The old story in China goes that people who died far from home and needed to be brought back for burial were sometimes transported as re-animated corpses to save money. They became jiang shi, or what many English speakers refer to as Chinese vampires. Instead of blood, they killed people to feast upon their qi, or life force.
The jiang shi are harmless if they have a Daoist talisman, a written spell, on their forehead, which enables them to hop home without hurting a soul. They run amuck, however, when that controlling force is removed.
For Halloween, add the 1985 Hong Kong cult classic Mr. Vampire to your list of horror flicks to watch. It’s old, campy, and without the snazzy special effects of today’s blockbuster films, but it’s still as entertaining to watch today as when it first came out two decades ago and won over moviegoers in Chinese communities everywhere.
Co-produced by Sammo Hung, well-known to American audiences through the CBS series Martial Law, the film features jiang shi who do their share of hopping around, getting out of control, and killing and infecting humans to become living dead as well. To fight the out-of-control corpses and one superpowered jiang shi, the main Daoist priest (legendary martial artist Ching-Ying Lam) and his two disciples employ all kinds of fun tactics, like covering the courtyards with special rice grains, breathing through bamboo pipes and harpooning demons with wooden swords.
This film spawned a whole slew of hopping vampire movies, including four sequels. Aside from the awesome comedy and awesomely bad horror effects, the film is actually a wonderful display of martial arts for any fans of that genre.
Luckily for American audiences, the film is distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, complete with English subtitles or dubbed, and you should be able to find a copy at your local Blockbuster with a little digging. If not, you can get a DVD from Amazon.com for about $10.
Frankenstein and Dracula get enough fanfare. It’s time we revive the dark love for Chinese jiang shi with some good old ghoulish laughter.