then shifts to present-day Hong Kong, where journalist Yeung Sam (Savio Tsang Wai-kuen) finds his camping trip going awry after wartime Japanese ghosts appear.
This maddening mishmash of men, ghosts and aliens happens well before the episode hits the half-hour mark, after which Yeung Sam becomes romantically involved with one of the castaway aliens, battles an evil doppelgänger and attains spiritual enlightenment to become a monk.
Manic and audacious it might be, but the Man, Ghosts & Aliens series was not even the best paranormal product that ATV had to offer. That title belongs to 1985’s Life After Life.

Five actors – Kenny Ho Kar-king (who also appeared in Tian Ling), Tong Chun-chung, Meann Lau Hung-fong, Edith Au Hoi-ling and Bobo Tsui Po-fung – played slightly different incarnations of the same characters in three historical periods – the Ming dynasty, the late 1940s and 1985.
While their social standings differed – one could be a swordsman or a servant in one life and a politician or a police officer in another – the characters ran down the same emotional rabbit holes that eventually led to discontent, death and destruction.
Much more philosophical than your average period drama, Life After Life was an entertaining and engaging exploration of karma and destiny. This was especially true of its final, present-day chapter.
Enlightened by a historian and a monk privy to their past lives in the 1940s, the five protagonists are left to devise a way to fight against what seems to be their preordained demise – a ploy that is as clever and nail-biting as any grand finale of a horror film.


How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

Remembering veteran Cantopop lyricist James Wong Jim, who died 20 years ago

This week in PostMag: Clockenflap, The Fringe Club and even more art

Hyrox race draws record turnout and new business opportunities for Hong Kong fitness sector

Hong Kong culture

When paranormal series Life After Life and My Date with a Vampire lit up Hong Kong’s ATV

Publicity for My Date with A Vampire, a paranormal series shown on TV in Hong Kong by broadcaster ATV. It was one of several such series produced by the company. Photo: ATV

Tung Ling (Man, Ghosts & Aliens III) was a supernatural series on ATV. Photo: ATV

A still from My Date with A Vampire. Photo: ATV

Kenny Ho Kar-king in a still from Tian Ling (Man, Ghosts & Aliens I). Photo: ATV

The opening title scene of Tian Ling (Man, Ghosts & Aliens I). Photo: ATV

Who is Ng See-yuen, the visionary super-producer who launched many Hong Kong film careers?

Ng See-yuen, then-chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards Association, pictured in 1995. From launching Jackie Chan’s career with kung fu comedies to helping end big studios’ stranglehold on filmmaking, Ng has had a huge influence on Hong Kong cinema. Photo: SCMP

Jackie Chan in a still from Drunken Master (1978), a kung fu comedy that helped launch the actor’s career. Photo: Golden Harvest

(From left) Hong Kong filmmakers Teddy Robin, Tsui Hark, Alfred Cheung Kin-ting, Ng See-yuen, Wong Jing and Ringo Lam Ling-tung at a promotional event in 1990. Photo: SCMP

A still from Chinese Boxer (1970), directed by Jimmy Wang Yu, on which Ng assisted. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio

From left: Actor and producer John Shum Kin-fun, Ng See-yuen (centre) and filmmaker Derek Yee Tung-sing at a press conference in 2012. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Tsui Siu-ling, Lau Siu-ming and Michelle Yim in a still from The Butterfly Murders (1979), produced by Ng and directed by Tsui Hark. Photo: Seasonal Film Corporation

From Jackie Chan stuntman to Hong Kong Film Awards best actor, Tai Bo tells his story

Hong Kong actor Tai Bo at the 2024 New York Asian Film Festival. Photo: NYAFF

Hong Kong actor Tai Bo receives his Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 New York Asian Film Festival. Photo: NYAFF

Tai Bo (left), pictured alongside Ben Yuen, won the best actor prize at the 2020 Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in Suk Suk. 

Hong Kong actor Tai Bo at an interview with the Post at the 2024 New York Asian Film Festival. Photo: Daniel Eagan

Tao Bo with Taiwanese actress Chao Mei-ling after winning the award for best supporting actor for his work in The Cabbie at the 37th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei in December 2000. Photo: Reuters

Tai Bo in a still from Hand Rolled Cigarette.

Kuku So and Tai Bo in a still from For Alice.

Tai Bo and Patra Au in a still from All Shall Be Well.

‘Ghost staircase’, outdoor gym: Hong Kong architecture tour opens eyes to urban quirks

Participants on a City Unseen walking tour of Prince Edward. Photo: Joshua Wolper 

Participants on a Hong Kong walking tour with City Unseen photograph quirky architecture in Prince Edward. The group plans a series of tours to encourage deeper engagement with the urban landscape. Photo: Joshua Wolper

City Unseen’s tour of Prince Edward drew attention to details of its urban architecture that participants may previously have been unaware of. Photo: Joshua Wolper 

People sit on concrete bollards beneath a footbridge on Tung Choi Street. Intended as hostile architecture, they have been repurposed by residents. Photo: Vicky Kung

A pink building with a “ghost staircase” on Tung Choi Street in Mong Kok. Photo: Vicky Kung

A resident uses equipment cobbled together by residents at an outdoor gym beside Bishop Hill. Photo: Joshua Wolper

A makeshift shrine on Bishop Hill formed as people left unwanted religious statues there. Photo: Joshua Wolper

A resident visits the makeshift shrine on Bishop Hill, which features almost 100 religious effigies. Photo: Erika Na

Halloween: 5 of Asia’s most scary and haunted destinations, for ghosts, spirits, monsters, possession and a giant snake

Bats hang from the ceiling of Goa Lawah Bat Cave Temple  in Bali, Indonesia. Photo: Shutterstock

In this temple in Bali a monstrous snake is said to inhabit a bat cave. In Shinjuku, Japan, a vengeful wife haunts a shrine. Both make it onto our list of the five most scary or haunted destinations in Asia as we head into Halloween. Photo: Shutterstock

A pagoda at Doi Suthep, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo: Getty Images

A section of Feroz Shah Kotla Fort, in New Delhi, India. Photo: Shutterstock

Buddha statues at Buddha Park in Vientiane, Laos. Photo: Shutterstock

Inside Oiwa Inari Tamiya Jinja shrine, in Tokyo. Photo: Ronan O’Connell

A colony of bats hanging from the ceiling of Goa Lawah, in Bali, Indonesia. Photo: Shutterstock

Feng shui, fortune-telling, exorcisms – a Chinese ghostbuster on curses, bad feelings in homes and the link between mental health and hauntings

Andrew Kwan is a Hong Kong ghostbuster who helps spirits move on from haunting homes and people. Photo: Jelly Tse

An image used to promote 1985 Hong Kong film “Mr. Vampire”, about a Taoist ghostbuster. Photo: Golden Harvest

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Aliens crash-landing on Earth, wartime Japanese ghosts – Man, Ghosts & Aliens had it all, but wasn’t even the best paranormal series on ATV


Humans in space, aliens crash-landing on Earth, people stuck in the same karmic cycle lifetime after lifetime – Hong Kong broadcaster ATV’s 1980s series about the paranormal were a class apart.


Hong Kong celebrities and icons

ATV - Asia Television Limited