Exorcist Master (1993)

Oh no... it's a ghost! Oh no... it's a hopping vampire! Oh no, it's two well-meaning but bumbling students of the Taoist master! Oh no, it's a catholic priest! Hmmm, wait a minute, that isn't scary. But no - he's played by Wu Ma! Eek! Not to fear though, here comes Lam Ching Ying in full monobrow mode - he won't let anything really bad happen, will he?

Except that this time our favourite Mr. Vampire has a new challenge to face when the Catholic church brings more than some hymns to his Chinese village - now we have a western vampire in town, something that his Taoist training never prepared him for. And when the western vampire gets crossed with a bunch of Chinese gyonsi the situation gets even worse. Soon you don't know who's going to be hopping about with pointy fingernails one minute, and who's going to fly up and suck your blood the next. What's a vampire buster to do?

The formula Lam Ching-Ying + Vampires is quite simply foolproof... it is just not possible for a bad movie to ensue. Whilst Exorcist Master is in no way the equal of the original Mr. Vampire, it does manage to add enough new ideas into the mix to keep it interesting. True, there's a section in the middle which is weighed down by inane eastern/western culture clash & innuendo/toilet humour. But cut to the chase and you've got completely unscary vampires, crazy Taoist rituals and a whole load of top drawer stunt work / action scenes. Ngai Sing has a rare role as a good guy here... more naive than menacing, but still demonstrating some great athletic talent and passable kung fu knowledge. One of the gwei lo faces you'll have seen before does a splendid job as the western vampire too - thankfully a non-speaking role :D