Links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Part 1
 |
| Prime ghost story telling location |
They introduce their trip to Gum Sook Laan Jau (甘肅蘭州) to find the Corpse Fishers. They say how difficult it is to find the Corpse Fishers in China because they hide.
To find more information, they interview a journalist who had previously researched Corpse Fishers.
Howard: How did you know about Corpse Fishers?The voice over says that because the mainland government does not support corpse fishing and the journalist has his party member background, he ultimately refused to be their guide so they found their friend, Lady Translator, to be their guide who is also part of the entertainment industry. Ohhhh so she's not actually a translator, oops haha.
Journalist: When we made this broadcast, we were already not the first to report on it. A couple of years before our broadcast, the Laan Jau local media had already reported about it but when they reported on it, they did not raise the shock of the whole country. At the time, we didn't know how to contact the CFs, we managed to find the address from the Laan Jau local broadcast. Then we went over to Laan Jau to search for them.
Howard: It must have been really shocking to see the bay with corpses floating in the water?
Journalist: It's not as exaggerated as you think. With the CF, they waited for 2 days but in reality, they were only "lucky" enough to "net" a corpse on the first day but the second day they went, there weren't any. If CF managed to "net" a corpse, he had different locations to put the body; he didn't have one single place where he placed them. CF would go to the rubbish tip to collect plastic bottles or bodies at around 4 - 6 am. The place was surrounded by mountains on either side with the river running through the middle so apart from the CFs, my impression was that no one else knew of that road or lived there. It's so misty that you can't see your fingers when you put your hand in front of you. You can't see anything and all you can hear is the sound of the movement of the Yellow River.
Crew Dude: A lot of people have died at the Yellow River. It is said that people who die in the water become water ghosts. At that place, did you feel uncomfortable/uneasy?
Journalist: Speaking of my character, I'm a party member so I should be an atheist. If I can avoid those types of scenes I think anyone would make the same decision.
 |
| The infamous bridge |
Another story she'd heard from an elderly man was he would walk home by the river side. One day he saw a girl combing her hair by the river side. He thought it was dangerous for the girl to stand there alone so he went over to her but when he got close, she disappeared. When he backed up a few paces, the girl reappeared. He was so scared that he ran away.
Every year there's so many people that jump off the bridge, they know that this will be repeated so when she's around the bridge at night she feels uneasy and doesn't dare come here. The Yellow River has a lot of lore surrounding it.
Back to the hosts with the Master, the host asks the Master whether people that commit suicide off a bridge will forever repeat the action. The Master says that everyday at the same time, they will continue to repeat their day leading up to how they jumped - until something happens in the afterlife. I don't know what it is she said and there's no subtitle in this part but my guess is that they repeat until their grief ends or something like that? Also, I don't really like this Master, she seems to smile at all these questions, dude stop smirking when they're talking about suicides -.-" *shudder*. She creeps me out mang. The host then says so if you're "see wun daai" I don't know how to translate this, I think it sort of means if you're feeling down but also your luck is also down...? you will see a shadow dropping over the bridge and the Master adds, you may see a ripple in the water when nothing has dropped in.
Howard asks if a person commits suicide by jumping off a bridge into water, will they become a water ghost. The Master says yes they will, especially if they have a lot of vengeance/bitterness. Traditionally, water ghosts are the hardest to deal with because they can handle being in the sun (so the water gives them SPF or something?) and also being in the rain. When it rains, it's like having a thousand arrows piercing the heart (a lot of grief) so they need to find "replacement bodies". The host then says he's heard that some lifeguards have learnt to tell the difference between a real human and a water ghost. The Master says for example, a person's hands are white and there's blood colour and will reflect in the sun but a water ghost's skin colour will be ashy and grey. Chinese lore did not account for the fact that there are black people... how can they tell then hmmmm?
Part 2
The host says at Zhong Shan Bridge there's a lot of occurrences where people claim to have seen ghosts. Howard talks about a gondolier who takes tourists on boat rides on the Yellow River who told them ghost stories and also that he'd seen ghosts himself.They cut to footage of Zhong Zhan Bridge and the voice over tells about how this bridge is a hot spot for death, leading to the Yellow River being a place with innumerable corpse discoveries. They ask the gondolier about any myths he's heard about the river. The gondolier answers that many people died on that bridge were Ma clique warlords (from 1930s and 40s). They ask him if he's heard of Corpse Fishers and he said he knows of CFs from She Chuan where cremation costs a couple $100. They ask him if he's used to it and he says these kinds of things you can't get too close to, you must stay far away. He says there's something big that lives under the river (wait whut, Loch Ness??) for 20+ years and will go to the river bed to catch people.
They ask him if he's seen ghosts before and he says these things you can see accidentally. They ask him how he saw it accidentally and the gondolier says that there are lots of spirits at the Yellow River. He says he's heard of water ghosts and that when you see them, they look just like a person but the ghost is scared of people and once they see a person they will leave. He says if you do a lot of good deeds, when a ghost sees you they will avoid you. He says on the bridge, there's a lot of ghosts and at night, after 6pm, they will start to come out. Howard points out a sign saying "O mei tor fut" (Buddhist saying) and they ask if it's because a lot of people commit suicide by jumping off the bridge. The gondolier says that he wants to promote Buddhism. People that commit suicide need to practice Buddhism well. Lady Translator says the sign has a "ciu dou" function (i.e. redeem lost souls by making offerings and saying prayers. The voice over urges that good deeds bring good karma and your "yang qi" will be greater so ghosts won't be able to get near you. I kinda feel like either the gondolier didn't really know what they were asking or Translator Lady was just interpreting his answers a certain way because a lot of the questions and answers don't really match up?
The next scene, they're on their way to find the CFs and Howard asks Translator Lady if her family know about CFs. She says that her neighbour had a relative who was a little boy. His family had some problems and he jumped into the river. His family sought a CF to find his body but it couldn't be found. When she was young, she went to play by the Yellow River and saw a dead baby. Wtf that's so messed up... That stuff can scar you for life D:
They keep asking locals for directions to find the place where the CFs are and it's super difficult to find. Then Crew Dude tells him to get out of the car because he saw a sign that said "People Search" which means corpse search because in the Yellow River, the only people you find are dead. The wall has phone numbers on and they suspect it's the phone number of the CF. After walking about 50 metres from the wall with the phone number, they find more phone numbers written on the cliff wall (this is the start of the highlight clip, we finally see what these numbers mean!) They tried calling the phone numbers but no one answered.
They also show footage of what looks like a stuffed tiger plush on a tree. They claim that at first they thought it was a statue or toy but because the movement of the tail and fur looked realistic they thought it was a taxidermy tiger and deduced that it was another dead body that had been found in the river. Back to the hosts' discussion, the host says that in lore, if a river has had a lot of people die in or is known to have water ghosts, people will try to find the scariest/strongest beasts to protect the area. In Chinese culture, the strongest beast is the tiger so they will try to place something tiger related to protect the river area. The other host asks is it just like in "villain hitting" (da siu yun) with the white tiger (I'm not really familiar with the details of da siu yun so I included the wiki link which describes the connection with the white tiger. Also those paper tigers are actually kinda cute). The Master says that traditionally in Chinese culture, different beasts would have different uses for example, white tigers will tend to "watch" low places or plains. In terms of protecting from water ghosts, usually they will use beasts that are smarter in water but if the locals traditionally are most scared of white tigers, they will use white tigers to protect. The host then asks whether the crocodile stone statues on either side of the river where Wut Yoon died is to protect the area because crocodiles are water animals and the Master says yes it is.
The host asks Howard why they had to go to 'Dead People Bay' and he answers that the Yellow River is very wide but certain bends in the river act as a net where a lot of rubbish and also dead bodies are stopped at and can be found so CFs will generally be found at these bends in the river.
Part 3
They determine the difference between the first Old Dude (Corpse Fisher) that they found and the one that they were trying to find. Howard says that the original Corpse Fisher (OOD) that they were trying to find was a private corpse fisher, which the government do not approve of, whereas the first Old Dude was actually hired by the government so the way they work is different. The host then brings up that often people that work as undertakers and the Old Dude have a dark vibe and they ask the Master why that might be. The Master says that traditionally, people that work as undertakers who work out on the desk will tend to be more pale (either naturally or through makeup) whereas the ones that work inside will be more dark. She says this has a lot to do with the intentions when working with the dead. If the person feels like they're doing a service for you after you died and helping you on your road to the afterlife, they will have a more positive outlook whereas if the person feels like they're just doing a job and don't take their job too seriously, their "qi" (vibe) will be darker.The hosts mention that their location at Ma Wan Hoi Hup, they often find dead bodies at the bay and locals also have their own rituals to find dead bodies. The other host says she's often heard that people will throw a watermelon into the sea to find the bodies of people who had gone missing in the sea. The Master says the watermelon method is not 100% valid because this is a method used mostly by people living at sea so it depends on where that person comes from; if the person doesn't eat chilli, giving them chilli won't find them (she actually says this, even though it sounds weird but I guess it sort of makes sense...) Howard asks the Master how her sect would find the body. She said she would use tools to work out where the person died and then use water lights (candles?) and do a ritual to ask "shrimp soldiers and crab generals" to help search. She said the water lights would revolve around a certain area in the sea and that would be where the body was.
Part 4
After the clip where Howard stays outside the morgue, the presenters discuss the clip. The host says after watching the clip he felt the producers were super nice to Howard because they didn't make him sleep inside the morgue. When the host filmed before, he not only had to sleep inside the morgue, but inside the body fridge. He says that even though there's separate doors, the body fridge actually doesn't have separating walls because it's just a fridge so when he had to lie in the fridge, he could actually touch the body next to him. WHUT. Doesn't that violate some laws somewhere D: That's horrific wtf!!! I mean, apart from that being really scary, isn't it a little disrespectful to the body? *Shudder* Lol at how he's miffed at this though, poor host is like hell no how dare the producers give you special treatment! After hearing this, Howard says he's very thankful (and praising all the deities ever, I bet) but he reveals that the bodies he saw were bagged but they smelled like decay and also the bodies had a lot of mud from river on them. Producers were probably not allowed to put the guy in the fridge because I'm guessing the host was put into a fridge where the bodies were embalmed but the fridge that Howard saw contained bodies of varying rates of decay...It would definitely have been a health hazard if he'd actually laid in one of those... The girl host then says she must be the only one that's not been in the morgue and she actually does want to visit one because the Masters always say that if you say "Leave well" (一路好走) to a stranger, it's like giving them some merit so she would like to give these words to them.The host then asks the Master what signs are there that a water ghost has entered your home. The Master replies that in their location, for a water ghost to get into your home, it's very difficult and highly unlikely because they have to get past the beach and then get past the road so it wouldn't get into the home unless it had a lot of vengeance or was a water monster. If the house was a hut on the beach, then there would be a greater likelihood. Signs of a water ghost entering your home would be wet foot prints dragged inside your house. Also, there would be a sea smell inside the house, even after shutting all the windows and switching on the air conditioning. The other host then asks how would you get rid of the water ghost and the Master replies that from experience, an ordinary person can't get rid of a water ghost and will need to ask a Master to help them do some rituals.
 |
| *Throws rusty cleaver* |