Geung see ga zuk

This film is a complete change in tone from "Mr. Vampire". This sequel is really only an extension of the vampire-gone-loose idea, and is set in modern times. We have very little brought from the original, and what is brought (Lam Ching-Ying), is quite dis-connected anyway.

That said, this film is quite odd. Lam Ching-Ying is excellent as usual as the kind of hard-case Taoist priest, and we seem him up against vampires in the usual sense. Yuen Biao is quite under-used as the Taoist Priest's off-sider, and is quite clumsy and reluctant to engage in kung-fu technique it seems. I was waiting for him to really do something but it never really came for me. Most of this film is wrestling back and forth with a pair of vampires.

The vampires are portrayed (for my tastes), as too human. Whereas in Mr. Vampire 1, the corpse is sort of without personality, and has ceased being human, the vampires in this film are really portrayed as a family unit. We are asked to sympathise with them quite often.

Do not expect anything like Mr. Vampire 1 and you'll be fine. If you do, you may have to see it at least twice as I have to judge it on it's own merits. It really is a very separate film to the original, and the title does it more harm than good I believe.

The hopping vampires return as the sequel to the classic Mr. Vampire moves the setting from ancient China to modern-day Hong Kong, and includes a whole family of bloodsuckers. Inevitably, the little vampire comes into contact with a young brother and sister team who confuse him for an illegal Chinese immigrant. Lam Ching Ying returns in his trademark role as he attempts to control and safely transport the vampires to their graves..

This sequel is partially designed for children, with a long heartwarming scene of human children and kid vampire, and the rest is the usual mayhem featuring hopping vampires, some Kung fu and chaotic scenes. I don't mind the modern setting, it suits the story, and though it's not as good the first one, it's still fun, though it gets tiring towards the end.

This is the first, unofficial sequel of 1985's Mr. Vampire. The movie's events are set in modern times. A group of explorers steal three corpses from an ancient cave and plan to sell them for a large amount of money. Unfortunately, they do not know that the corpses are actually a family of vampires and, after taking them to Hong Kong, they revive and threaten to wreak havoc on mankind.

The two adult vampires, played by Wing-Cheung Cheung and Pauline Wang Yu-Huan, are the menaces while the child vampire, played by Kin-Wai Ho, is a harmless and friendly creature who befriended two children in the city. The subplot of the child vampire and the children distracts from the main plot a little, but fortunately, the kiddie scenes do not take too much screen time. The main plot involves local herbs Master Lam, played by Lam Ching Ying, discovering that one of the explorers was bitten by a vampire and goes to investigate with his daughter, played by Moon Lee, and future photographer son-in-law, played by Yuen Biao. What follows is what I think the highlight of the movie - the three protagonists go head-to-head with the adult vampires in slow motion (a jar of "retarder" accidentally spills onto them, resulting in slowed movements). Composer Anders Nelsson provided a wonderful piece of orchestral music score, inserting music to action and comedy scenes where appropriate.

What depletes from this film are the Kung-Fu action. Being a movie with martial arts stars like Lam Ching Ying and Yuen Biao, more Kung-Fu sequences would have made this movie more entertaining. And, a bunch of popular Hong Kong actors made cameos in the movie and I wished more of them would have been given more screen time. I also wished the adult vampires would have been portrayed as a little more menacing - they are after all supposed to be a threat to mankind.

Overall, a more sub-par movie of the Hong Kong vampire/ghost genre, but still an OK and pretty fun movie to past the time on a slow Saturday night.

Grade B-

Having just watched the 1985 movie "Geung See Sin Sang" (aka "Mr. Vampire"), of course I continued on with the 1986 sequel titled "Geung See Ga Zuk" (aka "Mr. Vampire II"), as I had three of the movies all lined up.

And with the previous movie being an adequately entertaining movie, I had some expectations for the 1986 sequel.

The storyline in "Geung See Ga Zuk" was a bit more laced with comedy in comparison to the previous movie. And it was a more family-friendly movie as well, as there was a lot of scenes that felt like it was something out of a "Sesame Street" episode with the children and the child vampire, especially the play montage. Whereas the previous movie was set in ancient China, this 1986 sequel was set in a modern era (well, modern back in 1986, at least).

The slow motion sequence with the fighting and the dialogue had me laughing. It was the high point of the movie.

There were a good amount of returning actors and actresses from the first movie returning to part II, with the likes of Ching-Ying Lam, Moon Lee, Chau-Sang Lau. But this 1986 sequel also had the likes of Stanley Sui-Fan Fung and Biao Yuen on the cast list.

Well, if you enjoyed the previous movie, then you will also enjoy this 1986 sequel.

My rating of director Ricky Lau's 1986 movie "Geung See Ga Zuk" lands on a five out of ten stars.

April 2021

Mr Vampire 2 in my opinion is the weakest film is this Mr Vampire style genre of film, but saying that it is still very good.

Personally the modern day setting just takes a bit a way from it and most of the story follows little children.

Still plenty of likeable stuff and it stars Lam Ching Ying, Yuen Biao, Moon Lee, Billy Lau, Woo Fung and Chung Fat.

Just about 9 out 10.