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VAMPIRE HUNTERS
aka
ERA OF VAMPIRE
Rating: 
Hong Kong. 2002.
Director – Wellson Chin, Screenplay/Producer – Tsui Hark, Photography – Joe Chan, Kwong Hong, Sunny Tsang Tet Sze & Herman You Lai To, Music – J.M. Logan, Visual Effects – Cinefex Workshop Co Ltd (Supervisor – Koan Hui), Makeup Effects – Dominion (Supervisors – Logan & Michael Shelton), Production Design – Vincent Chow. Production Company – Film Workshop Co/Hark & Co Ltd/The Vampires Co Ltd.
Cast:
Ken Chang (Thunder/Hei), Michael Chow (Rain/Fat), Lam Suet (Wind/Kung), Chan Kwok Kwan (Lightning/Choi), Anya (Sasa), Yurong Gwang (Master Jang), Horace Lee Wai Shing (Dragon Tang), Ji Chun Hua (Master Mao Shan), Zou Na (Ling), Chan Koon Tai (Zombie Wrangler)
Plot: A group of monks pursue zombies and vampires. They follow the trail to the house of Jang where they are mistakenly taken on as workers during the wedding of Master Jang’s son’s to Sasa. But on his wedding night, Master Jang’s son is bitten and killed by a snake. Sasa has really been sent by her brother Dragon to steal the gold hidden somewhere in the Jang house. Dragon uses a magician to call the preserved bodies of the Jang ancestors in the house back to life in order to create confusion so that he and his men can get in and steal the gold. At the same time the heroes must deal with the king vampire who has risen in the forest.
Tsui Hark is one of the legends of Hong Kong cinema and Vampire Hunters is his latest film. At least that’s what the video releasing company wants to fool people into believing. To be fair Tsui wrote and produced the film and is quite substantially involved creatively, but the real directing chores were handled by Wellson Chin. However on the video cover Chin’s name has been hidden amidst the credits and Tsui’s boldly emphasized in order to fool anybody who doesn’t look to closely. Chin is a director previously known mostly for energetic Hong Kong slapstick films.
Vampire Hunters is a return to the Wu Xia Pan genre that Tsui has been strongly identified with – indeed his Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) is often credited with creating the fantastical martial arts/flying swordsman genre and he has directed other occasional efforts in the genre such as Green Snake (1993), not to mention produced classics such as A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), Swordsman (1990) and sequels to either. These days Tsui tends to work more as a producer than he does as a director – since his venture to the USA in 1997 he has only directed three films – Time and Tide (2000), Zu Warriors (2001) and Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002).
Alas Vampire Hunters is rather disappointing. Maybe it’s that Tsui seems to be slowing down in his output, maybe it’s that he’s employed a comedy director to helm the film – it’s not quite clear. There’s a promisingly demented opening involving zombies flying through the air dragging soldiers behind them as they try to corral it with chains, and victims having their blood and lifeforce sucked out through their eyeballs. But the film only periodically opens out into the kind of visual lunacy and acrobatics expected of the genre and when it does it doesn’t seem that inspired, even less when it tries to slow down for some rather silly and girlish (but at least mercifully brief) romantic scenes. Moreover Tsui delivers a rather incoherent screenplay where it is not always clear why the various parties are trying to do what they are doing. The film has certainly been designed with some quite lavish costumes and sets. Although interestingly Chin has chosen to eschew the bright pastel colours of Wu Xia films in favour of earth colours. His teams of heroes and villains are not heroically stylized but come with the seams left on – they are pudgy, unshaven and don’t necessarily have handsome faces. The film builds to a moderately entertaining climax featuring the heroes trying to attack the giant king vampire with chains and explosives while it breathes fire. But the film itself is a disappointment.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1999-2012
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