Doctor Vampire — Doctor Vampire( Blu Ray)
Doctor Vampire is an early 90’s blend of comedy, martial arts, and horror. The Hong Kong made picture blends romantic to raunchy comedy, with touches of slapstick. The horror elements are largely playful, featuring only a few moments of bloody gore- with wacky characters meeting vamps & martial arts elements in the final quarter of the film. Here from Eureka! is a new Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a new 2k scan, two new commentary tracks, and a few more extras.
Doctor Vampire (aka Jiang Shi Yi Sheng, Geung See Yee Sang) was from the year 1990. The film was written and directed by Jamie Luk- between the mid-80s and early 2000, he had twenty-three directorial credits to his name. These move between romantic comedy Love With A Perfect Stranger (1985), ghost-focused comedy Ghost In The House (1988), comedy crime mystery blend The Case Of The Cold Fish (1995), and cook trying to save his son from vengeful ghost horror Troublesome Night 15 (2002). Also, between 1974 and the late 2010s he has an impressive one hundred and fifty-three acting credits.
The one hour and thirty-eight-minute film opens supposedly in the Uk- with rather cliched green fields and sheep. Fairly soon we see our lead Dr. Chiang Ta-Tsung( Bowie Lam) car breaking down in the countryside- he makes his way to a rather modern looking castle- inside it he finds a bar, where seemingly couples are making it out in the daytime booths…later it becomes clear these are female vampires drinking the blood of their clients. While relieving himself in the toilet- he hears a scream- rushing out he pushes away a man from a fanged toothed Asian woman, who he thinks is been attacked by the man….anyway one think leads to another and the virgin Dr makes a man of himself( seemingly several times), before she goes down on him fangs ‘n’ all…. We then see the female vamp who slept with/ slurped on the Doctor- going to her red-haired tied-back master- he bites and drinks from her, and says he must have more blood from this man.
The rather bumbling/ haphazard Dr heads back to Hong Kong to the hospital where he works. He and two other doctors (one with long tied back hair, one with specs and a few extra pounds) carry out seeming lesser operations- with their constantly angry/ chain smoking boss wanting them to do better!.
The Doc is a relationship with his live-in across the hallway girlfriend- who cooks for him, does his washing, and is very jealous. The Doc starts noticing he is pulled to drink blood, doesn’t like the sun, and has one or two moments of glowing eyes.
As the film unfolds, we get a blend of raunchy to slapstick comedy- edged with light vampire horror tropes. In its last quarter, we shift into a mixing of wacky martial arts action- weaved with horror/ fantasy elements- with a few touches of blood, glowing eyes, and gnashing fangs.
I’d say Doctor Vampire is entertaining enough, though personally I enjoyed the first three quarters of the film most, as this is where you find the mix of comedy and horror. I’m not the biggest fan of straight martial arts action- hence I enjoyed the last quarter less than some might, but there are some neat enough moments here, most notable being a red laser vamp meets green medical laser battle.
This Blu-ray features a new 2k scan- it’s well defined, been both bright and clean throughout. On the extras side, we get a good selection of new extras. First off, we get two commentary tracks- one with East Asian film experts Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and John Charles, and the other with Hong Kong cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. I played the first of these, and it was a nicely chatty and informative affair. They start off by talking about the literal translation of the film's original title is Stiff Corpse Doctor. We find out the film's first run in Hon Kong was between the 6th and 12th of December 1990- it had a box office of 2.9 million HK dollars, and sadly sat at number 92 in the country's box office for the year. They talk about how this film was rather the last gasp of the Hong Kong vamp genre- that started five years before it's release. We find out, rather surprisingly, that the opening scenes were indeed filmed in the UK. They talk about how the film's vampires’ mythos/ rules are rather mixed, as initially the vamps can wander around in daylight, though of course later the lead is affected by daylight. They also mention the way the master bites his female vamps on the hand- and how this was the first/ only time they’d seen this trope. We find out the film was shot in silent, to be later overdubbed- though not by the original actors. They talk about the films lead- who is most known for his TV work. Later on, the point out how the leads' face gets subtly whiter and whiter as the film progresses. Point out notable actors as they appear, and much more. All in all, a decent track.
Otherwise, on the new extras we have the following: A British Vampire in Hong Kong (20.11) an on-camera interview with Stacey Abbott, author of Celluloid Vampires: Life After Death in the Modern World. She talks about how the film was released in a period of reinvention of the worldwide vampire film genre- talking about some of the key points of this. She talks about the film's influences, and how it tied into western vamp films. She points out the underlying elements of sexual slavery in the pictures make-up, and how the film embraces the ridiculous/ comedic side of horror. Then there is Vampire Slaying 101( 22.11) a video essay by gothic scholar Mary Going. She talks about how Doctor Vampire links into other vamp films of the period, the pictures themes, and its approach to genre mixing- this is fine, though does move into film scholar dryness in places. So, with that in mind I’d say the first interview is the most interesting/ worthy of the two featurettes.
The finished release comes with a booklet featuring new writing on Hong Kong vampire films from Mr Vampire to Doctor Vampire by East Asian horror expert Katarzyna Ancuta.
In finishing this is another well-presented/ worthy extra edged release from Eureka. Personally, I found the horror elements were not pronounced enough in Doctor Vampire, and there is zero fear/ dread connected to them. It’s fine as a wacky comedy/ light horror film, but for me it just lacks impact on the creepy/ bloody side of things.