When I was growing up, one of my favorite television shows was Jackie Chan Adventures. It was a delightful mash-up of Eastern mythology, magic, and martial arts. Having now seen Ricky Lau's Mr. Vampire, I believe I have found the show's inspiration. Mr. Vampire follows a Taoist priest named Kau who performs funerary services along with his two well-meaning but incompetent apprentices Man-choi and Chau-sang. After a reburial goes wrong, they have to fight against a geung si, or a Chinese "hopping" vampire. But while they try and stop the undead creature, a female ghost seduces Chau-sang and attempts to steal his soul. All of these plot threads are tied together with lightning fast stunts and physical humor. I find it fascinating how everybody in Mr. Vampire assumes that geung si and the supernatural are real. In Western horror, there's always an element of doubt and/or skepticism. Nobody actually believes that Count Dracula is a vampire until it is almost too late. Even after the monster is defeated in Western horror, many times the question of whether or not it was real lingers. But in Mr. Vampire, there is no doubt. Geung si are a fact of life. This helps keep the mad-cap action and special effects grounded. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn't it? In any case, Mr. Vampire is a wonderfully entertaining piece of cinema. I wonder if geung si could work in a Hollywood film? Nah. They would probably get laughed off the set by even the most jaded monster hunters. Oh well...that's Hollywood's loss.
7/10
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