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Mr. Vampire
Hong Kong 1985
produced by Sammo Hung, Ko Mun-kai for Bo Ho Films, Golden Harvest
directed by Ricky Lau
starring Lam Ching-Ying, Chin Siu-hou, Ricky Hui, Moon Lee, Billy Lau, Pauline Wong, Anthony Chan, Yuen Wah, Wu Ma, Lau Chau Sang, Tin Kai Man
story by Wong Ying, screenplay by Ricky Lau, Szeto Chuek-Hon, Barry Wong, music by Melody Bank, action direction by Yuen Wah
Mr. Vampire
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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20 years ago, Mr Yam's (Billy Lau) dad (Yuen Wah) has been buried
vertically - which brought continuous bad luck to the family. Now Yam asks
undertaker Kau (Lam Ching-Ying) for support to bury him horizontally and
remove the family curse. Thing is, the corpse has in the meantime grown
rather sore and at the first opportunity he escapes from his coffin and
attacks the living - including his own son, whom he kills, and who soon
enough comes back as a walking corpse as well.
Soon enough, Master Kau and his two assistants Chou (Chin Siu-Hou) and
Man Choi (Ricky Hui) have their hands full fighting corpses, which is not
exactly made easier when Master Kau is thrown into the slammer by an
idiotic policeman (Billy Lau), when Chou falls in love with a ghost
(Pauline Wong) - who only eventually turns out to be benevolent -, when
Man Choi is bitten by a corpse and slowly turns into a corpse himself, and
when the sticky rice our ghosthunters need to hunt ghosts (it works
according to Oriental mythology) is not sticky enough ... and then there's
also Yam's daughter Ting Ting (Moon Lee), who seems to need constant
saving ...
Only eventually, and with the help of a Taoist priest (Anthony Chan)
and his hopping corpses is Master Kau able to put all the wrongs right,
make sure all the corpses stay dead and make the world of the living a
save place once more ...
As you might have noticed from my synopsis, Mr Vampire is silly
as hell ... and simply wonderful. It's full of perfectly choreographed
slapstick, great (& humourous) martial arts, and moments that are as
creepy as they are funny. And the whole film has hardly a dull moment. And
even though it might not be a masterpiece of cinema history or even genre
cinema, I can't but repeat: Simply wonderful. (You just mustn't take it
seriously, of course.)
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