Ming Ghost tells the story, just as the famous film Rashomon by Kurosawa does from different angles, of a murder in a deserted forest. The film is a demonstration of the incredible craftsmanship of the Taiwanese film industry; it is a costume drama in the grand style.The film focuses on Ah Ying. She has just got married and is travelling with her husband Wu through a forest to visit the grave of her mother. She is awaited there by her father. But when the couple fail to arrive, the father sends two policemen to search for them. They find the lifeless body of Wu by a huge tree, but Ah Ying has disappeared. Tracks lead to a market trader who is arrested and locked up. But the policemen continue their search for the murderer and find Ah Ying unconscious in a stable. The sergeant — who is a secret admirer of Ah Ying — carriers her to her father’s house. There she tells her version of the story. She says that Wu defended himself bravely against an attacker, but was killed in a duel. The attacker then tried to rape her, but she managed to fend him off her by wounding him in the neck.But when the attacker is captured, he tells a different story. He did not try to rape her, she offered herself voluntarily. Both the judge and the sergeant react angrily to the story and throw the criminal in jail, where he is beaten up. In the sequel, the market trader, the criminal and the sergeant are murdered. The judge turns in panic to a priest, who turns out to be able to call up the souls of the victims, so the judge is able to question them after all.
