I’ve been trying to get more accurate translations of what people are saying in Chinese Ghost Story II by writing down the Chinese subtitles, then looking up the characters. However, I usually can’t make any sense out of it. For instance, the first time the monk uses his “freeze” spell, he says, “Sàhn bìng fó gàp gàp gàp yùh leuht lihng tai ngóh dihng!” Other times, he just says, “Gàp gàp yùh leuht lihng dihng!” I can look up what each word means, but the sentence eludes me. Any Cantonese speakers out there?
Well, what does each word mean? Tell us and we’ll help you guess what the sentence means. 
Language is language. It’s gotta have subject, predicate, etc.
And within the framework of a movie ghost story, it’s not likely to be dealing with any really abstruse concepts, like transcendentalism or militant feminism.
All right, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
sàhn = God, spirit, energy, mysterious
bìng = soldier
fó = fire
gàp = hasty, urgent, anxious
yùh = like, as, if
leuht = laws, rules
lihng = to cause, to command, law, your
tai = to substitute, to replace
ngóh = I, me
dihng = stationary
The subtitles say, “Hocus pocus! I command you to freeze!” This makes sense, but there are still a few words unaccounted for.
You better find a canto speaker. It’s pretty likely some writer borrowed a buddhist/daoist tract phrase or made one up. Being that it’s a Hong Kong filmed movie, it’s in HK Cantonese which is chock full of slang. Also, characters in Cantonese can have quite different meanings from the Mandarin.
Sàhn bìng fó – Mysterious Fire Soldier, i.e. ghost
gàp gàp gàp – NOW!! [repeated three times, a tremendous imperative]
yùh leuht – like the rules, according to the rules, i.e. according to the laws of magic and spells which I happen to know
lihng – to command
tai – [I’m guessing that while this literally may mean “replace”, it may be used here as verbal modifier of some kind, perhaps a “helping verb” with “lihng”, the way the English “will” or “do” are helping verbs–maybe “I will command” or “I do so command”]
ngóh – I
dihng!" – to become stationary, i.e. freeze
So that gives you: “Ghost, NOW, by the law of magic, I command you to freeze!”
And this–“Gàp gàp yùh leuht lihng dihng!”–would be: “Right now, by the law of magic, I command you to freeze!”
Basically the same thing, but without formally adressing the ghost.
Is the movie any good?
Although, actually, I guess “Gàp gàp yùh leuht lihng dihng!” would be more like, “Right now, rules, command, freeze!” Sort of a necromantic verbal shorthand. Was it a different ghost from the first one? Maybe with some ghosts, you can just shout, “Police! Freeze!” but with others, you have to go through the whole speech.