Hopping Mad: The Mr. Vampire Sequels

Mr. Vampire II a.k.a. Vampire Family (1986)
Mr. Vampire III (1987)
Mr. Vampire Saga IV a.k.a. Uncle Vampire (1988)
(Part V) Vampire Vs Vampire (1989)

Directed by Ricky Lau (2 - 4), Ching-Ying Lam (5)
Written by Barry Wong (2), Cheuk-Han Szeto (3), Wing-Keung Lo (3 & 4), Kam Cheong Chan, Chi-Leung Shum, Mei-Yee Sze (5)
Starring Ching-Ying Lam, Richard Ng, Billy Lau, Fong Lui, Pauline Yuk-Wan Wong, Anthony Chan, Wu Ma, & many, many more!
Running times between 1 hour, 26 minutes (shortest), and 1 hour, 36 minutes (longest)
Available on Blu-Ray from Eureka Entertainment

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, Staff Writer, Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

In 1985, the Ricky Lau directed horror comedy Mr. Vampire was released to much success, with a subsequent installment following each year from 1986 - 1989. Now, for the first time, all four sequels (BUT, it should be noted: NOT the original) are collected in one boxed set! The films as a series take an anthology approach to being a franchise; each film is its own thing, with actors playing similar archetypes across multiple entries, but have no specific hard & fast continuity.

Mr. Vampire II features an archeological dig unearthing a family of vamps (mother, father, son) and shenanigans ensue. In Mr. Vampire III, a Taoist priest pulling an exorcism scheme not unlike Michael J. Fox’s from The Frighteners runs afoul of a cabal of horse thieves led by a for-real witch. Shenanigans ensue. Mr. Vampire Saga 4 is a Grumpy Old Men -style rivalry between next door neighbors, one a Taoist priest and the other a Buddhist monk. A vampire does eventually show up llate in the game, with shenanigans ensuing both before and after. Vampire Vs Vampire sees yet another Taoist priest attempting to cleanse a mountain town only to run afoul of a European-style vampire. Do shenanigans ensue? You betcha.

A Little Table-Setting:

Chinese vampires - or jiangshi - are different from western vamps. They’re undead corpses, but more in the zombie vein because they operate on instinct, locating victims by sound or sight instead of strategy. They hop rather than fly, and while they do bite, they feed on energy instead of blood and only bite as an attack. Their bites and scratches can eventually turn a victim into one of them, but there are numerous esoteric ways to fend off the transformation.

They’re based on descriptions of men hauling groups of preserved dead bodies by tying their arms to long bamboo poles with the living man in the lead, pulling them along. His lurching, hauling gate gave the corpses the appearance of all jumping in unison along the roads at night, searching for unwary travelers.

What Features Make it Special:

1080p HD from brand new 2K restorations (Mr. Vampire II and Mr. Vampire III)
1080p HD from brand new HD restorations (Mr. Vampire IV and Vampire vs Vampire)
Cantonese and English audio options on all films
Optional English subtitles for all films, newly translated for this release
Brand new feature length audio commentaries for Mr. Vampire II and Vampire vs Vampire by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
Brand new feature length audio commentaries for Mr. Vampire III and Mr. Vampire IV by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Brand new video piece discussing the history and resurgent popularity of the Jiangshi genre
Trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster art
Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling (first 2000 copies)
Limited Edition collector’s booklet feature new writing on the films and the Jiangshi genre by James Oliver (first 2000 copies)

Why You Need to Add It to Your Video Library:

For fans of genre oddities, this is the proverbial candy store for you to feel like a kid within. The films themselves are incredibly unique and interesting with tons of cool wirework, slick choreography, goofball antics, numerous practical effects, beautiful design work, and rich worldbuilding and lore. The sets and costumes are beautiful, and the stunt work is largely just incredibly impressive. I can’t imagine any four films that would offer up this varied an assortment of distinctive bits: limboing chains of corpses, deep fried fat golems, chemicals that make you move in slo-mo, and a ghost forced into the body of a soldier and hypnotized to attack anyone wearing a Taoist’s robe, which the ghost/soldier sees as a giant eagle!

Y’all. I am not kidding. If this were a bare-bones set with ONLY the films, it’d be worth picking up (provided you’ve got access to a region-free player), but Eureka Entertainment have crafted an absolute embarrassment of riches. The transfers look incredible; crisp and with lovely colors throughout, and the sound mixes are dynamite. I personally l-o-v-e lore and worldbuilding, and one of the bonus features is an interview with an actual Taoist priest, Kelvin a.k.a. Sam Fai, who explains the origins behind some of the weapons and tactics most frequently-used against the jiangshi! It was absolutely fascinating and made me want to research even more about some of these beliefs. Beyond that, there are commentary tracks for each of the films which I’m sure are all packed with even more tidbits and anecdotes, but I’ve not had the luxury of watching them all quite yet.

You don’t NEED to have seen the original Mr. Vampire to appreciate the weirdness, the creativity, the absolutely bonkers choices you’ll see in these four films. Ghosts stretching their limbs, a TV sitcom-style musical number for a child vampire, a vampire fight in a quicksand-filled swamp; I could list things all day and still not accurately convey how surprising these movies are. I honestly never stopped smiling through any viewing of any film in the set.

If you’re a fan of films like Evil Dead II, The Frighteners, Ghostbusters, House (1977), or are just curious about the jiangshi hopping vampire genre in general, you owe it to yourself to make space on your media shelves for Hopping Mad. And, for completists like myself, they’ve got the original on blu-ray too.