Mr. Vampire

In Republican-era China, Master Kau makes a living as a Taoist priest who performs magic that maintains control over spirits and irrepressible vampires. Together with his inept students, Man-choi and Chau-sang, he resides in a large house protected from the spiritual world with talismans and amulets. One day, he accepts an assignment from a wealthy businessman, Yam, to remove Yam's deceased father from his grave and rebury him, with the hopes that doing so will bring more prosperity to the Yam family. However, during the raising of the coffin, Kau notices the body, instead of in a decomposed state, is still intact. Knowing it has become a vampire, he has it moved to his house for further study. Once in the house, Choi and Sang line the coffin with enchanted ink to safeguard the body, but forget to line the bottom of the coffin, causing the vampire to break out. It heads straight for Yam's home and savagely kills his son before going into hiding by dawn. Wai, an incompetent police inspector who is smitten with Yam's daughter Ting, blames Kau for murdering Yam and arrests him. Kau is imprisoned and Yam's body is placed in a makeshift morgue near the jailhouse. Choi stays at Yam's house to protect Ting while Sang frees his master, only to witness Yam reawakening as a vampire. Kau and Sang manage to kill it after engaging it in battle. Wai realizes his mistake in framing Kau earlier and accepts the fact that another vampire is on the loose. The vampire again invades Yam's house. Kau and Sang arrive in time to wound it and forcing it to flee, but not before it critically wounds Choi. Kau invites Ting to stay at his house for safety. The next morning, after examining Choi's wounds, Kau claims he too may become a vampire. He orders Sang to feed Choi glutinous rice, claiming it may decrease the vampire's venom in Choi's body and bring him back to his normal state. While purchasing the rice, however, the shady merchant deliberately mixes different kinds of rice in the bag, and an unwitting Sang accepts it. Before Sang can get home, he is lured by a mysterious woman into her house. He soon deduces she is a spirit, but she uses her supernatural power to seduce him. They sleep together for the night. When Sang returns to Kau's house, the priest is quick to notice his student's predicament. That night, he silently follows Sang to the spirit's house. The spirit transforms into a hideous ghoul and attempts to kill Kau, but fails at the hands of his talismans. She bewitches Sang to turn on his master, but after a brief fight, Kau breaks the spell and she escapes. The next night, Kau ties Sang to a chair and prepares to capture and eliminate the spirit. Sure enough, she arrives at their house and Kau chases her throughout. As Sang tries to free himself, Choi turns into a vampire and attacks him. Amidst the chaos, Kau restrains Choi and almost terminates the spirit, but stops when Sang begs him to let her go. Saddened she can no longer be with Sang, the spirit flies away. Over the next few days, Kau restores Choi's health and turns him back to human. Wai brings in news that the vampire is now active again. When Kau leaves to investigate, the vampire, now in an almost demonic form, invades Kau's place. After pushing Choi off a balcony, it turns its attention to Ting and Wai, but Kau and Sang again divert its attention. Finally, Kau's fellow Taoist priest, Four Eyes, shows up by coincidence, and they manage to destroy the vampire by burning it alive. ==Cast==

• Lam Ching-ying as Master Kau (九叔), a unibrowed priest specialising in Taoist supernatural arts • Ricky Hui as Man-choi (文才), Kau's student • Chin Siu-ho as Chau-sang (秋生), Kau's student • Moon Lee as Ting-ting (婷婷), Master Yam's daughter • Huang Ha as Master Yam (任老爺), a rich man. He is apparently killed by the vampire but later rises from the dead to become like his late father. • Anthony Chan as Priest Four Eyes (四目道長), Kau's junior. He uses magic to control "hopping" corpses and transport them to their hometowns for burial. • Pauline Wong as Jade (董小玉), a female ghost who seduces Chau-sang • Billy Lau as Wai (阿威), the cowardly police inspector. He is also Ting-ting's cousin. • Yuen Wah as Elder Ren (任長老), "hopping" corpse ==Production==

Casting Director Ricky Lau wanted a fresh-faced girl whom people were unfamiliar with to play the role of Mr Yam's daughter so he avoided choosing a well-known actress. He spotted dancer Moon Lee at a performance and approached her and asked "Are you interested in acting as you'd fit into a part I have?" Lam Ching-ying was recommend to the director by Sammo Hung to play the main role. The director had seen Lam before on The Prodigal Son which the director had worked on. including Roy Szeto (Chak Han), Wong Ying and Barry Wong (Ping-Yiu). On the set, the actors would sometimes crack jokes, and if director Ricky Lau liked them, he would retain those scenes in the film. The music was written by Lee On-Tat and lyrics were written by Cheng Kwok-Kong. Budget Mr. Vampire was originally given a budget of HKD 4.5 million, but halfway through production, it was already depleted. The director then had to ask for more money and was given a further HKD 1 million to finish the film. After one week, the money was also spent. When the film was finally finished, it cost HKD 8.5 million. Sammo estimated the film would cost a HKD 2 to 3 million loss to Golden Harvest ==Accolades==

Mr. Vampire was nominated for thirteen awards, including two for Best Supporting Actor (Billy Lau and Lam Ching-ying). Out of the thirteen nominations the film only received one award for Best Original Film Score. ==Box office==

Mr, Vampire ran in cinemas from 7 November 1985 to 4 December 1985 and grossed a total of HK$20,092,129. This was the same year that Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan's movies were at the box office, with My Lucky Stars, Police Story and Heart of Dragon all exceeding Mr. Vampire considerable takings. Mr. Vampire was given a midnight premier at Grand Ocean (Hong Kong). The director was so worried about the success of this movie as well as his directing career, he stood outside during the screening, greeting guests until he heard the audience starting to laugh. ==Distribution rights and classification==

Sino Cine Co Ltd bought the UK distribution rights to Mr. Vampire and the BBFC classified the film as '15' without any cuts and then it was released March 1986. In Canada the Manitoba Film Classification Board classified the film as 14 for Festival Cinema, Ontario Film Review Board classified Mr. Vampire 1 April 1986 as Restricted (18 years of age or older) and Régie du cinéma du Québec was classified 1986 as 14 and then reclassified 9 September 2004 as Visa général (General Rating, all ages) In Singapore the movie was cut and classified as PG and later was reclassified to NC16 (Not suitable for children under 16) ==Critical reception==

Mr. Vampire was well received in Taiwan, China, southeast Asia, and especially in Japan, where it inspired a vampire craze with toys and a lot of other merchandise that had a vampire on them. In a DVD commentary of Mr. Vampire, Bey Logan said "Mr. Vampire is very basic visual effects and was only really the start of visual effects in Hong Kong filmmaking." The English language soundtrack made for Mr vampire is low quality, redubbing the characters with bland mid American accents. The sound effects are inadequate, clomping footsteps are added as a distracting effect. This version of the film is not widely circulated. ==Spin off media==

English version Golden Harvest attempted to make an English-language version of Mr. Vampire under the title Demon Hunters. The film was produced by David Chan. However, the team could not get Lam Ching-ying to reprise his role because the latter was busy with another film overseas. Yuen Wah, who worked on the original Mr. Vampire, replaced Lam and handled the action sequences as well. American actor Jack Scalia, who acted in the 1978 television series Dallas, was also recruited into the cast. Sequels Highly successful at the time, both in Hong Kong and as a cult film favourite with overseas enthusiasts of Hong Kong cinema, It inspired numerous parodies and homage films. The film launched Lam Ching-ying's character, the unibrowed Taoist exorcist, whom he would portray not only in the Mr. Vampire sequels, but also in many other films, including unrelated ones. Mr. Vampire sequels included Mr. Vampire II, Mr. Vampire III and Mr. Vampire IV. However, most do not relate to the first film, instead simply being set on the same themes. There is in fact only one canonical sequel, Ricky Lau's own Mr. Vampire 1992. Confusion regarding the sequels has been compounded not only by the names of the films but also by the fact that the films share some cast members, though often recast in different roles. There are also other films of the Chinese vampire genre starring Lam Ching-ying, such as Encounters of the Spooky Kind II (1990) and Magic Cop (1990), or directed by Lam himself, such as Vampire vs Vampire (1989), which are all separate from the Mr. Vampire franchise. In addition, Lam uses his real name for his character in some of the films he acted in. A related television series titled Vampire Expert (殭屍道長) starring Lam Ching-ying was broadcast from 1996 to 1997. However, during the filming of the third season, Lam developed liver cancer and died before the project was completed. The first season of My Date with a Vampire, a television series produced by ATV, was specially dedicated to Lam, and the story was based on future events in Vampire Expert. Theatrical play Mr. Vampire was adapted into a theatrical play and was performed at the Cultural Centre's Studio Theatre in Hong Kong from 29 to 31 October 2010 as part of a Halloween theme and New Vision Arts Festival. Tang Lok-yin is the music director/composer for this play with Pun Siu-fai as the choreographer. Merchandise A number Japanese board games that relate to Mr. Vampire were released in Japan. ==Screenings==

Mr. Vampire has been screened numerous times in since its release screening include: • Hong Kong Film Archive (3 November 2012) • Broadway Cinematheque (11 November 2012) • University of Bath • University of Chicago ==Home media==

VHS Laserdisc VCD DVD Blu-ray Online Mr. Vampire was previously available on Netflix and Sky Player (now Sky Go). ==See also==