Mr. Vampire (also known as Hold Your Breath for a Momentnote ) is a 1985 Hong Kong supernatural horror comedy, directed by Ricky Lau, and produced by Sammo Hung. It was notable for popularizing the supernatural / vampire genre in the Hong Kong film industry, and many of the tropes for the Chinese Vampire.
Taoist priest Kau (Lam Ching Ying) is asked by rich businessman Yam (Huang Ha), to organize a reburial for Yam's father (Yuen Wahnote ), to prevent his corpse from coming back to life as a jiangshi (or simply a Chinese Vampire). However, things go wrong as expected, the corpse comes alive, and creates havoc in the village. With help (and hindrance) from his two disciples (Ricky Hui and Chin Siu-ho), Uncle Kau sets out to save the day...
The film was an immediate success and was followed by three sequels, a 1992 remake (with Hung producing again) and several spin-offs, as well as a Licensed Game, Phantom Fighter. A tribute to this film (and a much darker take on the genre), Rigor Mortis, was released in 2013. It features several members of the cast: Chin Siu-ho (Chau-sang), Billy Lau (Wai) and Anthony Chan (Priest Four Eyes).
Tropes featured in Mr. Vampire include:
- Badass Teacher: As exasperated as Uncle Kau is by the stupidity of his two students, he'll still do whatever it takes to protect them and take down any vampire or ghost who goes after them.
- Chinese Vampire: The whole point of the movie. Obviously.
- Cool Old Guy: Uncle Kau.
- Cute Ghost Girl: The B-plot has a pretty female ghost looking to take on lovers, notably one of Uncle Kau's assistants.
- Immune to Bullets: The police open fire on the vampire with rifles; it doesn't work.
- Jerkass: Wai, who treats Kau's assistants like crap and arrests Uncle Kau for having long sharp nails, which the hopping vampire used to kill Yam.
- Kill It with Fire:
- The bodies of the victims of the vampire are burned with lychee timber, to prevent a vampire outbreak.
- Vampire-Yam, and eventually The Vampire itself, are killed when the heroes set them afire.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Wai, being the Dirty Cop that he is, decides to frame Uncle Kau for murder. During his interrogation, he even makes it clear that if Kau doesn't give a confession by the next day, he would brand Kau with a burning hot iron. Shortly afterwards, the vampire awakens. Cue all sorts of comical violence being inflicted upon Wai; at one point, Wai even gets branded by the burning hot iron he wanted to brand Kau with. After this humbling experience, Wai settles down considerably and becomes more cooperative with Kau and his students.
- Non-Action Guy: Despite being a disciple to Master Kau, Man-choi simply doesn't have the fighting abilities of his master or his fellow student Chau-sang.
- Offing the Offspring: The Vampire's first victim is Yam, his own son in life.
- One-Winged Angel: The Vampire returns for the final confrontation this way; its clothes are in tatters, its hair stringy, more decay present and much more vicious than before... and it has the ability to see. Weapons that could kill it now doesn't.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The female ghost; she can take on the appearance of a mortal woman dressed in Chinese attire, becomes invisible at will, levitates, and even fly like Raiden.
- Our Vampires Are Different: These are the Chinese Vampire variety which hop, have stiff limbs, and act differently than Western vampires. Vampire-Yam, however, acts more like zombies than either types of vampire.
- Police Brutality: The jail that Wai takes Uncle Kau looks like a medieval torture chamber, and prepares to brand him if refuses to confuse to murdering his uncle, which he didn't. He (accidentally, by one of Kau's students) gets hit with the still-hot brand himself with the fight with Vampire-Yam
- Spin-Off: Lam Ching Ying would also star in several spinoff films with similar plot, such as Magic Cop, Exorcist Master, and Crazy Safari; most of them often typecasting him as a stern Taoist teacher.
- Stern Teacher: It's easy to see why Uncle Kau can be a cranky guy who comes down hard on his students, considering his two students are constantly goofing off, screwing up on the job, getting him injured in some of their pranks, and generally being Too Dumb to Live by getting themselves either possessed by ghosts or turned into a vampire. It's a wonder he doesn't turn full Sadist Teacher on the two.
- Trope Codifier: While not the first of jiangshi genre films, it definitely set the standard for them and helped propel the genre into popular from 1985 to the mid-1990s in East Asia.
- Undeath Is Cheap: If a living person is starting to turn into a vampire without being killed first, they can be cured by pure glutenous rice, as shown with Choi.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Deconstructed. Glutenous rice repels vampires and cures vampirism, as stated above. It seems like a straight example at first, but if the person you're buying the rice from decides to adulterate it with standard rice, it won't work.