The Twins Effect

Like a very expensive Buffy episode peppered with plenty of humor. Lots of wire and stunt kung fu. The Twins Effect goes on the list of classic must see HK films. The vampires have a cool blend of hopping ghost type and the pretty boy European style. If you get the opportunity to see this one in the theatre it is worth a 30 minute drive, otherwise buy the import DVD before someone screws it up by giving it a bad dub.

Fun mix of vampires and martial arts is a bit of a mess plot-wise and the acting of those who dubbed the voices is almost universally bad, but the premise is engaging, the fight scenes are fast and flashy and the movie is often quite amusing. It's a shame the story is such a wreck. There are a couple of places where I had no idea what just happened, it was almost as though five minutes had just been cut out and you were suddenly at the next scene without knowing how you'd got there. The movie is poor at explaining things and some things don't make a lot of sense, but the movie moves along breezily so its flaws barely register. Not a great movie by any means, but definitely a fun one.

In Hong Kong, Reeve (Ekin Cheng) is a vampire slayer, who belongs to a league that fights against vampires, living with his sister Helen (Charlene Choi). When his partner dies, killed by the powerful vampire Duke Dekotes (Mickey Hardt), Gypsy (Gillian Chung), who has a crush on Reeve, is assigned as a replacement to work with him. Meanwhile Helen falls in love for Kasaf (Edison Chen), a vampire that belongs to a royal family and does not attack human beings. However, the powerful Duke Dekotes is chasing Kasaf to increase his powers.

"Chin Gei Bin" is a silly, but also funny vampire adventure / comedy movie. Showing many special effects and a nice cast, the story is not so bad, following basically the idea of Buffy, being watchable and forgettable. I regret only that "Universal" cheats the Brazilian consumers with a huge picture and the name of Jackie Chan on the cover of the DVD released in Brazil. I expected to see a Jackie Chan movie, and in the end his participation is limited to two scenes to give his name to the credits, being the first one of his wedding totally ridiculous. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Liga Contra o Mal" ("The League Against Evil")

I rented this movie without any real knowledge of what it is about. I had no expectations about a kung-fu vampire movie, so there was pretty much no bias at all.

The very beginning is pretty cool. It has a very serious, dark, well thought out intro. It can be compared to Blade in the sense of intense action against vampires early on. There wasn't the excessive gore factor, which I believe ruins some films.

For most of the film, through the middle, it slacks off quite a bit. It is written into too much as a love story, and the jokes fall pretty flat.

At one point in the film (after the ambulance scene) I became excessively frustrated with trying to take this seriously.

The last twenty minutes or so really pick it up. The fighting is well choreographed, and the CGI was used well, not to an excess.

The beginning and end really assist the film. A rewrite of the middle could create a very strong movie that could set its place near Blade.

Still, it's better than Vampire in Brooklyn.

One comment I have to post for this movie: Make sure you buy the Asian (not US) version of this film! Like many big name HK films (eg Iron Monkey, Drunken Master etc) the version sold by the big retailers (WalMart, Amazon etc) is cut to ribbons! About 20 minutes have been removed from the film! (Some of which are major plot points for later)

This film is pretty much a HK version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Take some very popular HK idols & throw them into a vampire story. Jackie Chan even has a cameo (& his son ends up getting a role in Part 2... hmm...) Its a quite good film & is recommended. 4 out of 5 stars. Oh & the teddy bear fight scene is a classic :)