Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters 2002 Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment   Buy It Now

Sometimes films are meant to make a statement, or to serve some higher purpose than sheer entertainment.  However, sometimes sheer entertainment is their ENTIRE purpose.  Such it is with the genre of Chinese vampire films...aka Gyonshi...or "hopping corpse" films as they are sometimes known.  Basically an offshoot of the kung-fu film, these tales have all the whirling bodies and flying feet of their brethren, but with large doses of comedy and more than a small preoccupation with the hopping dead.

So what is all this about "hopping" vampires?  Let's get into a little Chinese mythology before we dive into this review.  "Jiangshi", or literally "stiff corpses", are the product of a deceased body which retains its "po" soul, one of the two souls the Chinese believe exists inside each person.  This soul is the darker of the two and as such, is not good to have wandering the Earth with its deceased body in tow.  This soul usually remains behind when the body is buried outside of its home villiage or when something negative happens to the body; negative as in the yin (from yin and yang).  Such yin forces as cats can produce a jiangshi, if a feline jumps across a recent grave or body; or from another yin force such as the moon.  Leaving a corpse out in the moonlight is a definite no-no.  

But wait, we still haven't figured out this whole "hopping" thing.  Well, a freshly risen corpse is not as limber as you and I, and due to this stiffening of the joints, they typically find it hard to walk or run, and instead simply...hop.  Often these corpses were known to hop right on home, although it is widely thought this may have merely been smugglers in disguise, making their living off of supernatural paranoia.  The Jiangshi is a wild creature and is totally intent on a path of violence and blood.  Give one of these hopping corpses a taste of living blood however, and you wind up with a full-blown vampire on your hands.  Taoist Monks have the ability to place a controlling spell on the Jiangshi by attaching a magical charm painted in blood to their foreheads, but this is not an option for those without magical abilities.  For the rest of us we must rely on the ordinary methods of staking, garlic and uncooked rice(?).

But regardless, these vampires are a bit different than what generally comes to mind in the western world.  You see, it was not until Bela Lugosi's portrayal of the vampire as a suit and coattail hunk that the glamorous vampire image took hold.  Previous to this, the vampire was simply a corpse that came out of the grave, complete with rotted flesh, worm eaten eye-sockets and nasty disposition.

This is where the Gyonshi genre begins to please the horror fan just as much as the martial arts and comedy fans.  And for all of these things, you will not find a man that does it better than Tsui Hark.  This is amazing considering that he was not even involved in the first surge of Gyonshi films in the mid 80's.  And for a genre that has been all but dead for nearly a decade, this is just the sort of kick in the ass that it needed, and I am sure that we will see a resurgence in the immediate future.

Beginning and continuing through to the end in a far more serious note than is usually found in this genre, Vampire Hunters is the tale of four undead killers on the trail of a master vampire, who they track to the home of Master Jiang.  Posing as servants to gain access to the house, the four warriors soon learn that there is more to this humble abode than a hiding vampire.  Brides marry into the family and then experience mysterious deaths, generations of dead Jiang family members remain unburied and coated in wax as effigies to themselves, robbers are looking for a quick score of the Jiang fortune and evil magic is flying every which way.  All in all, an excellent setting for some serious kung-fu fighting and some supernatural battles that are a treat to Western eyes, weary of Anne Rice crappola and its ripoffs.

I particularly enjoy the method by which the vampire in this tale partakes of his victims blood.  There is no homo-erotic neck-biting here (sorry Anne), as this particular creature simply sucks the blood from you at a distance.  Using special powers and a whole lot of sucking, the blood of victims is pulled out of eyesockets, ears, noses, mouths, from under fingernails, and eventually right out through the pores in skin, all to fly easily into the gaping maw of one seriously ugly vampire corpse.  Gruesome, but brilliant; and one of the few but effective times that computer graphics are employed in this film.

Other than the voracious vampire, there is a plethora of routine kung-fu choreography that would seem poor were it not for the simple fact that it was zombie and vampire ass getting whooped.  The story has more angles to it that a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and things tend to become a little mottled, but the gist of it all is easily followed.  Guys hunt vampire, guys meet girl, girl must be saved, guys fight vampire and fight over girl.  I can't think of much more I would need to be honest; especially seeing as how this is all for fun anyway...the hopping vampire genre has never been one to take itself overly seriously.

This film is fantastic simply because it crosses so many lines.  Like the fights of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (funny the way us American's can't come up with a different movie to compare things to)?  Then check out Vampire Hunters.  Enjoy the gritttier vampire fare such as Near Dark?  Then check out Vampire Hunters.  Like the comedies of Samo Hung?  Yeah...you get the picture...check out Vampire Hunters.   There are few things less creepy than a screen full of hooded Chinese zombies hopping their dead asses around like they own the place...and I for one think the sight should not be missed!

-aaron-