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The Era of Vampire (2002)

(a.k.a Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters)

In the 17th century in China an evil monk startles a nest of bloodthirsty vampires that want to gorge all human kind. Four heroes trained in the Mao-Shan school of magic are stipulated. Together with their master they risk their life and use their great powers in order to destroy the Vampire King and his gruelling bloodsuckers. Each of the four heroes has another form of power and is able to control the element they are based on. Those are rain, lightning, thunder and wind. But is this sufficient enough?

When I saw this at the video rental I work at, I knew this wouldn't be good and I had no hope for this film. I just took it home with me so I would know the latest Asian film we had gotten at the store. As I said, I wasn't expecting much since the days of films like Mr. Vampire or Spooky Encounters are over. However, I was curious to see how Tsui Hark would try to make a film that could be compared to these films and it would be a real pitty if it turned out to be good and wouldn't be watched due to such prejudices.

My impression of the first few scenes was that the film tries to be like the old martial arts horror flicks, but just couldn't do it. It is explained how Chinese vampires work and as soon as this happens, it becomes obvious that this film was made for a Western audience. And indeed Tsui Hark made this film in order to introduce the West to the Chinese horror genre.

The four heroes and their master go on a night raid trying to annihilate the Vampire King. During the attack they loose their master in an explosion. Three months later the four friends are still after the Vampire King and their vampire compass leads them to a house in which a wedding will be celebrated. When they rush in they realise that they can't tell those people that there is a vampire in this house and they decide to work as servants for the landlord Jiang. Of course they only pretend and try to find that Vampire King. Remembering their master's words that he will be at any place at which Vampires are present, they also hope to find their master in that huge house.

The young master and husband dies right after the wedding, however Sasa (Anya) the widow may not leave. It turns out that the Jiang family preserves human beings in wax. Those of course can all be turned into Vampires if once bitten. That's how all the mess starts but unfortunately not to a high extent as this might have been quite funny to watch.

There is a subplot that works perfectly with the main plot. However, the film has its negative sides. The Vampire King seems to be motionless and only carried by wires and as a horror film there wasn't enough suspense. I mean nobody would be scared to death by a film like Encounters of the Spooky Kind, but I simply missed scenes similar to the Sammo sleeping next to that corpse or spending the night at that haunted house. They had a certain amount of suspense in them which Wellson Chin's Era of Vampire lacks. Comedy-wise I must say that I didn't even laugh once. That doesn't mean that you should forget about humorous scenes, but to me they just weren't really funny.

On the other hand, this film offers more on the action-side. The martial arts fights are first of all mainly sword fights. The fight scene between landlord Master Jiang (Yu Rong Gwong) and Thunder (Ken Cheng) is certainly the highlight of the film although it is not a showdown. It is very nicely choreographed and certainly nothing that I expected from a new millenium old school kung fu film. Although Tsui Hark hasn't directed but produced this film, some of his elements become noticeable as for example the cinematography. In a scene in which one of the heroes jumps out of the window, the camera moves sideways along with him until after he is out of the window.

One noteworthy gadget of the film is the Vampire's visualized vision. Do you remember how Chinese vampires can not see and only smell their victims? This has been shot quite interstingly. In a scene in which one of the heroes is standing in front of the vampire which is about to suck out his blood, water is spilled over the hunter's head and in the vampire's vision, he slowly seems to disappear into the reddish field of the rest of the vision. It's a bit difficult to explain, but I am sure if you always enjoyed these Chinese vampire flicks, you will love that effect.

Overall, I would say that The Era of Vampire can not hold up with all the films of the same genre from the last century. However, it is nice to see that there are still directors interested in that genre and that it is not doomed to die out. I am glad that I have watched that movie. It is certainly not boring, but the fact that it doesn't come close to what Mr. Vampire was like is sad as they could have made a lot more out of this film. I mean it is obvious in the first place that Mr. Vampire is an unbeatable film in its genre and so I guess you haven't been expecting that much either from The Era of Vampire, even if you hadn't read any reviews like this. You should also consider that Tsui Hark's attempt to introduce the genre of the 'martial-arts-horror-comedy' to the West using this film has clearly failed in my opinion so if you are not familiar with the genre, I guess you will not like the film. To anybody else, I am sure you have been longing for more since there has been a huge lack of these films in recent years. However, you should try to find it at a video rental. After all, I am happy that I haven't bough the film but just rented it. That doesn't make it a bad film to me, but definitely not a keeper as well. If I feel like watching it again, I will just re-rent it.

Vampire Vision

Disappearing out of the vampire's vision.

Written on August 20th 2003

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