Vampire VS Vampire

Eyebrow Humour

Vampire VS Vampire
aka Yi mei dao ren
aka New Mr. Vampire 2
aka Mr. Vampire V
Directed by Ching-Ying Lam
Hong Kong 1989
Golden Harvest/Eureka
Blu Ray Zone B

Vampire VS Vampire is the final film presented in the Hopping Mad - The Mr. Vampire Sequels Blu Ray set from Eureka Masters Of Cinema and sees, after his absence in Mr. Vampire Saga IV, the return of Ching-Ying Lam in a role very similar to the Taoist priest role he played in the three films prior to that. Lam, a former Shaw Brothers and Bruce Lee collaborator, also marked his directing debut with this feature, playing One-Eyebrow Priest. The young hopping vampire kid also returns for this movie, dressed pretty much as he is in the previous ones and the other main vampire in this, midst various other threats such as a ghost and a banana tree spirit, is more the traditional, superstrong, non-hopping variant you would find in the west. There is also a bunch of Chinese nuns following Christianity in the movie.

Now, I have to be honest (and this is why you are getting another fairly short review in this case), while it’s not worse than the previous movie I reviewed in the series (reviewed here)... it’s also certainly no better. I quite like Lam and wish he’d made a better movie. Although, in his brief life, he certainly made a mark as a Chinese action icon, in his own way... he was dead from liver cancer at the age of 44, 8 years after directing and starring in this movie. But, yeah, although he’s good in it, it’s a fairly awful and forgettable film.

Although it does, kind of, have a through line on a story element, mostly, it’s really just a lot of comedy action incidents which are edited so that, if you don’t question what’s going on too much, just about hold on to the idea of a story. However, it’s a very thin thread by which the various set pieces are stitched together and that makes it tough to follow sometimes, I thought.

My main problem, with this one... and it’s my main problem with most of the Mr. Vampire films in general (if, indeed, this one really should be credited as a sequel, rather than just a hopeful declaration as such by the marketing people at Eureka Masters Of Cinema), is that it’s really just not funny. These movies are known for their slapstick, very obvious humour, to be sure but, slapstick is not really my favourite form of comedy either. Even so, this has no laughs in it, as far as I’m concerned.

Some of the stunts are to be admired, I guess but, even the wire work seems a bit poorly done on this one, I thought. And it’s not helped, either, by the similar sounding ‘comedy score’ that's credited to three composers, which really works against it and which I am assuming is either just needle dropped in from other films of those composers or, possibly, it might be library music. Once again though, it sounds kind of cheap and synthesiser based which, might work with something more sinister like a horror film but utilised in a more light hearted tone here, it just doesn’t really come off well. I got the feeling that the music is trying to cue the audience in to when they are supposed to laugh but, yeah, it certainly didn’t work for me on this one.

And that’s about all I have to say in the case of Vampire Vs Vampire and the Hopping Mad - The Mr. Vampire Sequels Blu Ray collection in general. Of all the films in the series, the only one that really worked for me was Mr. Vampire III (reviewed here) but, yeah, the other ones felt a little like a chore to watch, to be honest. I probably won’t look at these ones again for a very long time but, I do appreciate the label putting out films like this in the UK. That can only be a good thing, right?