Crazy Kung-Fu
by screen_theory | Public
aka Black Magic
This film picked up the baton from the Seven Golden Vampires with the Shaw Brothers branching out on their own without the constraints of some fuddy-duddy English film company. The success of this film resulted in one pseudo-sequel and inspired two further films, as well as the wider upsurge in kung-fu horror films in Hong Kong.
aka The Boxer's Omen
One of the wildest films I've ever seen, and I do try and hunt them down. Starts off quite sedately but just keeps getting madder until towards the end you worry that you might have lost your mind. Best watched with another person, so you can ask each other 'Did that really just happen?'
aka Mr Vampire
The definitive Chinese hopping vampire film, the one that launched a thousand inferior copies. Lam Ching-ying provides the definitive performance as a Taoist priest entrusted with a stack of restless corpses. Combined with two idiotic assistants, trouble can only just be around the corner.
aka Mr Vampire II
Not only an inferior sequel (although that is partly because the original was so good) but the start of the Cute Vampire Kid (CVK) sub-sub-(sub?)-genre, which is a black mark against it too.
aka Magic Cop or Mr Vampire V
A modern day story with Lam Ching-ying's cop having to take on wild witches and some pretty tough zombies (just no actual vampires)
aka Kung Fu From Beyond the Grave
Billy Chong vs zombies, again.
aka New Mr Vampire
Not actually part of the Mr Vampire series, the title actually translates as "The Vampire Revived" and shouldn't be confused with Mr Vampire 1992 (whose Chinese title does translate to "New Mr Vampire).
aka The Dead and the Deadly
really helped redefine the crazy kung-fu horror movie and laid the ground for Mr Vampire.
aka Encounters of the Spooky Kind
aka Chinese Ghost Story II
Just here for the thumbnail.
An attempted revival of the Chinese Hopping Vampire, the film is too long, rambles along and then just stops. There was no indication why, until the second part showed up 3 years later.
Less a sequel more the second half of an overly long film, that they released 3 years apart!! Nothing can live up to that kind of wait.
aka Vampire vs Vampire or One Eyebrow Priest or New Mr Vampire 2
aka Encounters of the Spooky Kind II (although not a true sequel)
aka Crazy Safari or The Gods Must Be Crazy III
LCY in Africa chasing hopping vampires.
aka Chinese Vampire Story or Mr Vampire 1992
Closest to an actual sequel to Mr Vampire as it got the old team back together.
Confusingly the title translates as "New Mr Vampire."
This is only available as a rather low quality DVD with Kung Fu From Beyond the Grave but as KFFBTG is well worth buying then, if you can ignore the picture quality, you should be fine.
aka Witch With Flying Head
See also my list for similar films: Witches With Flying Heads
aka We're Going to Eat You
A backwoods horror / rural survival film with kung fu.
aka Vampire Kids
One of the worst CVK films (OK there will be worse it is just they'll have a much lower visibility).
aka Doctor Vampire
Despite the title there are no jiang shi here. O'Brien (page 74) says that this "is one of the more interesting attempts to reinvent the kyonshi genre. Strictly speaking this gory comedy isn't a true kyonshi saga, as none of its undead hop. Like Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, the film fuses Eastern and Western vampire folklore, this time in a modern day setting."
aka Peacock King
Has quite a few fantasy elements thrown in, putting this half way between some of the other films here and wu xia like the Zu Mountain/Warrior films.
aka Demoness From a Thousand Years
aka Skin Stripperess or Skin Stripper or Stripped Ghost
Lam Ching-Ying in an unusual situation - the clue is in the titles.
aka Wizard's Curse
Lam Ching Ying returns as a Taoist priest
aka The Trail
Early hopping vampire film, released just before they took off.
aka My Neighbors Are Phantoms
aka The Eternal Evil of Asia
The title does rather sum up the attitude of Hong Kong films to the jungles of SE Asia.
aka The Shadow Boxing or Spiritual Boxer 2
Although there are no real hopping vampires the story involves two conmen pretending they are corpse herders. So it was an idea awaiting the proper format, stars and story. The elements for those would start to come together a yea later.
aka The Vengeance of the Vampire
The HKMDB has a fascinating excerpt from a book about the film and the story that inspired it, which sounds like something somewhere in-between a vampire and a zombie, the vengeful dead, which is close to the original folklore tales (both in China and the European revenant).
This piece has more, suggesting there are also elements of western vampire movies that have sneaked in:
http://www.scmp.com/article/664275/film-studies-bloodsucker-cinema
Vampires made a comeback after the second world war, inspired in part by the worldwide box office success of the 1958 version of Dracula by Britain's Hammer Film Productions. The stake that Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) pounded through the villain's heart found its Hong Kong equivalent the following year in a similar scene in The Vengeance of the Vampire.
No hopping vampires, in fact you might struggle to work out who is supposed to be the vampire.
aka Corpse Master or Magic Story or Young Master Vampire
Because hopping vampires on their own wasn't silly enough.
Comes on a double DVD with Robo Vampire.
aka Vampire Strikes Back or Labyrinth of Death or Chess Boxing Matrix
Contains CVK but no labyrinths or chess boxing.
aka Gong Tau, the same name as Jiang Tou, although it isn't a remake or sequel
aka The Enchanting Shadow
Shaw Brothers' first success in the horror field.
An American production but it contains hopping ghosts, so we'll sneak it in here for the sake of completeness