Comments on: Mr. Vampire

By: TCM's Classic Movie Blog

TCM's Classic Movie Blog — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:17:30 +0000

[...] hopping vampire movie MR. VAMPIRE (GEUNG SI SIN SANG, 1985), about which our friend Keelsetter wrote in June of 2008. It was a great three hours or so of aerobic evil-busting and appreciative belly laughs. What [...]

By: Keelsetter

Keelsetter — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:17:58 +0000

American hopping vampires? I wonder how many other countries have been infected by this particular genre? Thanks for the heads-up!

By: brent

brent — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:51:43 +0000

Might I recommend “The Jitters” (1989) an ultra-low budget American hopping vampire epic. Bikers muscle in on Chinatown, so an ex-hippe turned Chinese warlock (James Hong! – he sings “the Times They are A-Changing” on a ukelele!)unleashes the bloodsuckers. Dreadful, but fun in a totally non-PC way. (The bikers keep a vampire hidden in a “Jumbo Eggroll” delivery van. Their cook is a black guy named Charlie Chan. And so on…)

By: don

don — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:47:44 +0000

Good day. I’m Don and I’m on an intrepid mission to find the mythical source of the 123 meme. I’m just passing through. TA

By: RHS

RHS — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:04:03 +0000

In re-reading my post I realize I meant to say “sticky” rice.

By: Keelsetter

Keelsetter — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:31:58 +0000

In re-reading my post I realize my tone is unfair, insofar you are right, Mr. Vampire is great entertainment, and yet I preface that with a smear against its slapstick that might steer people away.

I love some slapstick (Chaplin, Keaton, etc.) but find myself strongly disliking most modern variations of it (and here I am thinking primarily of American films like Home Alone and the Scary Movie spinoffs, etc.).

When slapstick works with me, it’s magic of precision and timing that make me laugh. When it doesn’t work for me, it really annoys me. When Mr. Vampire was combining its martial arts with slapstick, it was a case of the former. When Ricky Hui is mugging the camera with village idiot antics it was a case of the latter. And this, I realize, is what inspired my comments on slapstick – which are unfair.

But these are matters of taste, and what I should have added, in my post, was one obvious American counterpart to Mr. Vampire: Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Like Mr. Vampire, there was much that I enjoyed in Polanski’s film; its atmosphere, colors, compositions, etc. But, also like Mr. Vampire, my least favorite aspect of it was its slapstick. (I will now step away from the keyboard and duck as the frying pan flies for my head, only to hit my face on a swinging door and get hit by the frying pan anyway.)

By: RHS

RHS — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:49:03 +0000

This movie rocks. I’ve showed it to a number of people over the years and it’s always a big hit – if only American movies attempting slapstick could be this precise. A few years ago, I paired MR. VAMPIRE in a surprise double feature for a friend with the Russian fantasy VIJ and a good time was had by all. I need to see MR. VAMPIRE again on my new widescreen TV. And I need to eat some stick rice.