Customer Reviews

Kung Fu Beyond The Grave / Chinese Vampire Story

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

KUNF FU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE-Billy Chong stars in another supernatural movie after making the classic 'Kung Fu Zombie'. Sai Aan Dai(Bai Sai Ngai) from '10 Magnificent Killers' and 'Buddhist Fist' is a black magician who is stirring up all sorts of trouble and using human hearts to make his master invincible. The master played by the great Lo Lieh has trouble of his own because Billy Chong is here to kill him after receiving a message from his father that he must take revenge for him and Lo Lieh is the one who killed him. Alan Chui(Rebellious Reign) shows up as what seems a comedic role at first and some of the fights in this movie are definitely worth watching. Chui and Chong taking on Sai Aan Dai is the highlight of the film, with an appearance by Dracula as a close second. And don't be fooled by Sai Aan Dai's somewhat deformed eye. He is one bad mother AND he can call on Dracula whenever he needs help.

The final fight between Lieh and Chong is nice only to see these 2 go at it on screen together but overall it is dissapointing. 2.5/5 though if I had to choose I would go with a 3.

Picture quality is horrible and English dubbed

CHINESE VAMPIRE STORY-groundzero loves to rename movies and this movie is actually called 'Mr. Vampire #5' or 'Mr. Vampire 1992'. This is the first movie I have seen in the series and I defintely should not have started with the last entry. Lam Ching Ying starred in a lot of these movies where he played a Taoist priest and this is only the 3rd I have seen. While he gives a good performance, the movie is not a good vehicle for him. There is just not a lot going on. Chin Siu-hou(Fist of Legend) stars as one of Lam's assistants or pupils but doesn't really get to do much action. Maybe a punch or two and one brawl with some vampires but not nearly enough. Now if the story was good this would all be fine but it just drags along when there is no action and the only thing worth seeing is the general hopping around like a Chinese vampire. The finale is very unspectacular and you have to wonder if they just filmed this movie for a couple of days while shooting another project and added the special effects later. 1.5/5

Picture quality is horri-awful, has small black bars at the top and bottom, in is Chinese with burnt in imbedded subtitles. But you can actually read the subtitles! That is if you feel like it.

Greetings;

I bought this title as indeed, I am a big fan of the Mr Vampire-the hopping vampire/taoist priest movies. I have managed to collect a number over the years and do enjoy them even if they are dubbed or simply subtitled. When I came across this, trying to possibly find more of the series that might have been obscurely listed or mis-named, I honestly had no idea that these movies would actually fit along so well with the concepts of the Mr vampire series and indeed, as several of the other reviewers have mentioned, "Chinese Vampire Story" is in fact, Mr Vampire 1992 or simply Mr. Vampire 5. The production value on either movie isn't groundbreaking, no. Sometimes the audio is a little off-grainy, obviously not digitially remastered as has actually been the case with say, the original Mr. Vampire. But something that you should however take into consideration is that if you did actually enjoy the Mr vampire Series so far and are actually interested in finding the fifth on Amazon, this is actually the only way you will. There isn't simply a Mr Vampire 1992 on here or even Mr Vampire 5 or any variation thereof. At least, none that I have seen in the past year or better that I have been searching for them. You will occasionally find something on eBay though, true, which is fine if you want to use paypal, but in my experience that has been roughly as pleasent as pulling teeth-half of the Mr Vampire series I have actually purchased off of eBay have actually had to come from China itself and for those of you who arn't aware, their dvd's are packaged the same as in most other countries. At least not in my experience. A plain dvd case, no paper insert with the title and movie art/information, no. The disk is in the case and a cardboard sleeve covers the blank case. Not entirely bad I suppose, but not quite what I was expecting either.

But I digress, no, these movies arn't the best I have seen. Not even what I would consider to be 'great' so much, but certainly good. Good enough to pick up as a set together, even more so to actually be able to find Mr Vampire 1992. I can honestly say that if I had found this movie set before I had moved, I would have gladly picked it up. Now that I have relocated to the continental, I have and am even now enjoying it. I would have honestly liked to have had both these films dubbed so that I may go about my usual practice of watching them while I play a video game to pass the time (I work so much and have so very little time to devote to such pleasures) but I am still satisfied with this find, greatly so.

Had the production quality been better-picture and sound that is, I would have been more inclined to give this piece a five star rating if for no better reason than Mr Vampire 1992. Kung Fu Beyond the Grave was also a fine movie, I enjoyed it too and will no doubt watch it again soon, to be sure. I would even add to which however that as others have said, these would best not be your introduction to the genre of the hopping dead, but certainly something for the fans who have already found they enjoy such films. I suppose I should really say more about the Kung-fu or some of the other aspects the other reviewers seem to be complaining about, but honestly I am just so satisfied to have found this that I can't look a gift horse in the mouth, would probably have the sharpened teeth of those hopping dead and try to take divine punishment on me for doing so by way of the jugular.

Thank you...

This review is only for "Chinese Vampire Story" aka "Mr. Vampire 5".

If you like Lam Ching Ying as the iconic vampire buster,then this DVD is a cheap, cheap way to add to your Mr. Vampire collection.

Lam Ching Ying made a lot of great vampire movies, but "Mr. Vampire 5" not one of them (What do you expect from the fifth in a series?). This is one of the more cheap, awful Chinese vampire movies. You can read good production reviews from the above reviewers.

BUT when it comes to Chinese vampire movies and Lam Ching Ying, my usual discriminating taste for film mysteriously evaporates and I will watch each and every Chinese vampire movie, no matter how bad it is, with childlike joy. Therefore, I had a lot of fun watching this goofball movie. It is riddled with cheap sex jokes and potty humor, much of it at Lam's expense. There are one or two actually funny moments.

I get the feeling that #5 is simply a cheap, silly send-up of the Chinese vampire film genre. I agree with a previous reviewer that they probably made this film very quickly, and probably while they were filming something else (just like "Eagle Shooting Heroes" was a wu-xia send-up made at the same time as "Ashes of Time").

Buy this DVD in order to add to your Mr. Vampire collection. Don't let this movie be your introduction to the Chinese vampire genre! Make sure you check out "Mr. Vampire" first!

Holy crap! Two truly demented chop-socky epics on one disc for one low price. I would rate this disc a little higher if the transfer quality were better. Both films will appeal to fans of godawfully inept vampire-fu for sure, but just be warned that the audio/visual mastering is at times distractingly bad.

This DVD, from Ground Zero Entertainment's "Black Belt Theater" line, assembles two completely insane Hong Kong movies about the afterlife - "Kung Fu From Beyond the Grave" and "Mr. Vampire 1992" (incorrectly labelled "Chinese Vampire Story" on the box).

"Mr. Vampire 1992" (the fifth in a popular series) tells a practically incoherant story of babies aborted during pregnancy. These angry babies keep pop up in spirit form, doing wacky things like peeing on people's faces (very graphically, I might add - isn't there a law against this?). Also, there's a lot of really failed comedy...and vampires. It's nuts. Don't ask me to make sense of it.

"Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave" is even better. It's the crazy story of a young man visited by the zombie of his dead father. The father tells the young man to avenge his murder. This kung-fu monster mash has it all - even Dracula, in what I suppose is a guest appearance.

The DVD is crappy by any standards. Both the movies seem like second or third generation dupes, with lots of scratches and faded colors. "Mr Vampire 1992" looks slightly letterboxed (maybe 1.66:1), but, oddly, some of the special effects actually protrude onto the lower black bar. Go figure. There are no extras, which is unsurprising.

I would first like to make two things completely clear:

1. I have only seen Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave so far, so my review will only be for that movie only, and not chinese vampire story.

2. The 5-star rating I have given this movie denotes that it's a five-star movie as far as crap kung fu movies go! If, on the other hand, you're looking for some cinematic masterpiece, you are encouraged to rent Citizen Kane or Schindler's list.

That being said...

First and foremost, if you're the type of person that would rent a movie called "Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave" then, more than likely, you're the type of person who's going to greatly enjoy it.

Pretty basic plotline, good guy seeks revenge against evil guy who runs a city through violence and bribery for killing his father. Of course, it wont be that easy. The evil boss guy is protected by a great fighter and a powerful wizard who controls POWER OF MAGIC and looks strangely like professional wrestler, The Rock.

Also, the evil bad guy has evil aspirations become impervious to all attacks and weapons thanks to an evil spell being put upon him by his evil wizard, who does evil. The truly sinister evil thing about this evil man's evil plan is that the spell requires human hearts, plucked from unsuspecting victims while they are in the throwes of passion. evil.

The good guy has a few proverbial aces up his sleeve as well though, including a hunchback and his zombie-pet-friend-things, a magic spell book and a kung fu ninja government agent.

The plotline may not sound impressive, but you really learn a lot during the course of the movie. For example:

- Zombies hop like bunnies and listen to prayers with antennas that stick out of their coffins.

- If you have power of magic on your side, you can turn the tip of your finger into a bomb.

- Hell has a system of currency and you can bribe Hell's police to let you come to the real world to talk to your son.

- Simply by burning a wad of one dollar bills, you can summon a smarmy little Count Dracula to fight battles for you.

If the promise of a movie merging kung fu with the undead tempts you, then give into your temptation right now, this crap's for you!