This is the first, unofficial sequel of 1985's Mr. Vampire. The movie's events are set in modern times. A group of explorers steal three corpses from an ancient cave and plan to sell them for a large amount of money. Unfortunately, they do not know that the corpses are actually a family of vampires and, after taking them to Hong Kong, they revive and threaten to wreak havoc on mankind.
The two adult vampires, played by Wing-Cheung Cheung and Pauline Wang Yu-Huan, are the menaces while the child vampire, played by Kin-Wai Ho, is a harmless and friendly creature who befriended two children in the city. The subplot of the child vampire and the children distracts from the main plot a little, but fortunately, the kiddie scenes do not take too much screen time. The main plot involves local herbs Master Lam, played by Lam Ching Ying, discovering that one of the explorers was bitten by a vampire and goes to investigate with his daughter, played by Moon Lee, and future photographer son-in-law, played by Yuen Biao. What follows is what I think the highlight of the movie - the three protagonists go head-to-head with the adult vampires in slow motion (a jar of "retarder" accidentally spills onto them, resulting in slowed movements). Composer Anders Nelsson provided a wonderful piece of orchestral music score, inserting music to action and comedy scenes where appropriate.
What depletes from this film are the Kung-Fu action. Being a movie with martial arts stars like Lam Ching Ying and Yuen Biao, more Kung-Fu sequences would have made this movie more entertaining. And, a bunch of popular Hong Kong actors made cameos in the movie and I wished more of them would have been given more screen time. I also wished the adult vampires would have been portrayed as a little more menacing - they are after all supposed to be a threat to mankind.
Overall, a more sub-par movie of the Hong Kong vampire/ghost genre, but still an OK and pretty fun movie to past the time on a slow Saturday night.
Grade B-
The two adult vampires, played by Wing-Cheung Cheung and Pauline Wang Yu-Huan, are the menaces while the child vampire, played by Kin-Wai Ho, is a harmless and friendly creature who befriended two children in the city. The subplot of the child vampire and the children distracts from the main plot a little, but fortunately, the kiddie scenes do not take too much screen time. The main plot involves local herbs Master Lam, played by Lam Ching Ying, discovering that one of the explorers was bitten by a vampire and goes to investigate with his daughter, played by Moon Lee, and future photographer son-in-law, played by Yuen Biao. What follows is what I think the highlight of the movie - the three protagonists go head-to-head with the adult vampires in slow motion (a jar of "retarder" accidentally spills onto them, resulting in slowed movements). Composer Anders Nelsson provided a wonderful piece of orchestral music score, inserting music to action and comedy scenes where appropriate.
What depletes from this film are the Kung-Fu action. Being a movie with martial arts stars like Lam Ching Ying and Yuen Biao, more Kung-Fu sequences would have made this movie more entertaining. And, a bunch of popular Hong Kong actors made cameos in the movie and I wished more of them would have been given more screen time. I also wished the adult vampires would have been portrayed as a little more menacing - they are after all supposed to be a threat to mankind.
Overall, a more sub-par movie of the Hong Kong vampire/ghost genre, but still an OK and pretty fun movie to past the time on a slow Saturday night.
Grade B-