ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (July 2020): Eureka have transferred Mr. Vampire to Blu-ray. It's on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate taken from "a brand new 2K restoration". You can see a rise in the image quality over the DVDs. Colors gain some boldness, grain textures are both present and consistent and there is a slight uptick in detail. It's not a dynamic upgrade but it is definitely an improvement over SD. Colors finally have a consistent, and realistic appearance. No damage, clean and no digitization. There are some impressively sharp close-ups and a generally pleasing 1080P presentation.

NOTE: We have added 48 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Eureka use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original Cantonese language plus it offers two English DUBs: one produced for the film's original European home video release (LPCM 2.0 channel) and a second for the film's original American home video release (DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround.) Effects are typically high-end-strong with crisp 'cracks' and some spooky effects. The score is credited to a 'Melody Bank (The Millionaires' Express, The Spooky Bunch) and it sounds pretty generic. The Eureka offers newly translated optional English subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The Eureka Blu-ray includes a new audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) which I intend to indulge in later. I really liked his commentary on the BD of Johnnie To's Throw Down. There are archival interviews with Chin Siu-hou (Chou Sheng in Mr. Vampire) for over 40-minutes, cute Moon Lee for almost 18-minutes and director Ricky Lau for over a dozen minutes. There is the original Hong Kong trailer in HD, textless end credits and the package has a limited edition O-card slipcase with new artwork by Darren Wheeling plus a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film - both limited to 2,000 units. .

With the best visual presentation the Blu-ray also benefits with multiple audio options, a new commentary, booklet and some interviews... plus a great cover! If you are in the mood for 'spooky' fun this is certainly a wild + wacky way to indulge. Mr. Vampire is drenched in Chinese culture and is a decent-to-strong film in its own right - better than you might anticipate. Give this a spin and you will see - recommended!    

Gary Tooze

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ADDITION: IVL July 2005 - The subtitles on this release appear to be more accurate than the HKL disc, which occasionally slip into 'dubtitles'. However, the names of several characters are 'Westernised' (Man Choi becomes Dan and Sheng becomes Harry). This is possibly because they are taken from the English dub on the Fox release. Even so, the subtitles are more accurate/complete than the HKL disc, which fails to translate the song that plays when Shiu Yu first encounters Sheng in the forest. While similar to the Fox transfer, this effort seems more naturally balanced and reveals finer detail. Aspect ratio is actually closer to 1.82:1, but this is a negligible difference as aspect ratios are approximate.

 - Chris Gould