“Many say that the film world is ridiculous. However, life is more ridiculous.”

 

RIGOR MORTIS (Chinese title: 殭屍, which roughly translates into English as “Vampire”) is a Hong Kong (HK) production that premiered in HK in October 2013 and is currently on a limited run in selected theaters in the U.S. When I chatted recently about the film (via Facebook) with Ross Chen, who runs the popular HK movie website LoveHKFilm (and is also senior managing editor at YesAsia.com), he reported that in HK “it did really well for a local film. A sizable hit and also well-regarded critically.” After watching the film, I could see why -- it is a goretastic flick that draws on the traditions of classic HK horror cinema while also using contemporary Western horror filmmaking tropes and techniques. Although you will need to know something about Chinese horror film traditions to enjoy this film to the fullest, it nevertheless provides every horror fan something to love, including the Eastern occult, demonic possession, ghosts, evil spirits, zombies, vampires, vampire hunters, and plenty of blood and gore.

 

This movie is Cantopop-star-turned-director Juno Mak’s first feature-length film. In it, Mak kowtows to the classic Chinese vampire movies of the 1980s, not only by referencing them but also by including some of the original cast members from Ricky Lau’s MR. VAMPIRE series (Chin Siu-ho, Anthony Chan, Billy Lau and Richard Ng), as well as Chung Fat from Encounters of the Spooky Kind.

 

Chinese vampires are not the blood-sucking variety known to Western horror fans; instead, they are based on the jiangshi (pronounced geung si in Cantonese) of Chinese folklore. These vampires are corpses that are reanimated and controlled by Taoist priests. They have a characteristic “hopping” form of movement that is fairly creepy, especially to Westerners who are not used to watching it. Instead of biting, they generally rip their victims apart, which greatly increases the “grue factor” in movies about them. Another characteristic of the jiangshi genre created by HK filmmakers from this folklore (which dates back to the Qing Dynasty) is that it mixes in kung fu and comedic elements with the supernatural horror elements of Chinese folklore.

 

RIGOR MORTIS includes all of these elements, although it is somewhat low on the comedy scale (unless you understand Cantonese, in which case the swearing and cursing in the dialogue is hilarious). However, there is an added bonus in this film: Takashi Shimizu, the creator of the Japanese JU-ON series and the American GRUDGE franchise, helped to shape it as a producer. 

 

Although the U.S. run did not include a theater near me, I was tipped off by another HK movie fan that the film is now available on iTunes. So I was able to view it in the comfort of my own home. This turned out to be fortunate. Although I have been watching HK films for almost twenty years and have been to HK many times, there were some aspects of this movie that I did not immediately “get” -- particularly the ending (which I will not spoil here). Assuming that there was a cultural disconnect, I watched the film again with my wife, who was born in HK and lived there from the early 60s to the mid-80s. Her commentary solved my dilemma. So, to give credit where it is due, parts of this review deserve a hat tip to Mrs. Frisco Kid.

 

This movie begins near its end, at the conclusion of the climatic battle scene between a vampire and its hunters. Most of the rest of the film is a flashback that recounts how one of the hunters, Siu-Ho Chin (as himself), a washed-up, suicidally depressed, former horror film star, came to live in the massive and run-down HK public housing development where the film’s action takes place. No sooner does he take up residence in the very inauspiciously numbered flat 2442 than he hangs himself from a light fixture in it. He discovers that 2442 is haunted by the spirits of twin teenage girls when one of them takes possession of his body as he is dying.

 

Fortunately for him, he is saved by another resident of the complex, Yau (Anthony Chan), the son of a Taoist monk and the sole surviving descendant of a line of vampire hunters. As there are allegedly no more vampires left to hunt, he has given up the family tradition to manage a food stand on the ground floor level of the complex. There he serves to customers the sticky rice that -- uncooked -- Chinese vampires are afraid of. His flat is a museum of Taoist religious items that he keeps in case they are ever needed in the future to ward off evil.

 

Wherever there is yang, close by there is yin. Also in the building is Gau (Chung Fat), the caretaker of a local Taoist temple and a practitioner of the dark side of Taoism. When elderly Uncle Tung (Richard Ng) dies through a mishap that involves supernatural influences, Gau responds to pleas for help from his wife, Auntie Mui (Bau Hei-Jing), the local seamstress. He offers to bring Tung back to life using a Taoist ritual that takes one week to complete. His most important instruction to Mui: don’t take off the mask that he has placed on the corpse (see the movie poster above). When things don’t seem to be progressing fast enough for Mui, he tells her of a faster way: one that involves the “blood of a virgin.”

 

Unbeknownst to Mui, Gau has an ulterior motive for his apparent kindness. He wants to create a very powerful vampire. Unfortunately (but just as we expect), before he can complete the ritual that will allow him to do this, Mui removes the mask as she provides a virgin for her now-undead husband to consume. Moreover, the final step (one that involves the twin spirits from Siu-Ho’s flat) that Gau had planned to perform to create a super-vampire occurs through other means. Thus a completely uncontrolled, very powerful vampire is unleashed on the residents of the housing complex.

 

Alerted by signals from his vampire-hunting apparatus that something is amiss, Yau sets out to fulfill his familial duty by hunting down the vampire. Along the way, he links up with Siu-Ho, who has been mortally wounded by the vampire. Siu-Ho has the choice to save his life (with Yau’s aid) or fight the vampire. He chooses the latter. After receiving a Taoist blessing that temporarily extends his life, Siu-Ho becomes a kung-fu warrior in the epic battle that then ensues with the vampire. Yau acts as a kind of field general by providing supernatural aid through a powerful but sadistically-designed vampire-fighting apparatus.

 

After it returns to the sequence with which it began, the movie then spends its closing minutes undermining the preceding horror narrative. This attempt at postmodern self-reflexivity unfortunately falls flat. As Kozo comments in his review of the film on LoveHKFilm, it is an unjustified “descent into pretension.”

 

Despite not quite planting the dismount, RIGOR MORTIS nevertheless earns high marks from this judge for its overall performance.  This debut feature from Juno Mak is highly recommended for the U.S. horror audience. Moreover, its updating of the HK vampire movie tradition will impress contemporary horror fans from both East and West with its technical and stylistic achievements.

 

 

The FriscoKid