Chinese Vampires

Writing in 1928, Montague Summers describes the Chinese vampire as the Kiang-Si, who has red staring eyes and sharp talons. He rises at night to feast on the blood of the living. To what extent the Kiang-Si is related to the better known hopping vampires of Hong Kong cinema, I do not know. The Kiang-Si are based on a Chinese folk bogeyman, a re-animated corpse who has the intention of eating his victims, rather than merely drinking a little blood. As far as I know this traditional Chinese nasty poses a threat only to the physical body of the victim, and does not cause the victim to be damned or become a vampire in turn. To be precise, this vampire is really more of a Zombie, especially in the Romero sense of the word, than a vampire, but ever since the genre-defining Mr Stiff Corpse was translated into English as Mr. Vampire the association has stuck.

Hong Kong Vampire movies

In fact the first Chinese foray into Vampire movies (that I know of) was the bizarre Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, (1973) a Shaw Bros. / Hammer co-production starring Peter Cushing in a Kung Fu context.

However the main inspiration for Kung Fu Vampire Killers came from a Hong Kong film known in Chinese as Mr. Stiff Corpse. Translated into English as Mr. Vampire, it is a classic of its type that has spawned numerous inferior sequels. The monster in Mr. Vampire has the distinctive hopping gait that some people find chilling and others find silly. Mr. Vampire can be stopped by various magic potions, doesn't like sticky rice (but cheaper rice has no effect on him) and cannot detect a human who holds their breath. Most importantly Mr Vampire can be frozen by the application of a "corpse arresting spell," a slip of yellow paper with red writing that causes the creature to freeze until the spell blows or falls off. This monster is created by being buried with incorrect Fung Sui, but anyone killed by him will also become a vampire. He not only bites his victims' necks, but also can stab them with his long fingernails.

Mr. Vampire part 2 features a family of nasties (who turn out to be cute in the end), while part 3 conscripts the star of The Gods Must Be Crazy There are also parts 4 and 5, but so far as I know these have never been released in the west. An unusual feature in the cannon is The Musical Vampire, which has a monster who can be stopped by the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down! Although the original is a true masterpiece of comic horror none of the sequels can be recommended other than as curiosities.

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