This epic Leslie Cheung vehicle is one of the most elaborate and expensive Hong Kong-Mainland co-productions for its time. The time-tested material was adapted from classic horror-mystery writer Szema Wei-Bang's Chinese interpretation of "The Phantom of the Opera". Curiously "Phantom Lover" is the fourth screen remake of this classic tragedy/love story with a screen lineage dating back to the early days of pre-World War II Shanghai film studios. In modern Hong Kong cinema, the last telling of 'Ye ban ge sheng' prior to Ronny Yu's version was produced over 30 years ago by none other than Sir Run Run Shaw in his lavish black and white widescreen adaptation in "The Mid-nightmare" starring Golden Age screen idols Betty Loh-Ti (Love Eterne) and Chao Lei (Kingdom & The Beauty) in the lead roles. That version was released in two parts in 1962 and 1963 respectively.