Mr. Vampire II, (Chinese: 殭屍家族) also known as Mr. Vampire Part 2, is a 1986 Hong Kong comedy horror film directed by Ricky Lau, starring Yuen Biao, Moon Lee and Lam Ching-ying, and produced by Sammo Hung. The film is the second of a series of five films directed by Ricky Lau in the Mr. Vampire franchise. Mr. Vampire and its sequels were released as part of the jiangshi cinematic boom in Hong Kong during the 1980s.[1] The Chinese title of the film literally translates to "Vampire Family".
| Mr. Vampire II | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Original Hong Kong film poster | |||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 殭屍家族 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 僵尸家族 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Directed by | Ricky Lau | ||||||||||
| Written by | Barry Wong | ||||||||||
| Produced by | Sammo Hung | ||||||||||
| Starring | Yuen Biao Moon Lee Lam Ching-ying Billy Lau Chung Fat Agassi Wang Bowie Wu | ||||||||||
| Cinematography | Andrew Lau Cho Wai-kei Peter Ngor Arthur Wong | ||||||||||
| Edited by | Peter Cheung | ||||||||||
| Music by | Anders Nelsson Alastair Monteith-Hodge Stephen Shing Cheng Kwok-kong | ||||||||||
Production companies | Bo Ho Films Co., Ltd. Paragon Films Ltd. | ||||||||||
| Distributed by | Golden Harvest | ||||||||||
Release date |
| ||||||||||
Running time | 86 minutes | ||||||||||
| Country | Hong Kong | ||||||||||
| Language | Cantonese | ||||||||||
| Box office | HK$17,072,137 | ||||||||||
In the film, an archaeologist discovers a trio of immobilized jiangshi, and hopes to profit from his discovery. All three jiangshi are soon revived. A failed attempt to kill the two adult jiangshi results in their escape.
Plot
editKwok, an archaeologist, brings his two students with him in search of ancient artifacts. They stumble upon a cave and discover three jiangshi (Chinese "hopping" vampires) — an adult male, an adult female, and a male child. The vampires are immobilized because they have Chinese talismans stuck to their foreheads. Kwok brings them back to his lab and decides to sell the boy vampire in the black market.
While transporting the boy vampire, Kwok accidentally strips the talisman off its forehead and breaks the charm. The creature awakens and escapes. It enters a house by chance and befriends a little girl, who mistakes the young vampire for an illegal immigrant boy. Meanwhile, back in the lab, one of Kwok's students mischievously removes the talismans from the adult vampires and revives them. The vampires start to "hop" around and attack people. It took the three men much trouble to put them back to rest temporarily.
One of Kwok's students was bitten by the male vampire while fighting it, so he goes to see Dr Lam for treatment. Lam recognises the bite marks and realises that there are vampires running loose in town. Together with his daughter Gigi and his prospective son-in-law Yen, Lam embarks on a quest to destroy the vampires.
Lam tells Yen and Gigi to secretly follow Kwok's student back to the lab and find the vampires. While Gigi goes to notify the police of their discovery, Yen accidentally removes the talismans on the vampires' foreheads and awaken them. Luckily, Lam and Gigi show up and help him. After a long fight, they put the vampires to sleep using sedatives from the lab. The police arrive right after and take the two vampires to the morgue in the police station.
Lam and Yen sneak into the morgue and try to kill the vampires with a wooden sword but fail. Kwok and his students also arrive at the morgue because his student needs to get the blood of one of the vampires to cure himself after being bitten. Lam and Yen pretend to be corpses while Kwok and his students carry the vampires out. They put the bodies in the back of a truck while Lam and Yen sneak into the driver seat and hijack the truck. Later, they are stopped by police officers at a roadblock and the two vampires escape. The boy vampire sees the two adult vampires escaping on the news and lets out a loud cry that alerts the vampires to his location.
Lam and Yen hear on their radio that there are vampire sightings and they arrive at the children's house. With the help of the police, Lam and Yen kill the two adult vampires. However, after seeing how the children have grown fond of the boy vampire, Yen decides to inject it with anesthetics instead of killing it. He dresses up the vampire in normal clothing and sneaks it out of the house without the police noticing. Kwok arrives and falls to the ground. His students stand behind him, revealing that they have become vampires after failing to get a sample of vampire blood to cure themselves.
Cast
edit- Lam Ching-ying as Dr Lam Ching-ying (林正英), a physician who is also skilled in Chinese supernatural arts
- Yuen Biao as Yen (夏友仁), a reporter and Lam's prospective son-in-law
- Moon Lee as Gigi, Lam's daughter
- Chung Fat as Professor Kwok Tun-wong (郭敦煌), the archaeologist who discovers the vampires
- Billy Lau as Chicken, Kwok's student
- Ka Lee as Sashimi, Kwok's student
- Agassi Wang as the female adult vampire
- Cheung Wing-cheung as the male adult vampire
- Hoh Kin-wai as the boy vampire
- Hon To-yue as Chia-chia, the girl who befriends the boy vampire
- Choi Man-gam as Chia-chia's brother
- Bowie Wu as Mr Hu, Chia-chia's father
- Wu Ma as Mr Hu's neighbour
- Hsiao Ho as a lab technician
- James Tien as a police officer
- Cho Tat-wah as the police chief
- Manfred Wong as a coroner
- Yuen Miu as a policeman
- Stanley Fung as an archaeologist
- Ban Yun-sang as a policeman at the traffic checkpoint
- Chow Gam-kong as a policeman
- Yiu Yau-hung as a fireman
- Lee Chi-git as Ping
- Lam Gwok-hung
- Yeung Ming
Home media
editVHS
edit| Release date | Country | Classification | Publisher | Format | Language | Subtitles | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 June 1998 | United States | Unknown | Tai Seng Video | NTSC | Cantonese | English | [2] | |
| 24 January 2000 | United Kingdom | 15 | Made in Hong Kong | PAL | Cantonese | English | [3] |
Laserdisc
edit| Release date | Country | Classification | Publisher | Catalog no. | Format | Language | Subtitles | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Japan | N/A | Pony Video | CLV / NTSC | Cantonese | Japanese | Audio mono | [4] |
VCD
edit| Release date | Country | Classification | Publisher | Format | Language | Subtitles | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Hong Kong | N/A | Megastar (HK)/ Media Asia | NTSC | Cantonese | English, Traditional Chinese | 2VCDs | |
| 5 December 2003 | China | N/A | Guang Dong Yin Xiang Chu Ban She | NTSC | Mandarin | None | 2VCDs | [5] |
| 21 September 2005 | Taiwan | N/A | Guang Dong Yin Xiang Chu Ban She | NTSC | Mandarin | Traditional Chinese | 2VCDs | [6] |
| 11 July 2008 | Hong Kong | N/A | Joy Sales (HK) | NTSC | Cantonese, Mandarin | English, Traditional Chinese | 2VCDs | [7] |
DVD
edit| Release date | Country | Classification | Publisher | Format | Region | Language | Sound | Subtitles | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Hong Kong | N/A | Megastar | NTSC | ALL | Cantonese, English | Dolby Digital 5.1 | English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean | Anamorphic widescreen transfer | [8][9] |
| Unknown | Japan | N/A | Universal Pictures Japan | NTSC | 2 | Cantonese, Japanese | Dolby Digital mono | Japanese | Digitally re-mastered box-set | [10] |
| 3 August 2001 | Hong Kong | N/A | Deltamac (HK) | NTSC | ALL | Cantonese, Mandarin | Dolby Digital 2.0 | English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese | [11] | |
| 5 December 2003 | China | N/A | Guang Dong Yin Xiang Chu Ban She | NTSC | ALL | Mandarin | Unknown | English, Simplified Chinese | [12] | |
| 19 February 2004 | France | N/A | HK Video | PAL | 2 | Cantonese | Dolby Digital | French | Box-set | [13] |
| 4 July 2006 | Taiwan | N/A | Catalyst Logic | NTSC | 3 | Cantonese, Mandarin | Dolby Digital 5.0 | English, Traditional Chinese | [14] | |
| 11 October 2009 | Japan | N/A | Geneon Universal Entertainment | NTSC | 2 | Cantonese | Unknown | Japanese | Digitally Remastered Edition | [15] |
| 16 April 2009 | Hong Kong | N/A | Joy Sales (HK) | NTSC | 2 | Cantonese, Mandarin | Dolby Digital 2.0 | English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese | [16] | |
| 21 December 2012 | Japan | N/A | Paramount Home/ Entertainment Japan | NTSC | 2 | Cantonese, Japanese | Dolby Digital | Japanese | Digitally re-mastered | [17] |
Blu-ray
edit| Release date | Country | Classification | Publisher | Format | Region | Language | Sound | Subtitles | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 July 2011 | Hong Kong | N/A | CMS Media Limited (HK) | NTSC | A | Cantonese, Mandarin | 6.1, 7.1, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital EX(TM) / THX Surround EX(TM) | English, Traditional Chinese | [18] | |
| 21 December 2012 | Japan | N/A | Paramount Home Entertainment Japan | NTSC | A | Cantonese, Japanese | Japanese | Digitally re-mastered | [19] |
References
edit- ^ Lam, Stephanie (2009). "Hop on Pop: Jiangshi Films in a Transnational Context". CineAction (78): 46–51.
- ^ "Jiang shi xian sheng xu ji [VHS]". Amazon. 19 June 1998. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr Vampire II [VHS] (1986)". amazon.co.uk. 15 November 1999. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire 2: Son of Hopping Vampire". urabanchou.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (VCD) (China Version) VCD". yesasia.com. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (Taiwan Version) VCD". yesasia.com. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (VCD) (Hong Kong Version) VCD". yesasia.com. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "DVD Mr Vampire 2 Megastar". cinemasie.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire 2 AKA : Mister Vampire II". fareastfilms.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr.Vampire DVD Box [Limited Release]". cdjapan.co.jp. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region All". yesasia.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (DVD) (China Version) DVD Region All". yesasia.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Mister Vampire : L'intégrale - Coffret 4 DVD". amazon.fr. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (Taiwan Version) DVD Region 3". yesasia.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr.Vampire 2 (DVD) (Digitally Remastered Edition) (Japan Version) DVD Region 2". yesasia.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region All". yesasia.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "霊幻道士2 キョンシーの息子たち! デジタル・リマスター版〈日本語吹替収録版〉 [DVD]". amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Blu-ray Region A". yesasia.com. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Mr. Vampire II (Blu-ray) (Japanese Version) Blu-ray Region A". amazon.jp. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
External links
edit- Mr. Vampire II at IMDb
- Mr. Vampire II at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
- Mr. Vampire II at Hong Kong Cinemagic
- Mr. Vampire II on lovehkfilm.com
- Audio Commentary from Podcast on Fire