Geung see dai si doi

Version: English dub

If like me, you possess an awesome-sense (like Spider-Man's Spider-sense, only it detects awesomeness instead of danger), you should ignore all the negative for 'Vampire Hunters' and listen to me instead. It isn't an awesome movie, but how can a movie with zombies, vampires, and kung-fu not be somewhat entertaining?

In 17th century China, zombies and vampires roamed the lands, feeding on the unsuspecting. A group of martial artists / vampire hunters find themselves employed by a very rich - and very insane - old man who has kept everyone of his relatives preserved in wax and not buried. Apparently it is his family's tradition. So, having generations of potential zombies in your cellar may not be the smartest idea ever, but it takes two to tango. In this case, a thief wants the old-man's treasure and hires a zombie-wrangler to re-animate the waxed up relatives in order to sneak into the mansion and steal the treasure. It's up to the kung-fu fighting vampire hunters to save the day (or night).

'Vampire Hunters' ends up being a more serious version of 'Mr. Vampire'. I don't think I've seen any other HK vampire movie that actually tried to be serious instead of an action / comedy. Unfortunately, the concept of 'serious' is my arch-nemesis.

I'd forgive the seriousness if the action was good. I would have expected a better action movie from Tsui Hark, but what am I gonna do? Complain some more? Sure! The action is okay, but poorly edited. Thankfully there is enough to keep someone like me entertained. The special effects aren't all that good, but I've never been one to care about bad special effects.

'Vampire Hunters' is a decent action movie, but really only for anyone interesting in Hong Kong vampire / action movies - 5/10

I think Vampire Hunters is a pretty good movie. Although it isn't breaking new ground, for most american viewers it will seem a little odd that the vampires in the movie are more corpse like than you expect to see, but in most if not all accounts of vampirism in the middle ages and earlier periods vampires were refered to as animated corpses, not strikingly beautiful creatures with tragic stories. So if you're looking to see a decent horror movie will "realistic" vampires, this would be worth seeing. Two top notch performances in the film are those of Anya, who plays a young widow, and Zou Na, who plays a servant.

When four hunters of the undead -- -Thunder, Wind, Rain and Lightning- -- are separated from their master during a battle with a King Vampire, they continue their hunt for the bloodsucker, using a magical Taoist compass to lead the way. Eventually they arrive at the home of Master Jiang, who is celebrating the marriage of his son to the beautiful Sasa.

When the groom turns up dead the next day, having been bitten by a snake, the foursome are employed to find the reptile. Master Jiang informs Sasa that she need never be parted from her husband, because the family tradition is to preserve dead relatives with wax and store them in vaults below the house; she can visit him anytime she likes!! Meanwhile, it transpires that Sasa had been married off by her brother just so that she might be able to find the whereabouts of a hoard of gold hidden somewhere in the house and pass the information on to him.

With that plan scuppered, Sasa's brother employs a 'zombie wrangler' to reanimate the waxy corpses under the house. With Master Jiang busy rounding up the zombies, he hopes to search the place for the hidden loot.

Unfortunately, for everyone involved, the King Vampire shows up at the end to cause additional mayhem and chaos and it is up to the four heroes to save the day.

Whilst this is no classic of the genre -- the plot is far too messy -- it does contain many elements which will prove to be of fun to fans of 80s Hong Kong vampire movies: the martial arts are of a reasonable standard, with some impressive swordplay and a bit of nifty wire-work, there is some fairly cheesy gore, and the reanimated bodies do the old hopping routine we all know and love. Best of all is the King Vampire, who has supernatural powers that enable him to suck blood at a distance and fire flames from his mouth.

My main gripe with this film is that everything is just too dark. I found myself straining to see what was going on for most of the running time. I can ignore some dodgy CGI and iffy make-up effects, but I'd like to be able to see what the hell is going on.

Despite the advances in film technology, Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters remains an average production that does nothing to improve on the films that it emulates. Don't watch this with expectations too high, and you might find yourself enjoying it.

Master Mao Shan is separated from his four best warriors, Wid, Thunder, Rain, and Lightning, during the midst of a battle with the undead. So they decide to go undercover as servants in order to search for a vampire who they believe is nearby. That's the main plot, but there's many sub-plots and a tad too many characters. But the action scenes are pretty good. And while this is among my least favorite Tsui Hark films, that's more a statement of how much I enjoy his movies than an indictment of this one. Truth be told, I'm kinda hesitantly reviewing this title as the Tristar version is cut by numerous minutes, making the ending more optimistic, so if you ever pick up the un-edited version get in touch with me to tell me how different it is. And if I ever see the original version I,of course, will revise my review accordingly.

My Grade: C-

DVD Extras: Trailers for "Cowboy Bebop", "National Security", and "Time and Tide"

I felt that this movie could have been better if i had focus more on the scares, however this is much of a neutral film, which is not that scary, nor frightening.

The people focus are not that much, and the scare effects could have been better, but seeing that the film director is Hark Tsui, his films are usually made more for plot rather than characters.

Somehow, i keep remembering the name of this film back in my mind, because it gives me the creeps sometimes when trying to remember it.

However if you don't understand Asian (chinese) horror creatures, then its not really worth watching it.

-Alright film to watch / can be creepy-