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Hopping Mad: The Mr. Vampire Sequels [Mr. Vampire II/Mr. Vampire III/Mr. Vampire Saga IV/Vampire vs.
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Eureka Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (12th June 2023). |
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The Film
 "After the huge success of Mr Vampire, Hong Kong audiences were desperate for more vampire-hopping action and the films’ producers were more than happy to oblige. A steady stream of jiangshi content was produced over the following years, and presented here are 4 of these classic titles from stunning new restorations." Mr. Vampire II (Vampire Family): Archaeologist Professor Kwok Tun-wong (The Shaolin Plot's Chung Fat) is excavating some ruins when his assistants Savage (Heroes Shed No Tears's Ka Lee) and Chicken (Eastern Condors' Billy Lau) discover the entrance to a cave holding the upright coffins of a vampire couple (The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter's Cheung Wing-Cheung and Miracles' Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan) and their child (Ho Kin-Wai) in suspended animation via corpse appeasement talismans attached to their foreheads. Seeing dollar signs, the professor has his assistants take the corpses back to his lab and he contacts a collector. Leaving Chicken in the company of the two adult corpses, Kwok and Savage take the child's corpse as a "sample" to show the buyer. Unfortunately, the bumpy ride causes the talisman to become detached from the corpse and the vampire child escapes into the night. Meanwhile, Chicken has managed to resurrect both adults with only one undamaged talisman to fend off both one at a time. While Kwok and Savage trap the vampires in the lab while attempting to discover how to subdue them again, Chicken visits Master Lam (The Prodigal Son's Lam Ching-Ying) to see to the bite in his arm he claims to have been the work of a rambunctious child, but the Taoist priest recognizes the necrotic flesh around the bite as something more sinister. Lam tails Chicken back to the lab and reluctantly leaves his too curious niece Gigi (Midnight Whispers' Moon Lee Choi-Fung) and her reporter fiance Yen (Warriors Two's Yuen Biao) behind on the lookout while he returns to his shop for supplies. Against Yam's warnings, Yen sneaks into the lab to get a photograph and he and Gigi are saved just in time by Lam and the police who confiscate the corpses while the museum and the coroner sort out who has the rights to examine them. While Lam and Yen are attempting to get to the corpses to destroy them, greedy Kwok has convinced Savage and Chicken that they need a sample of the vampires' blood to cure Chicken before he turns into a vampire himself. Amidst the havoc of the vampires' escape, they scent out their child who has been taken in by a bullied little girl Chia-Chia (Hon To-Yue) and her brother (Choi Man-Gam) beneath the nose of their father Hu (Police Story's Wu Fung). Bizarrely-structured with the film's three separate plot strands introduced one after another in lengthy scenes that almost suggest abrupt cuts to three different films before eventually coming together – a trait of the series from this point onwards (at least as far as the films in this set) – Mr. Vampire II is the most "family friendly" of the three due to production requirements in the wake of the massive Chinese box office success of Hollywood import E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. For some viewers, the scenes with the children might indeed be the least interesting part of the film – indeed, they remind me of a slightly more technically slick version of Juan Piquer Simón's Extra Terrestrial Visitors, a Spanish/French production that started out as a sci-fi/horror film before the producers insisted on adding a child character who forms a bond with the child offspring of the alien who is otherwise roaming the forest and killing hunters and campers after the success of the aforementioned film – however, while the film does attempt to be different from the period-set first film Mr. Vampire within certain limitations, the results are only fitfully entertaining.  The archaeologist and his two assistants are most entertaining for the first third of the film but recede into the background for the remainder while the always entertaining Lam Ching-Ying also plays second fiddle for much of the film to Yuen Biao – Peking Opera "little brother" of Jackie Chan and the film's producer Sammo Hung – who demonstrates some comic chops and his usual impressive athletics but unfortunately does so during a protracted action sequence that quite literally "slows down" the film as both human prey and vampires are dosed with a retardant that has them fighting and speaking in faux-slow motion. Most interestingly, the film depicts the vampire hunter as having respect for the dead even as he must destroy them in order to help them reincarnate, and the film also shows that the vampires still retain their human emotions, with their basic hunger turning to anger when one of their own is threatened. The finale sidesteps just how Lam and Yen are going to help the child vampire reincarnate – after a tearful farewell from the children who assume the hunters mean the vampire no harm – with a freeze frame final scare/chuckle. Although the success of the first film and this one lead to a boom of imitators and ripoffs, the subsequent official entries in this set demonstrate little continuity and appear to try to stay ahead of their competitors with each entry. Series regular Wu Ma (A Chinese Ghost Story) has a smaller role here as Hu's neighbor and James Tien (The Big Boss) has a throwaway role as a police officer. Mr. Vampire III (Mr. Supernatural): Taoist priest Ming (Millionaires' Express's Richard Ng) has been making a living expelling ghosts from the homes of wealthy country folk, and he brings along his own ghosts – in the form of departed Tai Pao (Project A: Part 2's Lui Fong) and his little brother Siu Pao (Ho Kin-Wai again) – to "salt the mine." Fleeing a mansion built on the burial ground of justifiably disgruntled ghosts who prove too strong for him, Ming finds himself under house arrest by the local police captain Chiang (Billy Lau again) who along with Taoist master Lam (Lam Ching-Ying again) have rallied to village men in anticipation of a raid by horse thieves from the north. When the thieves prove immune to the villagers' martial arts, Lam realizes that they are being aided by black magic. With the help of his virgin urine, Lam manages to "kill" black-blooded Eagle Head (Cheung Wing-Cheung again) and Wild Boar (Heart of Dragon's Chu Tau), but their sorceress leader (Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan again) manages to escape. When Chiang bullies Ming, Tai Pao and Siu Pao make a fool out of him in public and only Lam is able to see them. When he captures the two ghosts, Ming pretends to be ignorant of them and attempts later on to free them; whereupon, Lam advises him that both he and the ghosts would be better off maintaining natural boundaries. Ming tells Tai Pao and Siu Pao that they should go their separate ways, but the ghosts linger. Realizing that she will likely return to resurrect the two men, Lam orders Chiang to have the corpses burned; however, Chiang is preoccupied using spells he has gleaned (and stolen) from Lam to capture the Tai Pao only to make him vulnerable to the sorceress who captures him for use in busting out her two compatriots. Lam and Ming ready themselves for the sorceress' ambush, but she may prove even more deadly as a ghost than as a witch.  Subtitled "Mr. Supernatural" in Chinese, Mr. Vampire III is technically not a vampire film, with only a bewitched Tai Pao baring fangs briefly while Eagle Head and Wild Boar possess others; however, the always funny Richard Ng's Ming makes a fine foil to Lam Ching-Ying, the two benevolent ghosts are as endearing as the bad ghosts are vicious, the action set-pieces are rousing, and there are some accomplished optical effects of the kind of which producer Sammo Hung was one of the few to bother with given the pace of Hong Kong production and greater reliance on physical stunts and wire work. As with the previous film, ghosts and witches both good and bad are emotionally-motivated, with Tai Pao and Siu Pao seeming to linger with Ming out of fondness (and hunger) and the film's sorceress seeming to care more about Eagle Head and Wild Boar than just as acolytes. Besides the fun martial arts sequences, there are some neat artistic touches like the slow motion shots of the horse thieves that seems drawn directly from Amando de Ossorio's Blind Dead series, the means of capturing ghosts feeling like less radioactive versions of the ghost traps of Ghostbusters, and some more oddball touches like sending ghosts to Hell via deep frying in oil. The next film in the loose series would return to more traditional jiangshi action while introducing its own innovations. Mr. Vampire Saga IV: Sometime during the Qing Dynasty, Buddhist priest Yi-Yu (Wu Ma again) returns to the countryside with his new pupil Ching-ching (Sex and Zen II's Loletta Lee) in quarters neighboring Four Eyed Taoist (Armour of God's Anthony Chan) and his pupil Ga Lok (The Owl vs Bumbo's Chin Ka-Lok). Things get off to a rough start with Ching-ching and lovestruck Ga Lok, but their tense interactions seem quite mature next to the rivalry between the two priests whose every interaction turns into feats of one-upmanship involving either brawn or magic. One day, a royal cortege passes by the temple lead by Four Eyed Taoist's former student Crane (Chung Fat again) who is escorting both a young prince (Ho Kin-Wai again) and a coffin containing a vampire who Crane explains cannot be destroyed because the man was an official. That night as they cortege sets up camp, rain washes off the spells written on the coffin and a bolt of lightning strikes the coffin, unleashing the corpse as a vampire (Cheung Wing-Cheung again) who proves strangely impervious to the usual Taoist remedies as he bites and transforms several of the party. As Yi-Yu and Four Eyed Taoist do battle with the vampire, Ching-ching and Ga Lok attempt to cure the young prince before he transforms, unaware that the newly-transformed vampiric royal retinue are closing in on them.  Although lacking the anchoring presence of Lam Ching-Ying, Mr. Vampire Saga IV – onscreen title translated as "Vampire Saga 4 (Uncle Vampire)" – makes up for his absence with a bigger part for Wu Ma and a fun turn from Wynners lead singer Chan; the latter first introduced leading a line of hopping corpses, misdirecting them by putting a frog in charge of the trip, and being tempted by a fox ghost (a cameo by Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan) alternately alluring in human form and hilarious in an animal suit not unlike Richard Ng's chicken suit in Mr. Vampire III. Secondary leads Lee and Chin Ka-Lok are also a more engaging pair than the young lovers of Mr. Vampire II in addition to demonstrating the requisite martial arts prowess and even some comic chops doing a Shaun of the Dead-esque imitation of the undead to fool their attackers. Oddly enough, the retinue of corpses Four Eyed Taoist is seen transporting and storing in the temple are not pressed in to service on either side during the attack even though they had earlier been shown to be controllable; yet, a bit of offensive gay stereotyping as comic relief in the form of a fey eunuch (The Iceman Cometh's Yuen Wah) being extremely amorous even in death of Ga Lok reminds of what producer Sammo Hung finds funny. Lam Ching-Ying returns in front of and behind the camera for Vampire vs Vampire as One Eyebrow Priest summoned along with his assistants Ho (House of Traps's Chin Siu-Ho) and Fong (Heartbeat 100's Lui Fong) – along with a mischievous vampire child (Deadly Desire's Lam Jing-Wang) who refuses to stay inside his urn – to a mountain village by the chief who believes that bad feng shui is responsible for recent mishaps. No sooner does One Eyebrow Priest intuit that the water in the spring is bad than the local police chief (Billy Lau again) and his cousin (Peking Opera Blues' Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu) stumble upon a fallen tree in the stream covered in bats. While One Eyebrow Priest sends his assistants to search for water, the police chief persecutes the recently-arrived Mother Superior (City on Fire's Maria Cordero) and her junior sisters who are attempting to renovate the nearby Catholic church empty since the two priests in charge of it apparently abandoned their post.  The police chief believes the bats come from the church and wants to burn it down but One Eyebrow Priest intercedes. He and the Mother Superior discover the locked meditation room and the mummified corpse of one of the priests; whereupon the Mother Superior tells him that one of her predecessors Father Kei was "assaulted by devils" but this priest's cause of death appears to have been suicide. Meanwhile, Ho and Fong are helping the villagers drill for new water sources and unearth a corpse impaled on a jeweled cross. The greedy captain and his cousin swap the corpse for another when One Eyebrow Priest advises it be burned to prevent it from coming back to life. After the captain and his cousin remove the cross from the corpse – with the captain managing to cut himself and bleed into the corpse's mouth – Father Kei (Frank Juhasz) returns to life and bites the captain's cousin. One Eyebrow Priest and his assistants soon discover that Taoist magic is useless against western vampires and there is little time for trial and error with the vampire's bat acolytes swooping in for the attack. Produced without Sammo Hung by Golden Harvest's Leonard Ho – the latter half of Hung's Bo-Ho production company – Vampire vs Vampire attempts to do something different again; and this time, it is a cross between the jiangshi concept and Western vampire films, particularly Hammer horrors with a vampire bat attack that is more Kiss of the Vampire than Scars of Dracula (and far more technically-accomplished than both – a seemingly-unstoppable caped and fanged villain and a female acolyte who embraces her transformation with glee (and a little lust). Although it is likely more a coincidental use of common materials and techniques, the vampire prosthetics and stop motion resurrection effects resemble the work of Sergio Stivaletti in Italian horror films of the period (particularly the made-for-TV horror-comedy Dinner with a Vampire and the theatrical Demons 2), but there are also some optical effects that are used to more comic effect this time around.  Somewhat diluting what could have been a strong entry with its clash of genre ideas is the plotting which throws in a dual role by Tiffany Lau Yuk-Ting (A Chinese Ghost Story III) as two ghosts, the first of which to introduce One Eyebrow Priest's magical prowess during the first act, and the second a plodding subplot of a McGuffin involving Ho temporarily possessed by a murdered prostitute, witnessing her death, and then the main quartet fighting with the suspects and then searching for her corpse all for the purpose of just bringing them into contact with the vampire as it presumably otherwise would have taken them much longer to cross paths with him. The nuns also recede into the background after a major set-piece involving a bat attack at the church. The climactic fight is ambitious and sprawling, but the denouement seems to owe more to Hammer's The Mummy – as well as some of the Universal sequels – than Dracula, Prince of Darkness before a cheeky comic alternative to a final scare. Although Lam Ching-Ying's departure from Golden Harvest would have an effect on the trajectory of the rest of the studio's series – and a TV spinoff – the actor would continue playing variations on his Taoist priest in character fighting vampires and ghosts in competing studios' films including the unrelated Mr. Vampire 1992, two extensive ATV serials Vampire Expert and Vampire Expert II, as well as Crazy Safari, the unofficial "The Gods Must Be Crazy III" in which Lam Ching-Ying escorts the corpse of a vampire ancestor across Africa when their plane crashes near the village of N!xau's tribe.
Video
Distributed in Chinese territories and some Asian-American and Canadian territories by Golden Harvest's own cinemas, Mr. Vampire II was hard to see outside of dual-language subtitled Hong Kong VHS until Deltamac's PAL-converted DVD which was imported stateside and rebranded by Tai Seng. Through their deal with Fortune Star, Joy Sales released an anamorphic upgrade in Hong Kong with optional English subtitles but it was converted from a PAL master while the anamorphic one in France's four-disc Mr. Vampire Saga set had forced French subtitles (as does the third and fourth films in that set). Following a poor VHS release of Mr. Vampire III, Tai Seng did not import Hong Kong's PAL-converted, non-anamorphic Deltamac disc nor did the Fortune Star remaster make an appearance over here.  We presume that the Hong Kong and Japanese Blu-rays of the second and third films from a decade ago were upscales of the Fortune Star SD master but Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.84:1 widescreen Blu-rays comes from new 2K restorations. Mr. Vampire Saga IV's Hong Kong Blu-ray did not come out until 2019 but we have no idea whether it is an upscale or a newer scan; however, Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray also comes from a new 2K restoration. The first three films in the set are free of any obvious archival damage, colors are well-saturated without looking "modern" in terms of the grading while the grain structure is always evident, growing coarser during opticals, a bit noisier in some of the underlit shadows – the urban exteriors of the second film were mostly shot without permits – and more variable from shot to shot in the slow motion shots in which light may not have been sufficient for the increased framerate and shutter speed (there do not seem to be any post-production slow motion shots). Vampire vs. Vampire was not imported stateside but Mei Ah's laserdisc and all three Hong Kong DVDS – non-anamorphic PAL-converted editions from Megastar and Deltamac and Joy Sales' 16:9 upgrade – had English subtitles along with the 2019 Hong Kong Blu-ray (which we have not seen). The newest of the four films, Vampire vs. Vampire's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.87:1 widescreen transfer – advertised as coming from a "new 1080p24 restoration" (possibly the master struck for the aforementioned Hong Kong Blu-ray – is the most inconsistent, looking softer in some shots and ungraded in others (the sepia glow of the corpse-burning scene is intentional but there are a couple individual shots during the nighttime forest battle between the priest and the vampire that have a similar "warm" tone and lesser contrast suggesting that they have not been graded (possibly because they were inserted from another source?). Brighter scenes fare better and the deficits are not enough to distract for the engaged viewer.
Audio
Mr. Vampire II was apparently the last of the Golden Harvest series to be dubbed for export, and Eureka's disc includes both Cantonese and English LPCM 2.0 mono tracks. The English track has some novelty value for what it is but only the adult performances are bearable. The whiny dubbing of the child characters is constantly grating so the Cantonese track is infinitely preferable even though it too is post-dubbed. Mr. Vampire III and Mr. Vampire Saga IV have only Cantonese LPCM 2.0 mono tracks while Vampire vs. Vampire includes both theatrical and home video Cantonese LPCM 2.0 mono tracks – the latter with some musical differences – and we are probably better off without the 5.1 upmixes heard on the early Hong Kong DVDs which were usually echo-laden. The optional English subtitles for all four films are newly-translated and generally free of errors apart from one standout line in which Yuen Wah's character declares that his men all "gott slaughtered." 
Extras
Mr. Vampire II is accompanied by an audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng who discusses the boom of hopping vampire films in the wake of the success of the first film, the contributions of series regular director Ricky Lau –who became Hong Kong's go-to horror director – and the comic style of late screenwriter Barry Wong who scripted the first two films as well as the aforementioned Crazy Safari, the film's E.T. influence and its reputation as the family friendly entry, and the other series regulars in the cast – noting that Cheung Wing-Cheung had a smaller role in the first film while Pauline Wong retired and became a successful insurance CEO and Billy Lau emigrated to Canada after the Tienanmen Square massacre and did not return until 2000 when he resumed his career in mainland China radio and television – and also reveals that he recorded the commentary for the third film first and did not discover until recording this track that child actor Ho Kin-Wai who vanished from the industry subsequently became a firefighter and is still recognizable these days. Also included are series of small extended scenes (6:38) shown in context – with the major one revolving around the montage of the children playing with the little vampire – and the film's theatrical trailer (4:12).  Mr. Vampire III is accompanied by two commentary tracks. The first is an audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema who note the lack of actual vampires in the film while also noting that some of the same means of fighting vampire are used with ghosts (and a lot of it is made up). They also observe how it anticipates Peter Jackson's The Frighteners as well as recalls the BBC kids snow Rentaghost as well as sharing some similarities with the Hammer/Show co-production The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and James Hong's American horror/sexploitation film The Vineyard, as well as provide some industry gossip about Lui Fong and his relationships with Carol "Do Do Cheng" and e-commerce millionaire Rainbow Ng, and some of the cultural elements like how the burning of Hell Money and paper representations of things ghosts need in the afterlife – Hell being purgatory while awaiting reincarnation – has evolved from the clothing and iron of the film to paper iPhones and DVD collections. The second is an audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and film writer John Charles in which Djeng notes indicators of the time period – while Charles notes that no matter what the period in the films the vampires always wear Qing Dynasty official uniforms – dialect differences in the dialogue, that NG and Lau are the only performers to dub themselves, the presence of library music in the film, as well as the levels of violence in the film which came just before the ratings system. The film's theatrical trailer (3:19) is also included along with "Taoist Cinema: The World of Mr. Vampire" (11:51), an interview with Taoist priest Kelvin Yip who reveals that his branch was involved in consulting on the Mr. Vampire films, that Lam Ching-Ying was very observant in attempting to emulate real Taoist priests, how real some of the practices are in the film – they do not actually exorcise ghosts – as well as the real-life origin story of the "hopping vampire" (elaborating on Djeng's explanation in the commentary).  Mr. Vampire Saga IV is accompanied by an audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema who barely get past the opening credits before they note star Loletta Lee's moving into Category III films – with a quick cliff notes filmography – and nude photography, have a chuckle over the Fox Spirit make-up while also providing cultural context, not that Anthony Chan was the singer of the band Wynners and played the lead singer of a band called The Losers in Armour of God, an overview of Wu Ma's career (noting that this is the second film he made with Sammo Hung in which he got one of his teeth forcibly pulled out), Ga Lok's popularity as a disco dancer, some of the beliefs about lightning and the peach wood swords seen in the film, as well as the "Demon Hunters" English-language Mr. Vampire TV spin-off meant to star Lam Ching-Ying, Jack Scalia, and Tanya Roberts (subsequently replaced by Michelle Phillips) that was halted in the middle of production (by which time Lam Ching-Ying had departed Golden Harvest and was replaced by Yuen Wah). The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (3:44). Vampire vs Vampire is accompanied by an audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng in which he reveals that perfectionist Lam Ching-Ying took a year to direct the film – his only other film as a director was the flop Dragon and Green Hornet – and that he left Golden Harvest shortly after. He notes that the title is misleading since the hopping vampire has little involvement battling the western vampire, that the actor who played the little vampire was a TVB child star and that he got along with Lam Ching-Ying because they were related, as well as relating the extraordinary biography of co-star Cordero (nicknamed "Fat Mama"), as well as revealing that a number of little-known western actor Juhasz's credits were for Phillip Ko films and that some of them may actually recycle footage including his scenes. While he does note the film's influences, he also points out its weak points including the McGuffin involving the search for the murdered singer's corpse. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (2:44) as well as "Vampire Legacy" (16:44), a documentary on the history and resurgent popularity of the jiangshi genre that looks primarily at its influences in toy company SpookyWork HK and fashion line Raw Emotions, as well as a look at the modern business of crafting paper offerings for effigy burning including custom jobs and luxury items. 
Packaging
Packaged with the discs in a case with a three thousand copy-limited limited edition O-card slipcase is an equally-limited 23-page booklet featuring the James Oliver essay "Bouncing Back: Return of the Hopping Vampires" in which he notes that there are enough sequels and ripoffs in the wake of the first film for "hopping vampires" to be considered a sub-genre and that they took such creative liberties because urban cinema-goers were more westernized and "statistically more likely to be either Buddhist or Christian (if they had any religion at all)" so the discussion of the three direct sequels is in reference to each other rather than cultural beliefs while Vampire vs Vampire is discussed in the context of imitators like New Mr. Vampire, Mr. Vampire 1992, and Magic Cop.
Overall
Hopping Mad: The Mr. Vampire Sequels not only gives viewers the follow-ups to the first film but also a sort of overview of the entire sub-genre as the sequels evolved to compete with the many imitators and ripoffs.
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