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Two points to establish up front: - Tsui Hark did not direct this
movie; he produced it, and had a hand in the script (script?)
- This is
not a Vampire Movie.It's about zombies.
There is a strangulated explanation
along the lines of "After death a negative energy would build up, leading
the physical and chemical changes. Over time the corpse would mutate, and the
zombie would escape andhunt live humans. This habit would would turn them into
vampires." - but these are not vampires as seen in the west. Like many
Hong Kong movies, this one has atmosphere you could cut with a knife, martial
arts to die for, and lots of understated humor. The special effects are impressive. If
these items were wrapped around a decent script, we'd have a great movie. But,
as is so often the case, the script was forgotten at the foot of page two, so
we get a jolly romp of blood, effects and funnies. So far as I can make
out, the lead 'vampire hunter' died in scene 3, and for most of the movie, the
rest prefer to run away, or die horribly rather than hunt. The hunters are further
weakened by using a compass to find vampires (excellent when they're on a camping
holiday at the North Pole), and hampered by seemingly having absolutely no idea
what you have to do to destroy your opponent. Tsui Hark has immeasurably
damaged his reputation by giving his name to this movie, and the distributors
will not be forgotten for the fiction that this is a vampire movie. But if you
like this genre, then this may be for you!
- Director:
Wellson Chin
- Rated: Not for sale to persons under age 18.
- Theatrical
trailer(s)
- Widescreen anamorphic format
- dubbed in English
- Encoding:
Disc are Region Specific (Read more about DVD formats.)
- Studio:
Columbia Tri-Star
- DVD Release Date: June 17, 2003
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