Trailer
Plot summary
In Republican-era China, Master Kau makes his living as a Taoist priest, performing the magic that keeps spirits and irrepressible vampires in check. He lives in a large house hung with talismans and amulets that shut the spirit world out, together with his two students, Man-choi and Chau-sang. A wealthy businessman, Yam, hires him to raise his dead father from the grave and rebury him, hoping it will bring the family more prosperity. When the coffin is lifted, the corpse is uncorrupted, with the blue fingernails of a vampire, so Kau has it carried to his house for further study.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mr. Vampire (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Mr. Vampire started with a budget of HKD 4.5 million, which was already gone halfway through production; the director won another HKD 1 million, spent it in a week, and the finished film cost HKD 8.5 million.
- Unable to afford a fake snake, the crew used a real one for the scene where a snake is cut, then made it into snake soup; they did the same with a live chicken, whose throat was cut over a bowl to collect its blood.
- Yuen Wah, as a hopping corpse, wore plastic on his face through an extremely hot summer, spending working days unable to move, talk or eat properly; Ricky Lau then cut much of his footage from the finished film, feeling too much hopping would slow the pace.
- Golden Harvest's English-language version of Mr. Vampire, Demon Hunters, was abandoned after several weeks of filming in Hong Kong because Yuen Wah could not speak English well; Raymond Chow pulled the plug, and the footage still exists in the studio's archives.
- In the original script the ghost Jade was written to die during the film, but during filming Lau changed the ending to keep her alive because it would be more romantic.
- Wires were hidden by spraying them the same colour as the set background, because a visible wire meant sending the film overseas for editing; Chin Siu-ho did the back-flip up a door with no wires at all.
- Ricky Lau wanted someone unknown for the role of Mr Yam's daughter, so he avoided well-known actresses and cast dancer Moon Lee after spotting her at a performance and asking if she would be interested in a part.
- The exhumation scene was filmed just outside the New Territories, on a background that had already been used in The Young Master and for the end fight in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
