5 Star

Hopping Ankle Grabbers Galore.

Eureka Classics bring us a feast of Jiangshi, in this four film feature on Blu-ray. Following the success of Mr Vampire, there was a clamour for more, and these are the four films that followed, three by the original director Ricky Lau (Encounter of the Spooky Kind II, The Romance of the Vampires), and the fourth is directed by Ching-Ying Lam who was Master Gau in the original Mr Vampire movie. Now that’s keeping it in the family. Over six hours of Vampire hopping madness comedy horror. Brilliant Fun.

Mr Vampire II

Sees present day (1980s) archaeologist/grave robber Kwok (Fat Chung, Millionaires Express, Yes, Madam!) and his two students Chicken (Billy Lau, Eastern Condors, My Lucky Stars) and Sashimi (Chau-Sang Lau, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain) rummaging around in some mountain ruins, when they find a cave with artefacts and skeletons, then they find some fleshy remains. This makes Kwok think big bucks on the Black Market so they load up the male (Wing-Cheung Cheung, Encounter of the Spooky Kind II, Disciples of the 36th Chamber), female (Pauline Yuk-Wan Wong, Brave Commando, The Sexy Lady Driver) and the child (Kin-Wai Ho, Mr. Vampire Part 3). Let the hilarity begin, with amazingly choreographed fights/dances, the timings are just jaw dropping in all four of these films. During one of these encounters with the hopping vampires, Chicken gets bitten, so he goes to see Dr Lam (Ching-Ying Lam, The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon) who recognizes the bite of a vampire, and decides to investigate. Along with his daughter Gigi (Moon Lee, Iron Angels, Mission of Justice) and her fiancé Yen (Biao Yuen, Project A, Encounters of the Spooky Kind) they must rid their town of Vampires.

Mister Vampire III

It is set in the past, and Taoist priest Uncle Ming (Richard Ng, Winners & Sinners, In the Line of Duty III) is trying to get rid of malevolent spirits from a house. He has the help of two friendly spirits Big Pao (Fong Lui, Project A Part II, Police Cadet III) and Little Pao (Kin-Wai Ho), but he fails as he isn’t the greatest priest in the area. He stops over at a village which is being terrorized by bandits led by Devil Lady (Pauline Yuk-Wan Wong) and the Priest trying to stop them is the powerful Uncle Nine (Ching-Ying Lam), mystical horror will ensue.

Mr Vampire IV

Is a rivalry film between two neighbours, one is a priest called Four-eyed Taoist (Anthony Chan, A Fishy Story, Why, Why, Tell Me Why!) who very skilfully leads a group of hopping vampires through the woods to his house. On the other side we have Buddhist monk called Master Yat-yau (Wu Ma, Once Upon a Time in China, A Chinese Ghost Story), who plays pranks on his neighbour. Their students Chia-Lok (Kar Lok Chin, Lust, Caution, Shinjuku Incident) and Ching-ching (Loletta Lee, Shanghai Blues, Nightmares in Precinct 7) get along, and have to suffer their masters’ rivalry. But it won’t be long before Vampires are rudely dumped in their area, and they will have to deal with them. They can’t do it separately, but together they could.

Vampire VS Vampire

Chinese exorcist One-Eyebrow Priest (Lam Ching-ying) leads a quiet life with Ah Ho (Chin Siu-ho, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, The Ultimate Vampire) and Ah Fong (Fong Lui), but their village water becomes contaminated so One-Eyebrow Priest decides to dig a new well. However, this unearths, something our priest has never come across before, a European Vampire (Frank Juhas, The Trident Force, Blazing Guns), his normal procedures and spells don’t work on this vampire, what will he do to save his village?

All these four Hopping Vampire films are great jiangshi films and great sequels to the original Mr Vampire. A must own for the Horror, Vampire, Comedy fan in your household. A great way to spend six hours binge-watching.

HOPPING MAD: THE MR VAMPIRE SEQUELS (Eureka Classics)
Special Edition is available on Blu-ray

 

SPECIAL TWO DISC BLU-RAY EDITION FEATURES*

 

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling
Mr Vampire II and Mr Vampire III presented in 1080p HD from brand new 2K restorations
Mr Vampire IV and Vampire vs Vampire presented in 1080p HD from brand-new HD restorations
Cantonese audio (original mono presentations) on all films
Alternate English dubbed audio track for Mr Vampire II
Optional English Subtitles for all films, newly translated for this release
Brand-new feature length audio commentaries on Mr Vampire II and Vampire vs Vampire by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
Brand-new feature length audio commentaries on Mr Vampire III and Mr Vampire IV by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Brand-new feature length audio commentary on Mr Vampire III by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and film writer John Charles (The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977–1997)
Brand new video piece on the history and resurgent popularity of the jiangshi genre, featuring an interview with a real Taoist priest
Brand new video piece which examines the rituals portrayed in the Mr Vampire series and how some are still practiced in modern-day Hong Kong
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster art
Trailers
PLUS: A Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films and the Jiangshi genre by James Oliver