Here at Blazing Minds, we love to check out the remastered movies from those top folk at Eureka Entertainment and with the release MR VAMPIRE, Ricky Lau’s influential and genre-bending horror-comedy, presented from a brand new 2K restoration making its worldwide debut on Blu-ray as part of the Eureka Classics range from 20 July 2020, we just had to check it out.
Let’s start by saying that this 2K restored version of Mr Vampire comes with several audio tracks to choose from an English dub in 2.0, an America Dub in 5.1 and the Cantonese audio in mono, so I opted to watch the film in it’s 5.1 dub for the purposes of this review.
The team behind the 2K Restoration of Mr Vampire has done a good job, there is some slight grain to the film, but this really doesn’t distract from what is a fun movie with its mix of comedy, some martial arts and horror, the colours are nice and vibrant making the film look fresh and most probably how it looked when it first had its release, the dubbing is one of the better-dubbed movies I’ve seen recently and the 5.1 mix does sound good (I’ll update this review with the other language options soon).
In a career-making performance, the late Lam Ching-ying (Way of the Dragon, Fist of Fury) is Master Kau, an expert on all matters of the supernatural. When Kau and his two bumbling students, Man Choi (famous comedian Ricky Hui) and Chou (Fist of Legend‘s Chin Siu-ho (Fist of Legend, Tai-Chi Master), exhume a corpse for reburial, things go wrong for them in pure comedic style when the cadaver is revealed to be a hopping vampire.
Master Kau is blamed for the chaos as the hopping vampire is on the loose, and he must work with his students to put the spirits to rest before the vampire’s own granddaughter (80s Hong Kong action icon Moon Lee) gets bitten. Now it’s up to them to fight those vampires and they use almost everything to try to defeat them from sticky rice to filing down the bloodsucker’s fangs.
Mr Vampire is noted as one of the most genre-defining (not to mention genre-defying!) horror-comedies imaginable, and one of the key Hong Kong blockbuster hits of the 1980s, the popularity and influence of Mr Vampire cannot be overstated.
I found myself laughing out loud several times during Mr Vampire, the slap stick moments and sheer silliness of some of the characters work brilliantly together, as do the use of the martial arts when it comes to staking the jiangshi.
As I mentioned earlier Mr Vampire as plenty of laughs and the special effect are pure 80s, look out for the flying head with a hair-do from hell and scene with rate devouring “grandpa” all brilliantly done, none of your CGI stuff in those days.
It’s no wonder that this comedy-horror has had at least four sequels and countless spin-offs and imitations, it was a real crowd-pleasing sensation and triggered a wave of jiangshi (“hopping vampire”) movies. Produced by the legendary Sammo Hung, the original Mr Vampire is essential viewing for anyone interested in the 80s golden age of Hong Kong cinema.
Director Ricky Lau would go on to make several more Mr Vampire successors (as well as the related Sammo Hung sequel Encounters of the Spooky Kind II, with Lam Ching-ying as another vampire-battling master), but nothing tops the original for its classic fusion of screams and laughs, and it has never looked as eye-poppingly, vampire-hoppingly beautiful as this new Blu-ray special edition.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
- Limited Edition O-CARD Slipcase with new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 units]
- PLUS: A Collector’s Booklet featuring new writing on the film [2000 units]
- 1080p presentation from a brand new 2K restoration
- Original Cantonese audio (original mono presentations)
- English dub track produced for the film’s original European home video release
- English dub track produced for the film’s original American home video release
- Newly translated English subtitles
- Brand new and exclusive feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
- Alternate end credits
- Archival interview with Chin Siu-hou [40 mins]
- Archival interview with Moon Lee [15 mins]
- Archival interview with Ricky Lau [12 mins]
- Original Hong Kong Trailer
Mr Vampire the Influential and genre-bending horror-comedy receives a new 2K restoration and is out on Blu-ray from 20 July 2020.
It's Spooky and Cooky and so much fun to watch
Movie title: Mr. Vampire - 2K Restoration
Movie description: The planned reburial of a village elder goes awry as the corpse resurrects into a hopping, bloodthirsty vampire, threatening mankind. Therefore, a Taoist Priest and his two disciples attempt to stop the terror.
Date published: July 20, 2020
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 36min
Director(s): Ricky Lau
Actor(s): Ching-Ying Lam, Siu-Ho Chin, Ricky Hui
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Fantasy
Summary
Mr Vampire is an 80s classic with plenty of humour and horror thrown in for good measure that makes the film a must-see.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
