To ensure more sound fortune and prosperity for the next thirty years, a young TV station boss Chow Ah Keung (Kelvin Kwan) wants reputable Taoist Master Charlie Chiang (Yuen Biao) to perform the ritual of digging up his grandfather's grave and exhuming the remains. Because of a horrific experience that happened to Charlie's father while doing a similar task many years ago, he turns down the job. AK Chow, as he likes to be addressed that way, consequently seeks the help of another less skillful Taoist, Leopard Man (Ricky Yi) to do the deed and sure enough, things go terribly wrong. Due to a storm earlier on, they're forced to store his grandfather's remains at the TV station for the night. Before long, he turns into a vicious and hungry vampire and starts hopping around looking for human food. Luckily, the trustworthy Taoist comes back and the hunt for the blood sucker begins but now with more body count along the way.
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As the modern day Taoist and a feng shui master, Yuen Biao really shines. He still uses the old school magic to fight against vampires and people possessed by demons. Unfortunately, his real fighting and acrobatic skills are not put into much use here, a missed opportunity for us to see him let loose. Instead, the majority of the action goes to his female disciple Ling Xin, wonderfully played by Jiang Lu Xia, who proves that she's more than capable. Still, both are charismatic and share good chemistry on screen besides looking distinguished.
However, besides the above pair of ghostbusters, there're several more characters written in to further complicate the plot. Sporting an Afro hairstyle and acting goofy, Philip Ng is almost unrecognizable as small time gangster Boo and he also doubles as the movie's action choreographer. Unfortunately, a fight scene featuring him taking on a group of vampires is filmed through a distorted filter so it's near impossible to fully appreciate his martial arts skill. Nicky, a lowly triad, played by Ronald Cheng turns out to be a major player. He even has a romantic subplot which involves him with a lady ghost which leads to more foul jokes. Interestingly, these four characters end up helping each other in taking down the vampire. They all seem to work well together, going along with the flow and having fun at the same time.
Both Ricky Yi and Kelvin Kwok are adequate in their roles and they make a pair of fun but non-threatening villains. However, be ready for a wacky comedy with lots of jokes about the female body parts given that Wong Jing's both the writer and producer. There's a good display of well upholstered girls to provide the necessary eye candy besides serving as the targets for those forever running jokes.
However, credits must go to director Daniel Chan for getting things right in the controlling vampire department, like the use of those penny and wooden swords, virgin blood, magic mirrors and holding your breath of course. The opening credits feels like a serious horror, the costume design looks good and so are his comic timings.
“Sifu Vs Vampire” is a horror comedy but with some mild scares throughout. There are enough well-designed action set pieces mostly displayed in a comical way, so don't expect the hardcore martial arts variety. Fans of those vampire movies of the 80s will appreciate the nostalgic trip as this is a fun and entertaining homage. But they still need to put up with Wong Jing's goofiness and wacky characters.
