Vampire vs. Vampire
Reviewed by YTSL
Among the categories of films that I turn to whenever
I feel a need to have some real weirdness in my movie diet, that which features
the late Lam Ching Ying as an expert battler against all sorts of supernatural
entities has never failed to astound as well as amuse and generally entertain.
Be they set in the present day or the not completely distant past, these
horror comedies seem to be located in an alternate universe in which just
about anything is possible. For example, despite the title of this
1989 offering making it sound like vampires are the only creatures that Lam
Ching Ying’s One Eyebrow Priest and his assistants (the two human ones of
which are played by Chin Siu Ho and Lui Fong) have to deal with, such as
a slimy blob, a female palm ghost (i.e., an apparition that resides inside
of palm trees), a more human-shaped female ghost (of a murder victim whose
wants her hidden body to be dug up and properly reburied) and quicksand also
appear in this picture. Also, where else would a kid vampire be considered
cute as well as a good guy plus be treated like the favorite son of a (Taoist)
priest?!
VAMPIRE VS VAMPIRE is further noteworthy for its main villain being a Western-style
vampire -- dressed in formal black and white European cut clothing -- on
whom Taoist spells don’t work too well (So the movie’s heroic Sifu -- Cantonese
for “Teacher”, a respected honorific conferred on wise individuals as well
as the title for kungfu masters and learned teachers -- has to use other
means to combat him). Early on in the film (which Lam Ching Ying directed
as well as stars in), this pale-faced bloodsucker is identified as a former
Christian priest who had been sent -- along with another “gweilo” missionary,
who may well have been his first murder victim -- to proselytize in an unspecified
rural section of China. However, not only do they seem to have been
completely unsuccessful at converting anyone to their faith but it also appears
that they -- one inadvertently, the other less so -- it was who had brought
a foreign kind of evil to plague the place.
Called in to diagnose -- by way of Feng Shui principles -- why miscellaneous
misfortunes had befallen people in the area, VAMPIRE VS VAMPIRE’s bushy eye-browed
protagonist finds such as bats in the village’s main water supply.
Although it is considered good luck among some Chinese peoples (e.g., the
Hokkien and Teochew) for one bat to choose to reside in your abode, I guess
that not many people would be amenable to a whole bunch of these creatures
-- and especially if they’re of the vampiric kind -- hanging out in their
area. In any case, the One Eyebrow Priest’s discovery prompts the villagers
in this movie to not only look for an alternative source of water but also
get their local militia going on a search-and-destroy mission of any bats
and dwellings favored by the animals that they can find.
In the process of conducting the latter, the local militia came across a
group of five Christian -- but Asian -- nuns who looked to have been sent
to replace the gone missing, and are presumed dead, priests. If this
were a Tsui Hark work, it would seem inevitable that the Christian women
(who include those played by Joanna Chan and Regina Kent, and whose Mother
Superior comes in the form of Maria Cordero) and the Taoist Priest and his
assistants would clash. Since it is not, the two groups seemed to immediately
and pretty much recognize the other as a natural ally against the bumptious
Village Captain (portrayed by Billy Lau) -- who had wanted to burn down the
Church that the Sisters were setting about restoring to working condition
-- as well as truly dark forces.
Like many other Hong Kong movies in which vampires figure, much of VAMPIRE
VS VAMPIRE is more farcical comedic in nature than anything else (as is evidenced
by it being a film in which the One Eyebrow Priest is likely to order his
assistants to “Buy me panties without patterns”(!) and get into the kind
of situation in which he finds himself drawerless while in the vicinity of
five particularly religious -- and thus presumably extra modest -- women)).
However, the people who presented us with this lively offering also threw
in a bit of romance and pathos plus a surprisingly moving musical vignette.
Additionally, this work -- which can call upon the martial arts talents of
Lam Ching Ying and Chin Siu Ho, after all -- has fast and furious action
aplenty along with its share of suspenseful moments, particularly after the
villain of the piece is inadvertently re-activated -- by the Village Captain
and his cousin (Sandra Ng gets to play a not very nice woman and also a vampire
in this offering) -- and gets back to majorly lusting after human blood.
My rating for the film: 7.