Review: Mr. Vampire IV is the last official sequel in Sammo Hung's popular supernatural comedy series. Series star Lam Ching-ying is absent for this outing and gets replaced by the lesser known Anthony Chan Yau, who had a cameo role in the first Mr. Vampire. Of course, no one really replaces Lam Ching-ying, but they make do in what is a mostly disappointing film. A minor boost is provided by the acrobatics of Chin Kar-lok, brother of Mr. Vampire star Chin Siu-ho.

The film is divided in halves with the first forty-five minutes consisting almost entirely of tired situational comedy and the rest containing all of the martial arts and vampire action. There is no real plot in the first half. It just consists of neighbors Wu Ma as a Buddhist monk and Anthony Chan as a Taoist monk constantly competing with one another while their dutiful apprentices Chin Kar-lok and Rachel Lee pick up the pieces. This turns out to be an extremely unimaginative setup, having already been done better in Sammo Hung's The Prodigal Son (1982) and Yuen Wo-ping's The Miracles Fighters (1982). The only supernatural action in this portion briefly occurs when a fox spirit attempts to seduce and then devour Anthony Chan while he's herding corpses. A simple plot finally kicks in with the arrival of Taoist Crane (Chung Faat from Encounter of the Spooky Kind) and members of a royal household who are escorting a vampire in a gold coffin bound with ropes, presumably dipped in dog's blood and black ink as the subtitles fail to specify. All it takes is a little rain to wash away the ink and the vampire breaks free. This is where the film finally starts to get interesting.

A small boy and a flamboyantly-gay Yuen Wah are the only surviving members who make their way to the homes of the Buddhist and Taoist monks. A last stand takes place as three escort members now turned into vampires attack with Yuen Wah soon to join them. At this point the action choreography becomes quite good with Chin Kar-lok displaying some Jackie Chan-like skill as he performs flying split-kicks and weaves through the set, trying to outmaneuver the vamps. This is Kar-lok's first major role and he has since gone on, for better or worse, to carry the torch of low budget martial arts movies in Hong Kong. Bits of oddball comedy persists as where Rachel Lee discovers that one vampire can be subdued by tickling him with a sword that's repeatedly sawed into his belly. Another scene has Kar-lok and Rachel pretending to be vampires in order bluff their way past the real ones. It works just fine until the undead Yuen Wah, who still has a crush on Kar-lok, insists on a parting kiss. Finally, the lead vampire comes crashing in for a fun showdown where the heroes desperately fight back with Taoist and Buddhist charms, malted sugar (molasses), glutinous rice water (think Holy water), and one monster-sized wooden sword.

As a horror comedy, Mr. Vampire IV is a failure. It's neither funny nor horrific and only the late arrival of some decent action keeps it from being a complete bore. Like all of the previous Mr. Vampire films, this one looks great under the direction of Ricky Lau, but the plot-less and contrived comedy of the first half and some truly awful stock music nearly kill this movie.

Much of the film is taken up with Wu Ma and Anthony Chan's rivalry as the Buddhist and Taoist priests, constantly fighting though with obvious affection they won't express. Meanwhile, Chin Kar Lok takes a shine to Rachel Lee and embarasses himself trying to woo her. Then the vampires turn up, and it's fight time. There's less Taoist magic going on here, and more plain fighting with rock hard vampires. The action is good fun, with lots of scenery being destroyed in the combat. Quite well choreographed. Chin Kar Lok seems to suffer a lot in the making of the film, constantly being hurled at or through furniture and walls :-)

It's an enjoyable film, though not as tight as the first part. I wasn't sure when it was made, so I tried guessing whilst I watched... I guessed about 1992, when it was actually 1988... I guess that's a good accolade.