Mr. Vampire

 

 

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"Mr. Vampire" is a movie for people tired of angsty, gorgeous vampires with thick Transylvanian accents.

Instead, this hilarious supernatural comedy has a different kind of vampire -- the superstrong, zombielike "hopping vampire." And dealing with the hopping vampires are a long-suffering Taoist priest and his bumbling assistants, who add all sorts of wacky twists.

Master Gau (Ching-Ying Lam) agrees to help the wealthy Yam family move their patriarch's body -- until he sees the undecayed body. Turns out Grandpa is a vampire. And after his bumbling assistants fail to properly restrain the vampire, it gets loose, kills its son, and now the vampire hunters are facing TWO vampires instead of one.

To make matters worse, Man Choi (Ricky Hui) has been infected with vampire toxin, which will turn him into a vampire if they can't cure him with sticky rice, and Chou (Siu-hou Chin) is being seduced at night by a ghost. Master Gau must cure one, save the other, and somehow destroy a superpowerful vampire that invades the Yam household.

"Mr. Vampire" was such a success in China that it started a whole trend of "hopping vampire" movies. But as with most trends, the original is still the best and more entertaining example. And it incorporates traditional vampires and succubi from China, as well as little-known mythical trivia (such as sticky rice being the "garlic" for a Chinese vampire).

Expect lots of Peter Jacksonish twisted humor (Man Choi having his fangs filed down) alongside the more typical kind (Chou and Man Choi cast a spell to make their romantic rival strip in public). But when the vampires show up, there are plenty of wild, undignified action scenes. And lots of property damage -- they break every piece of furniture they come across.

The late Ching-Ying Lam became a star thanks to this movie, and his staid, unibrowed priest is a likable guy when you consider everything he has to deal with. Hui and Chin are hysterical as a pair of earnest but hormonal guys. They're kind of an annoyance when Gau isn't actually fighting vampires, but perhaps they're good for doing errands.

(Fortunately they also cleaned up the subtitling on this movie. The original subtitling was comically bad, but the new ones are are very well done)

"Mr Vampire" is one of China's better supernatural comedies, with weird vampires and lots of sticky rice. Hysterical and warped.

Has anyone but I had trouble with accessing the Langue section of the Menu on Media Asia DVDs? I returned one, thinking it was defective. However, any DVD I own from Media Asia is the same: It seems as if it's entering the menu and then just "bounces" me back to the main menu! The rest of the menus are fine; only the Language is this way. Thanks. Scangemi@ohpny.com

The quintessential "hopping vampire" movie. The plot revolves around an undertaker and his assistants, who are called in to deal with a corpse that is in danger of turning into a "vampire" - it was buried with a bad feng-shui. I thought the flim was very funny. While it has great and unique fight sequences, I wish it had more. Silly but fun.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious
This was one of the funniest movies i have ever seen. The only downside were the white subtitles which were difficult to read at times, but even those couldn't keep me from... Read more

Published on Jan 9 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eternal Sifu starts the saga rolling.
The eternal Sifu Lam Ching Ying starts the series going with this fine film.Mr. Vampire is the first in a series of Vampire buster films that Lam Ching Ying did over his career. Read more

Published on Nov 2 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Stock up on sticky rice!
This is one of the best films to come out of Hong Kong, has exceptional choreography, and bends the horror genre out of all alignment. Read more

Published on Dec 4 1999 by djb@ballandway.freeserve.co.uk

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