Search - New Mr. Vampire on DVD

Good comedy, but not really Mr. Vampire

Bradford Daniels | Redmond, WA | 03/04/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

""New Mr. Vampire" is a pretty solid Chinese Vampire comedy, though
it's not really part of the "Mr. Vampire" series. It doesn' star Lam
Ching Ying, for starters, despite being made about a year after the
original Mr. Vampire.Also, the vampires don't hop. That may sound
like a weird complaint if you've never seen any Mr. Vampire movies,
but since the whole Chinese vampire genre is often called "hopping
vampire" movies, it is something I really miss. (In case you're
wondering, Chinese vampires hop because the ground hurts their feet
when they walk).Such niggling complaints aside, though, "New
Mr. Vampire" is a very funny movie. The plot is not terribly deep or
complex, but the walking corpses provide a steady stream of excellent
slapstick.Pauline Wong Siu Fung in particular is outstanding as a
corpse whose essence becomes tied to a grave robber's, such that she
moves exactly the way he does. Her ability to mimic his movements is
amazing.The action scenes are also quite well done, striking a good
balance of comedy and kung fu butt kicking.My major complaint about
this DVD is that it does not have a Chinese language soundtrack, and
the dubbing is done with those typical cartoonish bad Kung Fu movie
voices. When is Tai Seng going to realize that they don't have to get
rid of the Chinese audio track when they dub something? Subtitling is
cheap, especially since they've previously released a subtitled
version of this movie.The English language commentary on this DVD
is OK, though it was geared toward someone who had no idea what they
were watching. The DVD transfer quality is decent, though again,
nothing very exciting.
"

Vampires, Zombies, and Kung Fu!

P. A Clark | San Jose, CA USA | 09/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've recently stumbled into the genre of Kung Fu vampire flicks and found New Mr. Vampire to be quite entertaining. The story centers around a Ghost Chaser, his student, and a grave robber. The story begins when the ghost chaser and his studnet accept a job of burying a dead ganster in his home town. Along the way they pick up the grave robber who has a number nine concubine zombie girl chasing him. She follows him and does exactly what the grave robber does due to the fact that she's bound to him. Behind the scenes a rival ghost chaser revives the dead ganster and turns him into a vampire. The story progresses and lends itself to several humourous situations. Particularly between the grave robber and his mimicing ghost played by Pauline Wong. I also agree that she does an excellent job of shadowing the grave robber, and adds a lot of light hearted moments to the film. The story is really a comedy and should be viewed as such. Although there is some Kung Fu in the movie, it's not the focus of the film. There's also an audio commentary by Ric Meyers included on the DVD version which explains a little bit about the orgin of Chinese Vampires. He does point out that the Vampires don't hop like they do in the original Mr. Vampire, and Spooky Encouters by Sammo Hung, but that did'nt really bother me. The U.S. has potrayed vampires many different ways, so I don't see a problem with different Hong Kong versions.If your curious about New Mr. Vampire and want a good laugh, give it a try. I think you'll enjoy it. Escpecially around Halloween. Oh, and it is a tad bit scary too. Just a tad."

Not example "New"

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 08/03/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Technically, "New Mr. Vampire" is not part of the "Mr. Vampire" series of comic/martial arts/horror movies.

Sure, it has the gross-looking zombies, inept military and bumbling ghost hunters. But it doesn't star Ching-Ying Lam and it doesn't really connect to the other "Mr. Vampire" movies. But it is a moderately entertaining horror/comedy with some funny subplots and wacky acting.

The movie opens with an inept grave robber setting loose a vampire, which reignites the feud between Master Chin (Chung Fat) and his old schoolmate Wu (Chin Yuet-sang), rival ghost hunters who also live across the street. Both are called in by a local gangster for the honor of burying his dead brother, and Chin's more stylish and sensitive approach gets him the job.

Unfortunately, Wu turns the corpse into a vampire along the way, as Chin and his apprentice try to deal with the same graverobber, who is being followed by a pretty zombie. To make matters worse, the zombie is the former girlfriend of a local dictator, and Wu enhances the vampire's strength -- and causes it to only attack Chin.

"New Mr. Vampire" is pretty typical of the many "hopping vampire" movies that followed "Mr. Vampire," although the vampires in here don't hop (they stagger or run). Basically it's not particularly excellent in any way, but it is entertaining in a run-around-screaming-with-a-rotted-vampire-running-after-you manner.

The plot tends to lag in places, and the dialogue is pretty tepid, without any really memorable one-liners. The comedy is mostly provided by the absurdist fights with the vampire, and the pretty zombie who is bound to mimic the graverobber's every move -- which makes slow-dancing with her still-living boyfriend an interesting experience.

Chung Fat is no Ching-Ying Lam, but he is a pretty entertaining vampire hunter who uses too much hair gel, but is still infinitely smarter than his slimy rival. His sidekick is pretty useless, and I suspect he was put in just for infodumping. And there's a dual performance stolen by Pauline Wong and Siu-hou Chin, who have to do the same expressions and motions all the time -- even in the bathroom, which makes things awkward.

"New Mr. Vampire" is pretty typical of the cash-in "hopping vampires" genre, but is still fairly entertaining in a forgettable kind of way."