The '80s horror-comedy is set to make its worldwide blu-ray debut.
If you're like me and grew up in the 1980s you probably discovered the outrageous thrills of Hong Kong through badly dubbed, pan-and-scanned VHS tapes. We now live in a world where such movies are available in their original audio and aspect ratios, and in glorious hi-def. Yet oddly enough, one of the biggest Hong Kong blockbusters of the '80s has yet to hit blu-ray.
I'm talking about Ricky Lau's cult 1985 horror-comedy Mr. Vampire, which finally arrives on blu-ray this summer courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.
The movie, which spawned a host of sequels and knock-offs, stars Lam Ching-ying as a supernatural expert whose dim-witted students unwittingly exhume and revive a vampire.
Mr. Vampire comes to UK blu-ray July 20th from a new 2K restoration.
Extras include the option to choose between the original Cantonese audio and two English dubs; a feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng; alternate end credits; original Hong Kong trailer; and archival interviews with director Ricky Lau and actors Chin Siu-hou and Moon Lee.
Check out Eureka's artwork, synopsis and a newly restored clip below.
Eureka's synopsis reads:
In a career-making performance, the late Lam Ching-ying is Master Kau, expert on all matters of the supernatural. When Kau and his two bumbling students, Man Choi (famous comedian Ricky Hui) and Chou (Fist of Legend's Chin Siu-ho), exhume a corpse for reburial, things go frighteningly and hilariously awry when the cadaver is revealed to be a hopping vampire. With the undead on the loose, Master Kau is blamed for the chaos, and must work with his students to put the spirits to rest before the vampire's own granddaughter (80s Hong Kong action icon Moon Lee) gets bitten. Fighting the vampires with everything from sticky rice to filing down the bloodsucker's fangs, the trio must defeat an increasing number of ghoulish dangers.
"A full-blown psychedelic phantasmagoria. It really is beautifully put together."— The Movie Waffler (@themoviewaffler) May 19, 2020
BLOOD MACHINES is on #Shudder from Thursday.
Read @hilliseric's reviewhttps://t.co/P5HCpbTL61 pic.twitter.com/HOXGwHg9Hc