Director: Ricky Lau
Cast: Ching-Ying Lam, Siu-Ho Chin, Ricky Hui

With so many different cultures in the world evolving separately for hundreds of years, it is inevitable that upon observing each of these different cultures, there will be some striking differences as to how things are done, and these differences can often puzzle and confuse outsiders who are not used to the culture in question. One such way can be found with the arts. For example, take the case of the cinematic output of the country of India, which is popularly referred to as Bollywood cinema. Now, I admit that I haven't seen that many movies from that country, but what I have seen (and what I have learned from reports from others) kind of leaves me confused. It seems that so many Bollywood movies as they unfold on the screen come to a halt every so often to have a musical number. Now, musicals aren't unusual to me, but what makes the Bollywood musicals so unusual is that they seem to do this regardless of what genre the central story happens to involve. I described this phenomenon when I reviewed (Indian) Superman, where despite it involving a superhero out to save the world from harm, was filled with musical numbers, including one that involved the movie's Lex Luthor clone. As you may have guessed, this penchant for musical numbers seems strange to this westerner. But thinking about it, I can see that outsiders might think the cinematic output of western filmmakers may come across as strange. I can picture aliens from a distant world coming to Earth, and after viewing western movies ask westerners, "Why do you put instrumental music, or any other kind of music in the backgrounds of practically every movie you make? In normal life, actions and events usually don't have instrumental music or any other kind of music playing in the background!"

I'm sure that on further inspection of western cinema, those same aliens would find other aspects that they would consider laughable or just plain confusing. For example, I have noted in past reviews about how western movies concerning boxing puzzle some audiences outside of the west, since how boxing is usually depicted makes it incredible that the fighters manage to stay up despite giving each other massive and rapid blows. I'm sure that aliens would feel the same way, and maybe also wonder (among other things) why humans would mutually agree to beat the crap out of each other. But enough about discussing how western cinema could look crazy to outsiders. Since I am from the western part of the world, it's only right to discuss instead how crazy cinema can get from other parts of the world, 'cause western culture is the very best and don't you forget it! (Joking!) The often at times cinema that I really want to talk about in this review is that coming from Hong Kong. Actually, I should point out that the particular Hong Kong cinema I want to talk about is the movies made in Hong Kong before 1997. As you may have gathered by not only the news coming out of Hong Kong since 1997 but also the movies made since that date, craziness in Hong Kong cinema has greatly diminished. No doubt it's due to the mainland Chinese government gaining control of much of what happens in Hong Kong. As you have probably learned from your history classes, communist governments have seemingly always had a very poor sense of humor and sense of adventure. This extends to cinema as well, and this spoilsport viewpoint sure makes it tough for any wackiness to emerge in motion pictures.

But in Hong Kong movies that were made before 1997... yow! I am certainly not saying that all the Hong Kong movies coming out before the Chinese takeover were insane, but when Hong Kong filmmakers decided to go all out, they really went all out. For example, there are all those Godfrey Ho ninja movies, and as well as other movies ranging from Naked Killer to Robotrix. I'm hard pressed to think of any other world cinema that has gone as bonkers as Hong Kong cinema has at times. What influenced Hong Kong filmmakers to go so crazy? Well, it couldn't have been influence from the British rule over the territory for so long; British filmmakers have never been as crazy. Maybe it could have been because of the typical low budgets Hong Kong movies had for a long time; the low budgets may have pressed the filmmakers to put in as much bang for the buck in their movies so they would have just as much (but different) appeal as Hollywood movies. That may be why the makers of Mr. Vampire decided to jam in three different genres - action, comedy, and horror - into their movie. Before getting further into the movie, a short plot synopsis. In China sometime in the first half of the 20th century, there is a Taoist priest, known as Master Kau (Ching-Ying Lam, Eastern Condors), who with his bumbling assistants Man Choi (Ricky Hui, Mad Mission 3) and Chou Sang (Siu-Ho Chin, Fist Of Legend) makes a living battling various evil spirits and monsters. Kau's speciality is battling the various vampires around China, which is good, because his latest assignment - safely moving a cursed buried corpse to a safe place for reburial - has him discovering that the corpse he unearthed is actually a dormant vampire. But before Kau can safely deal with the vampire before it can hurt anybody, Man Choi and Chou Sang accidentally revive the vampire. Escaping, the vampire kills its mortal son, and Kau is arrested for the murder. While Kau eventually manages to prove his innocence and dispose of the vampire, during all this Man Choi was bitten by the vampire and is in danger of becoming a vampire himself. And Chou Sang around the same time was seduced by a female ghost, one that feels that Kau is a threat to her and her relationship with Chou Sang.

Before you possibly get the wrong idea of how I felt about Mr. Vampire, I will start my critique by summing up my experience by saying I did enjoy it overall. However, at the same time I have to admit that a lot of the movie was not only aimed at a moviegoer without a lot of my particular cinematic tastes, but aimed at moviegoers who have lived a lifetime in a quite different culture than I have experienced. As a result of both those particular directions, I have to admit that a lot of the movie bewildered me to a significant degree. It doesn't take long into the movie to realize that the filmmakers were depending on their audience previously knowing a lot about ancient Chinese culture, specifically around supernatural elements. In my eyes, the movie constantly moved forward with every new bizarre (in my eyes) element without taking the time to explain it to audiences who were not in the know. I knew a few things about Chinese vampires from previous Asian movies I have seen (like Robo Vampire), such as their penchant from moving place to place by hopping instead of walking. There were a few other specific Asian elements (like religious and cultural practices) in Mr. Vampire that I was familiar with, enough that I was able to have at least some basic idea as to what was happening in front of my eyes. However, dear reader, I don't know how much you know about Asian culture. My guess is that the more that you know about Asian culture, the more likely you will be able to accept every Asian touch in this movie and be able to embrace the movie as a whole. Those who are only dipping their toe into Asian cinema, unlike me, may be taken aback very quickly... to put it mildly. Some may be extremely turned off and not finish watching the entire movie. So my viewpoint is that if you don't have much experience with Asian cinema, you should hold off on watching Mr. Vampire until you have at least enjoyed many of the works of the "big boys" of Asian cinema (John Woo, Jackie Chan, etc.), and are then suitably warmed up for something more unconventional.

I feel that I should point out that even those who have a good feel of the "Asian style" will still find some quibbles about how the story of Mr. Vampire is written and directed. I certainly did. The first quibble I had was that the movie seemed to be starting at what felt like chapter two - there's no standard initial establishment of time, place, or even the characters. It takes a while to figure out this little pocket of this particular universe. While I did eventually figure out who was who and what was going on (mostly), there were other weaknesses with this story that did hamper my potential enjoyment of the wild spectacle. Though the movie only runs about 97 minutes in length, it's clear that at times that what is happening is mere padding. This is especially evident in the second half of the movie where vampirism is almost completely forgotten about to focus instead on the ghost who is smitten with Chou Sang. As a result of both the padding and the change in focus, the movie can't help but give viewers a feeling that things were being made up right on the spot seconds before director Ricky Lau yelled "action!" The sometimes-sloppy nature extends to the English translation of the dialogue, creating some unintended chuckles ("Please molest me," one character says at one point.) And given the fact the filmmakers didn't have as big of a budget as a Hollywood movie, there are additional unintended chuckles like a "brick" wall that for a split-second compresses when someone is thrown against it. But you know what? I didn't mind goofs like that. Director Lau manages against all odds to make this particular cinematic universe so that you would be surprised if you didn't see those goofs. In its own weird way, it all makes sense.

Of course, most of the humor that is displayed in Mr. Vampire is of an intentional kind, the majority of it a classic Hong Kong slapstick style. The characters get in conversations where each person is thinking something other than what the other person is thinking or intending, all the characters make fools of themselves at least once, and there's an ample number of physical gags with the characters falling and jumping around. Despite dealing with vampires, ghosts, and other supernatural elements, the horror elements of the movie are generally too goofy to be scary except for really young children in the audeince (though there are a few sudden shocks for adults.) But both the horror and the comedy are mixed together in a way that is very amiable. I think a great deal of that comes to the fact that all the members of the cast enthusiastically throw themselves in this craziness to add as much of their own craziness as possible. The acting is sometimes really over the top, but in a movie like this, it's better to overact than to underact. The cast manages with their energy to help the movie gloss over some of their written weaknesses, such as the fact that the key character of Chou Sang doesn't have his name revealed until more that half of the movie is over, and that the movie suddenly comes to an abrupt end without giving the remaining characters any chance to express their feelings with how things have ended up or a chance to indicate where they will go from this point on. But who knows, maybe all those flaws in my eyes would not be flaws in an Asian audience's eyes? Besides, even if they would still be flaws, they help to make Mr. Vampire a really unique experience that you probably won't be able to turn your eyes away from while you are watching it.

(Posted October 15, 2025)