Vampire Hunters [DVD] [2002]

The story takes place in 17th century China, where zombies walk the earth; eventually, those feeding zombies turn into vampires. Only one brave wise man referred to only as Master and his four intrepid followers, who assume the names Lightning, Wind, Rain, and Thunder, have the skill and courage to hunt these vampires down and kill them. An intense confrontation with a Vampire King leaves the four men separated from the Master, yet they continue to hunt the undead on their own. Having detected the presence of a vampire with their compass (yes, compass) in a certain area, they end up serving in the court of a wealthy gentleman named Jiang whose efforts to propagate his family line take a turn for the worst when his son dies of a snakebite on the night of his marriage. The widowed bride, Sasa, is frightened by Jiang (who has the interesting hobby of preserving all dead members of his family in wax) and wants to return home to the brother who cruelly married her off for the sole purpose of getting his hands on Jiang's gold. The brother's continuing efforts to steal the gold culminate in the animation of all the waxed corpses in Jiang's house, which only complicates matters for the four heroes, for they have discovered and engaged in battle the powerful Vampire King.

I thought the special effects were pretty incredible in this movie, although many others seem to disagree. This did not look like a low-budget film to me at all. The Vampire King is a true monster, sporting a ravaged zombified face full of maggots and a disposition to match. The best thing about this vampire is the way in which he feeds. While he does suck the essence out of his victims, he never touches them; instead, he somehow inhales what he needs through the air, and the shots of blood being sucked out of a guy's eyes, nose, and mouth in this manner were pretty darn impressive to me. The vampire also flies, burrows underground with ease and great speed, and breathes fatally noxious fumes on to those who would foolishly challenge him. Then there are the martial arts scenes. I was amazed at the speed, power, and beauty of the fight scenes. The human beings, including old Jiang, are super-human in their abilities, moving in the blink of an eye, jumping to incredible heights, and engaging in amazing sword play. The numerous martial arts scenes are numerous and lightning fast; if you blink, you could miss a couple of fights - that's how quick these guys are.

The plot can be a little hard to follow, even with the excellent subtitles, but there is more than enough action to make up for the plot questions I had. I wasn't sure at first how to take the seemingly comical elements of the story, being unfamiliar with Asian culture, but it soon became clear that a measure of comedy was intentionally added to the plot. Several moments were indeed rather humorous, and I think the occasional moment of levity did much to strengthen the movie's entertainment value and to give the viewer a moment or two of relaxation in between all of the intense fight sequences.

I have to say that I enjoyed Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters tremendously; it offers a great new horror experience for those bogged down in Western horror's often formulaic offerings, makes the knife-wielding exploits of a Michael Myers look rather foolish, and delivers some really memorable moments of gory violence. If Tsui Hark fans are disappointed in this movie, then Hark's previous films must be unimaginably good.

The thing that irritated me most (and almost stopped me watching it all the way through) is the characterisation. I wouldn't say the characters were cardboard cutouts as that would be an insult to cardboard. The four friends seem to share the same brain cell. Although they get into lots of arguements, you can't tell who's argueing what position. I think there was more character in the vampire.

That aside, the plot is good. The underlying mythology unique and refreshing. People aren't charmed by the vampires in this universe as the vampires are rotting corpses -- they chase you until you collapse. The fight scenes are good as well.

In short it's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" meets "Bill and Ted" (of "Excellent Adventure" fame) with a vampire (or two) thrown in.

If you're still interested, put your brain in neutral and enjoy the ride. If you can't do that, give this film a miss.

Still, this isn't as bad as that crock. It is very atmospheric & there are some nice fights when they're not being too silly flying around, plus some decent effects. The movie's down point is primarily the dialogue. I've watched both the English dubbed version & the original version with English subtitles, so it's possible that some of the bad dialogue can be blamed on the dubbers/subtitlers, but I doubt all of it can be.

Definitely worth a watch if you have nothing else to do.