Man of Steel – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There’s a perception outside of comic readers (and sometimes even within) that Superman is a boring character. People look at his powers and think that he’s too strong to ever really be challenged, or they see his positive outlook and ‘Truth, justice, and a better tomorrow’ catchphrase as being too cheesy. Both of these views are, frankly, ridiculous, as good writers know how to challenge Superman so that his raw power isn’t going to win him the day. There are so many examples of Superman not just being a cheesy one note character; just check out Superman Smashes the Klan, or the moment he goes after an arms dealer in Superman: Birthright to see how fantastic he can be.

To the general public he’s one of these characters that many feel can’t be engaging unless he’s changed to be edgy. This is how you get versions of the character like Injustice: Gods Among Us where he’s a fascist, pastiches like The Boys and Brightburn, and even actual Superman movies like Man of Steel that are made so devoid of happiness and hope that they fundamentally get a lot of the character and his mythos completely wrong. And, sadly, it would also lay the groundwork for a shared DC universe that would continue to falter, struggle with its characters and tone, and ultimately, need rebooting a decade later.

Superman: The Man of Steel is one of the seminal Superman books. Created just after Crisis on Infinite Earths it retold Superman’s origin for a modern audience, and for the new world that had been created. With Man of Steel set to become the first in a new series of Superman films, the fact that it was sharing the name seemed like an indicator that the same level of care and attention would be going into the project. Following the financial and critical failure of Superman Returns, a sequel to the Christopher Reeve movies, DC was looking to reboot their flagship character on the big screen, especially with the success of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. Several comic writers were called in to give pitches for the film, including well known Superman writers such as Grant Morrison. In part, however, it appears that the film was pushed into production in order to avoid having to pay the Siegel estate lost revenue.

Following the success of The Dark Knight Rises, screenwriters David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan were brought on board to try to recreate Superman for a modern audience, and to set a tone for any future DC movies. Original plans were to include references to other heroes existing within the universe, something that was all but dropped and moved to the incredibly bloated sequel. One of the first directors approached to helm the movie was Guillermo del Toro, who turned down the job to work on the still-unmade At The Mountains of Madness project (how different a DCEU would we have gotten under his leadership). After going through a number of possibilities, it was finally decided that Zack Snyder would direct. Having already produced a few comic book movies Snyder was seen as a safe choice by the studio, especially after Watchmen, a book that was said to be unfilmable, although how well done that adaptation was is definitely up for debate.

Man of Steel follows a young Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) as he tries to find his place in the world before discovering his Kryptonian heritage. After being taught by his father, Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner), that being a hero isn’t the right thing to do and that it could put him in danger, Clark has tried to live a simple life, but keeps ending up doing good where he can, such as saving men from a burning oil rig; though he does let his anger get the better of him on occasion, such as destroying a man’s truck. Unfortunately for him, his heroics have led to a trail of urban legends and whispered stories that ace reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is determined to get to the bottom of. Their paths converge when they both end up in the Canadian Arctic, where a team of scientists have discovered a crashed spaceship.

When the ship reacts to Clark, he takes the craft and hides it. However, thanks to the ship’s AI, it’s able to recreate his birth father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) as a hologram, and Clark learns about his home world. Jor-El inspires hope in his son, and putting on one of the Kryptonian suits, he begins to embrace his powers. Before he’s able to really become the hero he’s always meant to be, a Kryptonian ship under the command of the criminal General Zod (Michael Shannon) arrives with the intention of converting Earth into a New Krypton. Now Clark has to face the remnants of his people in order to save his adopted home; a fight that will earn him the name Superman.

Cavill would prove to be a good choice for the role of Clark Kent/Superman, and is perhaps the best thing in the movie. Cavill brings a sense of kindness to the character that is desperately needed in order for him to work on a fundamental level, and there are large portions of the film where Superman isn’t present. The film focuses a good deal on Clark Kent, and his decision of whether or not to put on the cape, and Cavill gave these moments a great deal of humanity. Sadly, this conflict would prove to be one of the biggest missteps in the film.

Whether alive or dead in the comics, Jonathan Kent is one of the most important figures in Clark’s life. Not only does he take in this alien baby and raise him as his own with nothing but kindness and care, but he also instils in Clark a strong sense of right and wrong. Jonathan has, across dozens of different stories, inspired Clark to be the best he can, to keep pushing for a better world, and to be the best of humanity. Man of Steel doesn’t do this, and instead Jonathan actively discourages Clark from being a hero. This has gone on to become one of the most contentious points of the film, with fans of the movie defending it, whilst others point out that Jonathan telling Clark he should have let a bus filled with children die is antithetical to the character as he’s always existed. Jonathan’s reluctance to see Clark be a hero even culminates in him allowing himself to die in a tornado, something Clark could have easily saved him from. Sadly, this would not be the only issue with the film.

One of the cardinal rules for pretty much all of DC’s heroes, and especially for Superman, is that he doesn’t kill. Over the years Superman has fought against countless threats, beings stronger, smarter, and faster than him, with powers he couldn’t even contend with. And in each of those cases he’s found a way to stop them without killing, and in some cases even without violence. Superman has gone up against some of the worst that this world and the universe beyond has to offer, and yet he refuses to take a life.

There’s a famous Superman comic, Action Comics #775, ‘What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice & The American Way?’ in which a group of edgy heroes that kill challenge Superman over his no killing stance. This group start to win public approval, and they keep pushing Superman over his stance. Superman eventually tricks them, makes them think he’s finally snapped and that he’s started killing the team, and it makes him a terrifying figure, and he says that the killing would be the easy choice. At the end, the leader of the group screams at Superman that his no killing rule means he’s living in a dream world, to which we get the reply “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul I swear until my dream of a world where dignity, honour and justice become the reality we all share I’ll never stop fighting.” Man of Steel has Superman kill; it has him make the easy choice, and it betrays his character. The push to make Superman edgy, a character who never needs that, created a version of the character that loses the right to be called Superman.

But a fundamental misunderstanding of the character is baked into Man of Steel, and you need not look much further than the visual metaphors and imagery that surround him in both the film and the marketing. In Man of Steel, Zack Snyder uses Superman as a Christ allegory. There’s a sequence in the movie where Superman floats away from a spaceship, his arms spread wide at his side to look like Jesus on the cross. He visits a Christian church to seek council from a priest, with the camera focusing heavily on images of Jesus in the scene. And one of the film’s marketing strategies was to release a nine page document called ‘Jesus – The Original Superhero’, designed to help the clergy incorporate Superman into their sermons and to directly compare him to Jesus. Whilst that last one is clearly quite crass, they all have one big issue: Superman has never been a Jesus allegory. He’s Moses. 

Superman’s origin shares a striking similarity with Moses, Superman is sent away from his doomed home, and is taken in in another land, raised by the people there, and is treated as one of them. However, later in life he learns of his true origins, and  realises that the gifts he has need to be used to help the downtrodden, the mistreated, and those in need. You can even closely line up the story of the burning bush talking to Moses and telling him who he is with the recordings from Jor-El teaching Clark the same.

But there’s also the fact that Superman was created by two Jewish men, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Both of them drew upon Jewish folk tales such as The Golem of Prague in the design of his powers (man of clay becoming man of steel). He was also created at a time when things were dangerous for Jewish people, particularly in Europe, where their families were from. Superman was made in part as a response to rising antisemitism, of a feeling of needing a hero in such dark times. The fact that Superman was bulletproof even came about in response to Siegel’s father being shot and killed. Superman is heavily steeped in Jewish culture, his creators were Jewish, and whilst the character of Clark Kent might not be Jewish in the comics it’s hard to deny that he’s a Jewish figure in a lot of ways. As such, the push to paint him as a Christ figure in Man of Steel felt incredibly wrong to a lot of people, and it sparked a number of articles, and intense debate on the subject.

Despite that criticism, there is some good to be found in Man of Steel. The film’s score, by Hans Zimmer, is very well executed, and there are a number of key moments in the film that are absolutely elevated thanks to that score. The scene in which Clark flies in the Superman suit for the first time is perhaps the most beautiful scene in the film. Zimmer made the smart choice to avoid any inclusion of, or allusion to, the famous John Williams Superman theme (something that would bafflingly be included in Cavill’s cameo in Black Adam), and instead would craft a really well made modern Superman theme. And whilst his theme will never reach the cultural saturation and recognition as Williams’, it is still a beautiful piece.

Man of Steel also includes some interesting design choices, particularly in regards to Krypton. Compared to almost every other live-action adaptation of Superman, the film spends a great deal of time on Krypton before the events of its destruction. The opening follows Jor-El as he goes up against General Zod, and we get to see the planet in its glory before its fall. This version of Krypton takes a big step away from what we’ve seen before in terms of design, and forgoes the brightly coloured robes and fancy headdresses, instead taking on a more muted tone, and using the planet’s technology as the basis for their buildings, armour, and costumes. These design choices would prove to be great later on in the film when the Kryptonians arrive on Earth, and their armour has such an alien look that it almost evokes the work of H.R. Geiger. Whilst Superman’s suit itself isn’t the best we’ve had, taking a lot of design cues from the New 52 look, it did at least look halfway decent, especially when next to the other Kryptonians.

Man of Steel is pretty far from a perfect Superman movie. It misunderstands the character in some pretty big ways, and seem focused on drawing in people who have demonstrated numerous times in online forums and on social media that they hate the source material. The desire to make a darker, edgier Superman for those that don’t like comics only went on to create one of the darkest, edgiest comic series yet, with Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League as the direct sequels to this.

Even some of the spin-off films seem to be following in its path of failing the character, with upcoming The Flash looking set to end this shared universe in a similarly bad way. You can’t really blame one film, or one director, for how terrible these films would become, but it’s hard not to argue that if this film had been made under a different director the DCEU and its films wouldn’t be in the sorry state they’re in now and in desperate need of a reboot. Man of Steel tried to remake Superman into something he’s not, and was ultimately a failure because of that.

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Mockingbird: Strike Out - A Marvel Heroines Novel by Maria Lewis - Book Review

 

'S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Bobbi Morse needs to get out of LA. Like, yesterday. With her painful divorce from Hawkeye still being hashed out, Bobbi could do with a new job to take her mind off the mind-numbing mediations. Luckily, an old friend and mentor of Bobbi’s is missing, so a jaunt to the UK might be the perfect distraction. What Bobbi isn’t anticipating is having to team up with the snarky and handsome Lance Hunter, but her options are limited if she wants to solve this mystery. Someone is trying to recreate and weaponize the original Super-Soldier Serum which could spell global disaster. To save the world, Bobbi will have to face her past, put her problems behind her, and let the Mockingbird take flight.'

Whilst I've read a decent amount of Marvel over the years, Mockingbird is a character that I've not really encountered before, and my only real experience with her is with her character from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series. That being said, when I saw that the latest book in the Marvel Heroines line was going to feature her I was excited to read the character for the first time. Then I read the description and saw that Lance Hunter, another character I had no comic experience with but had enjoyed in the television series, was going to be in the book, and I was absolutely on board.

Mockingbird: Strike Out begins with Bobbi Morse, the titular Mockingbird, dealing with a difficult chapter of her past as she's going through divorce proceedings with her husband, the fellow costumed hero Hawkeye. Things are not going well for her, not only has her difficult marriage fallen apart, but she and her husband seem to be at each others throats and trying to make things as hard as they can be. Tired at fighting with Clint over who gets what, Bobbi jumps at the chance to leave the country for a while for a special mission for S.H.I.E.L.D..

When a former mentor of hers, who's been working in Oxford as a professor, goes missing, Bobbi is sent to investigate. It might be nothing, but the fact that her professor used to work on a super soldier programme, and her having left under a dark cloud, means that her disappearance might indicate something more nefarious is going on, and that she might be walking into danger. Not long into the investigation Bobbi ends up running for her life, alongside S.T.R.I.K.E. agent Lance Hunter, who's also been investigating the professors disappearance. When the two agents are ordered to work together by their respective organisations, they start to find that they actually work really well together; and as the investigation goes on Bobbi finds herself becoming more and more attracted to the man. But is it too soon for her to jump back into the world of romance once again?

 There seem to be certain stories that work well in the comic book medium. Bright costumed heroes flying through the air, punching monsters through buildings, and performing great feats might work well in prose, but the drawn pages of a comic is where they excel. And whilst there have been some fantastic espionage style comics over the years, I've found that those kind of tales tend to just click more when presented in the prose format, and Mockingbird: Strike Out really exemplifies this, as a story that would have been a really good comic becomes an excellent novel thanks to the format it's been presented in.

One of the best things about this book is that we get to go deep into Bobbi Morse. Comics will allow the reader to do this to a certain degree with thought bubbles and narration boxes, but even then limited page space means that these tend to just be snippets. Mockingbird: Strike Out spends a lot of time getting to know Bobbie, and there are multiple times where we leave the world around her behind and go into her thought process, her emotions, and her history in a way that enhances both her character and the story around her. I loved getting to see such an intimate dive into a character that I've never gotten to read in the comics before, and came out of the book feeling like I'd gotten to know her really well. It was interesting to see how her mind worked, to see that she's not a cold, calculating secret agent super spy, but a woman with insecurities, passions, and a deep well of emotion. It humanised her wonderfully.

The book being able to slow down like this also helped with the style of story that it was telling. Instead of trying to cram things into a couple dozen pages of comic issues, chapters had room to breathe, and it meant that our heroes could take their time investigating, that they could explore more avenues, and that we the reader could have things explained to us in more detail so that we could keep up with it. Scenes like Lance explaining how they're going to figure out where a set of three historic keys would work based on their time periods and blueprint designs felt like an interesting deep dive into history and architecture; but it also felt like the kind of scene that would either be very cut down, or cut completely, from a comic. With this being a mystery story, one where investigation and the finding of clues is a key part of the narrative, being able to take as much time as needed and not being constrained by the format helped in spades; and I came away from the book thinking that this is probably the best way for stories with these kinds of characters to be told. Nick Fury would probably be a much better character in novel form than he is in the comics.

We also got a lot more time given over to the romance that forms between Bobbi and Lance, and it ended up feeling both incredibly natural, and well earned over the course of the book. Having only really known these characters from the TV series they were in, them getting together felt like the most obvious direction to take them; and I wasn't disappointed to see it happen here. Lance is also written very similar to his TV incarnation; though I don't know if that's because his comic counterpart is like that too. Maria Lewis manages to bring a lot of charm to a character that could easily slip into brash or annoying.

Lewis also does a good job at leaving hints throughout the story that I completely missed until moments later in the book that led to a big reveal or two. Looking back on it, some were less obvious than others, but there was one I was slapping myself for not having seen. She manages to make you think one thing is happening before throwing something ridiculously fun into the mix that reminds you this is a world of big, weird characters, and that it's not just a spy story set in our world. I think Marvel fans are going to have a lot of fun when these moments happen.

I had a great time with Mockingbird: Strike Out, and it was a genuine delight getting to know Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter in this way. Whilst I've enjoyed all of Aconyte's Marvel novels, I really hope that we get more with these two characters in the future, as their style of adventures suit the format well, and it feels like so many more adventures with them can be told.

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Burning Paradise (1994) – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

When most people think about martial arts movies they either picture slick modern productions, or older films that were made with little budget and felt like they were churned out to cash in on the popularity of the genre. Whilst more modern martial arts movies vary in tone quite a bit, older films tend to feel much the same: fairly light movies, with a comedy sidekick or two, and some over-the-top spectacle thrown in to wow the audience. Burning Paradise immediately feels different, and from the first few minutes of the movie I was surprised at how dark, violent, and bloody this Wuxia film ended up being; a feeling that would only grow as the film continued.

Directed by Ringo Lam, best known for grittier crime flicks such as City on Fire, and Prison on Fire, as well as the Van Damme action movie Maximum Risk, Burning Paradise takes a step away from the more whimsical side of martial arts action movies, and takes viewers to a darker place, ending up feeling like the nightmare version of the genre. The film opens with religious texts burning, statues of Buddha being destroyed, and the decapitated bodies of Shaolin monks. There’s no way to sugar-coat what is being depicted on screen, and Lam drops the viewers into the middle of a massacre with no apology.

From here we meet Fok Sai-yuk (Willie Chi Tin-sang), a young Shaloin disciple, and his master as they flee the massacre in the desert. Unfortunately, they’re pursued by more than a dozen soldiers on horseback. With no way of escaping, the duo have to make a valiant stand; at which point Fok Sai-yuk draws his huge sword and starts cutting his opponents into pieces. As soon as one of the soldiers is cut in half, his severed legs still on the horse, spraying blood whilst his upper torso hits the ground in a gush of body fluids, it becomes clear that this is a film that isn’t going to shy away from the violence. Despite being a Wuxia movie, this film doesn’t glamorise or enhance the fighting a great deal, and other than one or two moments much of what we see in Burning Paradise feels startlingly real.

Managing to defeat the soldiers, Fok Sai-yuk and his master take shelter in a small building, where they meet Dau Dau (Carman Lee Yeuk-tung), a young woman trying her best to survive. When the three of them are captured, Fok Sai-Yuk’s master is killed, and he and Dau Dau are taken prisoner and sent to the Red Lotus temple. The Red Lotus temple is ruled by the evil Elder Kung (Wong Kam-kong), a sadistic jailer who tortures his prisoners, fills his temple with death traps, sexually abuses women, and spends his days painting using blood. As Dau Dau is taken away to be his latest concubine, Fok Sai-yuk must find a way of escaping the prison with his life.

It’s once the film reaches the Red Lotus temple that things really click into place with Burning Paradise. From this point on the film loses all daylight, and we’re stuck underground, in a dark and twisted place filled with death and suffering. The temple has cages filled with suffering prisoners, pits where the dead are dumped, rooms decorated with corpses, and deadly arenas in which troublemakers are forced to fight to the death. In a lot of ways it feels like the heroes of the movie are stuck in a hell on Earth, and that tone bleeds into almost every part of the movie.

However, this means that Lam is able to concentrate upon the setting, and we get some really interesting set-pieces because of this. One of the fights in the film sees two opponents on a suspended platform, flames and spikes below them, fighting to the death. Blades and spikes shoot out of the platform at different points, adding a dangerous dynamic to the fight that means the combatants are never sure if their next step is a safe one or not. It feels like a Mortal Kombat arena brought to life, more so that any location in the actual Mortal Kombat films, and the ultra-violent deaths that occur feel like a vicious fatality move.

The traps that are scattered throughout of the movie also add a delightful wrinkle to things, as you’re never sure if a character is about to die horribly. And yes, it does happen more than once, as so it never feels like an empty threat just thrown in. The traps are cleverly thought through, and the moments that they come into play make for some truly shocking scenes that result in an ‘oh my god, did you see that?’ moment.

With the film taking such a serious tone, or at least such a dark tone, it’s not spoiled by any of the acting. Hong Kong cinema has a wonderful tradition of marrying comedy into its action movies. Some of the better loved movies and bigger name stars in Hong Kong cinema use comedy to keep their movies light and to keep the moments between fights fun. Burning Paradise doesn’t have any of its cast making jokes or acting the fool between its action scenes, and instead embraces the dark tone the movie has. We get to see Fok Sai-yuk getting pushed to the edge as he realises that he’s either going to have to kill to escape, or die in the temple, and Dau Dau goes from an outgoing and confident young woman to one almost broken by the torture that Elder Kung puts her through, with one of the most disturbing scenes being the moment that leads up to her rape. The cast act their hearts out, and it’s their performances that help to keep the intensity of the piece going.

The new Blu-ray release features a newly restored 1080p HD presentation of the movie from the original 35mm negative, making this one of the crispest and cleanest versions of the film to date. The film is also presented in its original Cantonese with English subtitles, though there is an English language audio commentary from Asian film expert Frank Djeng, who has provided commentaries on a number of Eureka’s releases. Unfortunately, the rest of the disc runs pretty light, with an archival interview with the movie’s producer Tsui Hark, and a trailer.

Those that come to Hong Kong martial arts movies expecting a bit of light-hearted fun are going to find Burning Paradise quite different, and something of a surprise. But it is a pleasant one. Lam has crafted a film that feels unique and different, yet also reminds me of a number of other films with a similarly dark tone (though I’ve struggled to put my finger on exactly what it is it reminds me of). Compared to a lot of films in the genre, Burning Paradise feels like one that will stick in your memory a lot longer.

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Cocaine Bear: Maximum Rampage Edition – 4K UHD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There are two genres that often walk a very fine line with each other: horror and comedy. In some cases there are horror movies that are that bad they stray into the comedy genre because you just end up laughing at how awful it is.

And there are comedies that go so dark that it’s hard to argue they’re not in the horror genre. But it’s when the filmmakers begin with the intention of marrying the two that the sweet spot is found. Films like The Evil Dead 2 (which spawned a sequel film and series that leaned even more heavily into the comedy tropes) and Zombieland found huge popularity thanks to making audiences laugh one second, and then throwing blood and guts at them the next. Cocaine Bear is the latest movie to try to join this sub-genre; and does a pretty good job of it.

Cocaine Bear is loosely (very loosely) based upon the real life story of Cokey the Bear (I prefer Pablo Escobear), a black bear that ingested $20 million worth of cocaine dumped in a Tennessee forest, and promptly died. Not ever being a place to stick to historical accuracy, Hollywood has turned Cokey’s story into one of a bear high on drugs, killing anyone it comes across. But, Cocaine Bear isn’t just about vicious and ridiculous bear attacks, as there are some human stories thrown into the mixture too.

Cocaine Bear begins quite closely to the real events, with a small plane transporting drugs over the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest. When the plane experiences difficulties, the pilot throws out bags packed with bricks of cocaine, before jumping out himself. Unfortunately he doesn’t survive the bail out, and cops find his body, and drugs, on a gentleman’s lawn. Realising that he was transporting coke, Detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) suspects there may be more drugs out in the forest. At the same time, the dealer who the drugs were heading towards, Syd (Ray Liotta) needs to retrieve them to avoid anger from those above him in the chain, and so sends his enforcer Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and depressed son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to get them back.

The forest isn’t just the destination of cops and drug dealers though, as single mother Sari (Keri Russell) with the assistance of park ranger Liz (Margo Martindale), head up there to look for Sari’s daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) and her friend Henry (Christian Convery), who have skipped out on school. And so these various groups begin to converge on the remote national park, each with their own reasons for being there, and soon to be united in a fight for survival against a drugged up black bear who’ll rip apart anyone between her and her precious drugs.

Cocaine Bear doesn’t even try to take itself too seriously, and that absolutely works to its benefit. This isn’t a film that could work any other way, and it seems like director Eliabeth Banks fully understands that, and embraces the sense of ridiculous and weird that permeates the movie. It’s not just the fact that there’s a coked-up bear running around the woods, but even the people and their exploits have an air of the ridiculous and odd. Bob is made up like a hardened, grizzled cop, but is having to deal with his dog adoption agency accidentally sending him a tiny show dog. Syd is a vicious drug dealer, but is stuck babysitting his grandson, after the death of his daughter-in-law sends his son into a pit of depression, and his son is not only having to deal with the loss of his wife, but his memorial tattoo to her accidentally having a man’s name instead.

Almost every character that appears on film is a stereotype that’s been given a little bit of a twist to make them feel slightly odd and off. All except for Sari, who’s pretty much the straight-man of the film. Keri Russell is a mother out to find her missing kid, and whilst she does have some moments to say a few funny lines she’s treated as pretty grounded compared to everyone else. This might be because her story is the only one with the real stakes of trying to find missing kids, or it could be because she’s really the only person in those woods without some kind of ulterior motive, or rule breaking reason. Even the cop is out there on his own to try and get the big arrest to make himself look good, not because it’s the right thing to do.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the film though is the fact that it’s not just bear attacks that fill out the movie and cause carnage, as a lot of the blood and death happens at the hands of the human characters too. Whether it’s people out to screw each other over, or bizarre series of accidents that lead to over the top deaths, the film seems like it’s setting out to make each moment more ridiculous and fun filled than the last, and there are more than a few parts of the movie that have you shaking your head, wondering what you’ve just watched, but in the most delightful of ways.

The new 4K Ultra-HD release also comes with a few extras for those wanting even more Cokey in their lives. There’s an alternate ending and a few deleted scenes, though these come to probably less than five minutes in total. There are a few behind the scenes features that go into the making of the movie and they show a little bit about how the gory death scenes were made. Whilst this is interesting stuff, it does feel very light on the ground, with each being ten minutes long at a maximum, and you’ll be through all of the extras in less than half hour, which is a bit disappointing.

Cocaine Bear is never going to win awards, it’s never going to be spoken of with reverence, or held up as anything other than silly fluff. But if you’re looking for some silly fluff, something that will entertain you and make you laugh at how silly and fun it is, then this is a film that will easily provide. It makes a very clear mission statement with the title, and the film delivers on that ridiculousness in spades.

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Silent Hill 3 – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

When it was first released, the Silent Hill franchise was considered a bit of a black sheep of the survival horror genre. At the time there were relatively few games in that particular genre, and the more action approach of the Resident Evil series tended to be the more popular one, with most other games that tried to make a space for themselves in the genre emulating that series.

Whilst over the years more games have begun to take the Silent Hill approach, of pushing the weird, psychological horror side over the action, and a fair few games in the genre now even discourage combat altogether, back at the turn of the millennium Silent Hill was still something unusual. As such, a third game in the series was considered something of a risk at Konami.

It’s strange now, when Silent Hill 2 is considered to be one of the greatest horror games ever made, to think that the franchise were considering giving up after the second game. But, when it came time to continue the series on after the first sequel the folks at Konami looked at the initial low sale, and some fan criticism in Japan, and some plans were put in place to alter the series quite dramatically. Silent Hill 3 initially began life as an on-rails shooter game, one that would have had little connection to the first two games, and would focus almost entirely on action over horror. Little is known about this situation, and it was only revealed five years ago thanks to tweets from one of the game’s lead staff, so we don’t know why the decision was made to go back to the traditional survival horror setting, but whatever prompted it was a good thing.

With things now back on track for the game, though some time and budget had been wasted already, the decision was made to address one of the big criticisms of Silent Hill 2: that it wasn’t a direct sequel to the first game. The choice was made to follow on the plot of the first game, but that the setting would jump forward a number of years. Instead of being put in the role of Harry Mason, the lead character from the original game, you’d take on the role of Heather (Heather Morris), his daughter. This marked the first (and so far only) time in the franchise that players would get to take control of a female protagonist.

The game begins with Heather at the mall, where she awakens from a twisted, disturbing nightmare. When she’s approached by a private investigator, Douglas (Richard Grosse), who wants to talk to her about the circumstances of her birth, Heather sneaks away from him and tries to get out the back of the mall. However, she soon finds herself in a strange, nightmare version of the mall, filled with decay, blood, and monsters. It’s here that she meets a mysterious woman named Claudia (Donna Burke), who tells Heather that she will be instrumental in bringing about paradise on Earth.  Finally escaping this Otherworld, she manages to get home, where it turns out her father has been murdered by Claudia. Determined to get revenge, Heather and Douglas head after Claudia, into the town of Silent Hill.

Whilst the game initially drops you into the role of Heather with no hint that there’s something more to her than any of the other protagonists of the series, players will learn pretty early on that Heather’s father is Harry, and that that makes her the baby that he finds at the end of the first game; a baby who’s the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie, one of the main antagonists/monsters in the first game, and the person responsible for much of the series. Whilst this does play into some very muddy waters of Silent Hill lore and confusing plots, it makes Silent Hill 3 the direct sequel that fans were clamouring for.

The game mostly sticks to the same kind of game-play and action that the first two games were known for, providing the player with a flashlight and radio for navigating the environment, and a variety of melee weapons and firearms for dealing with monsters. The game did introduce a couple of new features, such as being able to lure monsters away using beef jerky in order to get past certain creatures, and avoid combat.

One of the ways that the game improved over past entries was by introducing variable difficulty settings. Players would be able to choose game-play difficulty and puzzle difficulty individually, tailoring the game to suit their play-style the best. This feature was heavily praised, thanks in part to the sharp increase in difficulty in puzzles on the different settings. For example, a puzzle on medium difficulty featured pattern recognition, whilst on hard mode would require the player to have knowledge of the works of Shakespeare.

Upon release the game received mostly positive reviews, with the story and atmosphere receiving accolades. It was liked for its approach to horror, and the game design was held up as being some of the best in the series for the environments. Sadly, it failed to produce anything as memorable as Pyramid Head from the second game (but to be fair, none of the games have). The music, produced by Akira Yamaoka, was heavily praised thanks to its eerie quality and nightmarish tracks. The music was popular enough to receive a release as an official soundtrack globally, and was also heavily featured in the Silent Hill film.

Speaking of films, the plot for the game was adapted into the second movie, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, which starred Adelaide Clemens as Heather, and Carrie-Ann Moss as Claudia; it also saw Sean Bean return as Harry Mason and featured  Kit Harington and Malcolm McDowell in supporting roles. Whilst the first film was generally liked by fans, the second was hated.

Silent Hill 3 could have been a big turning point; it was the game that almost changed what Silent Hill is all about, but instead it cemented the series. It ticked a lot of boxes for fans, and after Silent Hill 2, gets held up as the best of the sequels. With the series having somewhat failed to recapture the magic since Silent Hill 3 it remains to be seen if the newly revealed slate of games in production will manage to break the curse, or if they’ll fall into obscurity too.

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Chocolateers by Frank Valenti – Graphic Novel Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Struggling musician Gilby Moss craves an audience for his songs and a reason to keep writing them. Cullen Cordial, ruler of Cocoa Kingdom, is seeking to upturn his down-streaking approval rating. The two cross paths when Gilby gains a spot in Cordial’s new boy band/special missions task force, the Chocolateers.'

Creating an independent comic isn’t easy. There are multiple things that can go wrong, from finding a reliable artist, to getting decent printing and distribution, and finding a space for your product on shelves. Having worked in the comic industry, and the indie scene, I’ve seen multiple creators try to make it in that industry, and struggle to do so. Frank Valenti, a writer and artist from New Jersey, is the latest creator to try and make their way in this competitive field with their new graphic novel Chocolateers.

Chocolateers, written and drawn by Valenti, tells a few stories within the same universe. The main story is about Gilby Moss, a guy in the latter part of his twenties who has been trying to make it as part of a band for the last decade. With his 30s looming, and no sign that his music career is going to be taking off anytime soon, he’s lost at sea. He doesn’t know what to do with his life if he can’t make it as a musician, and whiles away his spare time helping his best friend out with his pizza delivery job. One day when grabbing some lunch a ta local fast food restaurant, Gilby wins a free food for life competition; a competition that was never supposed to have a winner.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend Muffin and her best friend are working on their tiny food science channel, trying to have some fun and hopefully grab an audience. Things aren’t going so well for them, and the girls are considering whether or not to carry on, when their channel gets a shout-out on the nation’s most popular talk show, netting them hundreds of thousands of new viewers.

We also meet former TV game show host turned actor turned politician, King Cordial, who runs Cocoa Nation. Cordial’s approval ratings keep dropping, and he becomes desperate to find a way to win over public affection whilst he works on making the perfect chocolate flavoured beverage. He comes up with the plan to create a boy band; one that will become the most popular around, believing that having a connection to them will regain his standing with the public. In the neighbouring country of NillaNation, their leader Baron von Vanilla, a rival of Cordial’s who had an almost identical career path, is slipping into dementia, but vows to ruin his rival any way he can, including kidnapping their star TV personality. There’s also a sub-plot of a mob-run fast food restaurant manager trying to steal back Gilby’s free food card thrown in for good measure.

How do these plots all tie in together? Well, they don’t really; at least until the last few pages. It’s only at the end of the first volume that these seemingly unconnected stories start to finally come together. And that’s perhaps the main issue with this first volume: it’s all set-up. A lot happens in Chocolateers yet also very little happens. The plot simmers in the background as most of the scenes are given over to world building or developing the characters.

There are multiple scenes that go over three or four pages that are simply two or three characters sitting around talking. They discuss their lives, their goals, the people around them, and much of the book comes across as like listening in on someone’s conversations. The characters meander, they get distracted, they take a while to get to the point, and they have in-jokes and banter with each other. This kind of writing can be divisive; there are some that enjoy this kind of laid back approach to dialogue, and there’s definitely a niche for that in comics. If you enjoy films like Clerks, where characters stand around and shoot the breeze with each other, or your favourite parts of Tarantino movies are where the characters are chatting about unconnected stuff, this book will likely appeal for those same reasons. Thanks to some of the pages being heavy on the dialogue it also ends up feeling like you’re reading a much longer book, giving you more content for your cash.

As mentioned before, Valenti not only writes the script, but provides the art on the book too. The characters of Chocolateers are animals: anthropomorphic bears, lions, and goats, to name a few. Whilst the story of Chocolateers feels like a very human one, and the issues facing the characters could easily fit within a real-world setting, having the characters be animals people helps to add some colour and flair to the story. When the story is more grounded it helps to have something a bit different visually, and this book does just that. The artwork is simple and clean, with thick lines and bright colours, and looks decent throughout, with a lot of attention given to backgrounds and small details.

Why is the book called Chocolateers though? This volume doesn’t tell you. However, the trailer for the book does reveal a bit more about the story than in presented in this first volume, and does explain why it has that particular title. With the first volume spending a lot of time establishing the world and the characters there’s nothing stopping Valenti jumping straight into things with volume two.

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Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories #5 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

It’s bee a while since we got the last issue of Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories, which told four tales from across the Star Wars timeline, that all seemed to have a very slight connection with each other. Those issues followed the heroes of the various trilogies, with characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Finn, and Rey Skywalker leading the stories. After a small break it looks like the series is back, and it’s letting the villains run things for a while.

The fifth issue focuses on fan favourite assassin, Asajj Ventress, and takes place during the very early days of the Clone Wars. Thanks to some context clues, this story has to be taking place very soon after the events of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and before the events of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, though there does seem to be a few mistakes in the book that mess with placement a little.

The story begins on a remote base, one held by the Jedi and the Republic forces. Ventress, under orders from Count Dooku, infiltrates the facility, but is soon captured by a Jedi knight and her padawan. Locked in a cell for days, it’s revealed to have been part of her plan, and she eventually breaks out once the Jedi leave, taking over the facility for her master. Much like with Ventress as we see her in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this is a Ventress very much under the thumb of Dooku, being used as an expendable resource who’s only useful as long as she’s getting results.

The rest of the book deals with Ventress being sent after a lost artefact, one powerful with the Force, that Dooku tells her will allow the two of them to overcome Sidious, and supplant him as the true Sith. Ventress is led a merry chase across a number of worlds as she searches for the artefact; a search that will bring her into conflict with more Republic forces.

It seems that this issue isn’t as disconnected from the previous four as it first appears. Thanks to the gap in publication, and the change from heroes to villains, it looked like perhaps the series would be going in a different direction, and would cover a different story for this second arc. However, it seems that the artefact Ventress is being sent after is the same thing hidden in the wookiee doll in the very first issue, as she comes across that same doll here.

This plot point was never fully explained in that first issue, and it seemed like characters with Force connections were being drawn to places this doll existed, so it makes sense that it has some connection to the Force. However, like with the previous issues, we don’t really get any explanation. What is the artefact? How will it help Dooku and Ventress beat Sidious? Why could Ventress sense it from different planets but the heroes couldn’t feel it right in front of them across the three trilogy timelines? None of these answers get given. As such, it seems like one of two things is going to happen: either this is the big plot for the entire series, or it’s simply a mcguffin and it doesn’t matter.

The art on the issue, by Riccardo Faccini and Dan Jackson, is good for the most part, and all of the returning characters look enough like their film and television counterparts to be instantly recognisable. There are some moments in the book that look really great too, with a couple of panels of both Dooku and Ventress being the best I’ve ever seen them look in comic form. However, there are a few moments that don’t land as well.

There’s a scene in which Ventress gets tripped into a cell by an unseen assailant. And this moment is conveyed by a panel simply showing a pair of feet. It’s the only part of this Jedi we see, and it feels really clunky and a bit of a let down. There are also some mistakes in the depiction of Anakin Skywalker in this issue too. This is set after Star Wars: Attack of the Clones as the Clone War is in full swing, and Anakin is a Jedi knight, yet he has two hands in this issue. The hand that he lost in the second film isn’t a robot hand, nor is it covered with a glove, and is a regular flesh and blood appendage. This is a pretty glaring mistake for anyone who knows the prequel era well.

Other than a few parts that don’t quite land that well, and a story that kind of fizzles out for a bit towards the end, this is a decent enough restart to the series. It’s not fantastic, but it’s not terrible either. It’s a perfectly serviceable story in a decent era of Star Wars. Hopefully, though, the quality will improve somewhat as the series continues.

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Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Throwback 40

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Star Wars is a franchise with a lot of history, and not just in universe. Since the release of the very first movie in May 1977, the franchise secured its place in film history. It’s not hard to argue that the original trilogy is one of the most influential film series of all time, having inspired a multitude of imitations, as well as birthing a love for cinema and storytelling in thousands of fans and creatives. Even before the trilogy had come to a close it had become one of the biggest film series around; as such, bringing that story to a close in 1983 with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi must have been a daunting prospect.

After the runaway success of the first film, and the critical acclaim of the second, it seemed like series creator George Lucas would have to create the perfect film in order to please fans. Seeing what modern Star Wars fans are like, and how quickly fandom can turn into a rabid mob at even a slight dislike, it’s not hard to imagine that similar discourse was happening at the time, and that Lucas knew he had to create something special.

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi picks up just a year after the events of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, a film that is still held up as one of the best sequels of all time. Thanks to Harrison Ford having only signed onto two movies, in contrast to his co-stars’ three, Han Solo was carefully put away into the closet at the end of the second film, his fate uncertain, so that he could either be written out for good, or brought back if a deal was made. It’s strange to think that there was very nearly a movie without Ford in it, and that the character would have been lost forever, but even with the success of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back there were no certainties for the final Star Wars film.

Those uncertainties also took place behind the scenes, with multiple directors being approached to helm the movie, including Steven Spielberg, David Cronenberg, and David Lynch. Not even the film’s name was safe, with the title changing to Revenge of the Jedi, with thousands of posters being distributed and a teaser trailer with that name being released (you can find it on YouTube if you’re interested in a bit of cinema history), before Lucas decided to change it back to the original title, stating that a Jedi wouldn’t be interested in revenge (a good decision that absolutely dodged a muddled legacy of fan discourse and disagreements). Despite these initial teething difficulties, the film was soon on track, with Ford returning.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was split across two parts, with the film’s opening having to deal with the issue of Han Solo’s capture at the end of the last movie. Having to get their friend back from gangster Jabba the Hutt, Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Lando (Billy Dee Williams), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) hatch an intricate plot to infiltrate Jabba’s palace and free him.

The opening for the film becomes a swashbuckling adventure movie, complete with daring escapes, action and explosions, and a menagerie of new aliens and creatures to astonish the audience. The opening of Return of the Jedi is perhaps the best example from the original trilogy of the creativeness of Star Wars. The first film introduced the universe but kind of kept things small, the second was a darker tale about loss and the power of the Empire, but this movie opened with a showcase of special effects, creature design, and heroes being victorious. It set a tone for the film that would continue on to the conclusion.

The rest of the film would deal with the Rebel Alliance coming together to combat the threat of a second Death Star weapon, launching a two pronged assault against the half built facility in order to destroy it, and kill both the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) and Darth Vader (James Earl Jones/David Prowse), who are overseeing the final stages of construction. From here the film becomes part war story, with the Rebels fighting a guerrilla fight against ground forces, and the biggest space battle of the franchise to date, whilst Luke enters a final confrontation against his father.

I’ve seen it argued that Return of the Jedi is the worst film of the three original ones, though people will tend to say ‘least good’ as they still enjoy it. Some of the criticism that gets levelled against it is that it feels more like a ‘kids’ film thanks to the inclusion of the Ewoks, and some of the stuff at Jabba’s palace. I’m not going to try and argue that it’s not the least good of the three, or that it’s the second best, I’m going to suggest that it might be the best one. When looked at in the context of the entire franchise and where it is now, with several other films across different eras, live action and animated series, novels, comics, and games that have all added to and expanded the universe, I think that Return of the Jedi feels the most Star Wars of those original three.

A New Hope takes a relatively small look at the universe, having to establish everything brand new, and The Empire Strikes Back tells the story of a loss for the Rebels, but from the point of view of Luke and his friends. Those first two films feel small, insular, focused on just a handful of people. Return of the Jedi brings in the entire Rebel Alliance for the final fight, a fight that’s bigger than anything we’ve seen before. The Emperor is finally here in person, and we learn more about the Jedi and the Sith than before, and see the kind of evil that Palpatine embodies and how important Luke’s fight is. And when they win we see (thanks to the Special Editions) the galactic scope of that victory, with celebrations across the galaxy. Return of the Jedi turned this story into one that changed the entire Star Wars universe, and it felt grand in scale.

More importantly, it felt the most hopeful. The entire Rebellion came together for one last shot at winning, in a fight where a loss would have meant the loss of everything. People from dozens of races and hundreds of worlds stood up against fascism and evil and said enough is enough. When Luke fights his father he refuses to kill him, he refuses to give into his anger and fully embraces what it means to be a Jedi. And when all hope seems lost a father’s love for his son ultimately wins through. Return of the Jedi is the most hopeful of the original trilogy, and it makes the message of those films incredibly clear: that standing up against evil and hate is the right thing to do, and that that fight can be won. So yeah, it might have been more aimed towards younger audiences thanks to things like the Ewoks, but it taught those younger viewers a hell of an important lesson. Plus, the Ewoks are cool, and I won’t apologise for thinking that.

For almost two decades Star Wars: Return of the Jedi would be the last Star Wars film. It was how that story ended for a lot of people who didn’t explore the expanded universe, and it was a wonderful way to put a pause on that franchise for a while. Whilst the prequel trilogy would end up closing on an almost exact opposite note, with evil winning the day and hope seeming lost, the final film of The Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker would in many ways feel similar to Return of the Jedi; echoing similar sentiments, with ordinary people coming together to fight back evil, the embracing of Jedi ways to defeat the Sith, and scenes of celebration and hope across the galaxy. Return of the Jedi crafted the perfect end to the trilogy that it would be felt again decades later. Like George said, “It’s like poetry, it rhymes”.

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Restart the Earth – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Humanity is at a strange point in its history. We’re facing the point of no return in regards to the destruction we’ve caused to our planet, with less and less time to do something about it every single day. It feels almost certain that we’ve engineered our own end, and that our future generations are going to be living in every increasingly dire circumstances as the planet suffers.

As such, eco-disasters have slowly been on the rise. When you’re living in a time when forests are burning, the seas are rising, the ice-caps are melting, and entire species are going extinct, it’s hard not to incorporate the extreme shifts in our planet into fiction. Restart the Earth, written and directed by Chinese director Zhenzhao Lin, is the latest piece of fiction to cash in on this growing trend.

Restart the Earth begins a few years after the end of the world, but quickly catches us up through a series of flashbacks across the first fifteen minutes or so. Faced with increased global extremes, a group of scientists got together to try to improve the ability of various flora to survive in harsh conditions, hoping that it would help combat global warming. Unfortunately, the experiments resulted in the plants becoming both sentient, and hyper evolved. The now predatory, interconnected flora turned on every living thing it could find, using any animal (including humanity) as a food source.

Two years later, the world as we know it is gone, plants have run rampant, destroying entire cities and covering every inch of the planet. Those that have survived the initial ‘green wave’ are surviving in small pockets, using UV lights to keep the monstrous plants away, hoping that one day things can improve. One of these survivors is Yang Hao (Mickey He) and his young daughter YuanYuan (Zhang Mingcan). When YuanYaun is captured by one of the plant tendrils that breaks its way into their small home, Yang goes after her, and the two of them discover a special unit of soldiers from the Joint Command Centre who are part of a global mission to beat back the super plants before a second Green Wave hits and destroys the surviving members of the human race.

Restart the Earth is very much a B Movie, and I say that with the greatest of affection and respect. The plot is very ridiculous, and the set pieces that the characters go through feel like an attempt to out-do the previous ones, and to compete with the wildest big budget video games. There are a number of points in the movie that feel like they’ve been lifted out of other similar projects, and one of these in particular strikes me as the reason the film has been marketed as being similar to The Last of Us. Despite this, the actors play it completely seriously throughout, and it stops the film from veering too far into the ridiculous and keeps things feeling somewhat grounded.

That being said, the film absolutely has a propensity to embrace self sacrifice and heroic moments, as is popular in big blockbusters (and Chinese blockbusters especially). There’s more than one moment of ultimate sacrifice across the course of the film that you begin to suspect that every single character is going to throw themselves into a fiery explosion at some point. However, it is nice to see a global fight back against extinction where it’s not an American giving the stirring speech that gives humanity the push it needs to save the day.

The film’s effects are mostly decent, though there are a number of times when you can see where a bit more money could have been spent in order to bring certain moments up to scratch. These moments aren’t that common though, and the film sits nicely in the mid-budget range where you expect some shakiness, yet it can still pleasantly surprise you. For example, some of the monster plant designs are really pretty good.

For the most part the survivors are dealing with masses of vines that are tearing up the ground or bringing down buildings, but there are also snake-like tendrils that slither around the place hunting for humans to eat, that have a design that evokes images of dragons and fantasy serpents. There’s also a horrific plant creature at the start of the film that’s feeding on multiple people at once, which has a mass of vines that look almost like a hanging brain that evokes nightmarish imagery. Sadly, this level of creativity doesn’t appear all that often, and much of the plants end up being unmemorable.

It does manage to pace itself pretty decently though, and it manages to pack a decent amount into its relatively short run time. It sets up the entire scenario, and gives a few scenes of flashback character motivation for the central characters before most movies have even introduced the leads. It keeps things moving briskly from there, throwing the characters from one set piece to the next without much chance to stop and take a breather, and by the time the film reaches the point where it feels the finale will happen you realise there’s another twenty minutes or so to go, and the movie throws some even wilder stuff at you. It ends up feeling like you’ve had a two hour plus movie crammed into a smaller package, without feeling like you’ve missed out on anything.

Restart the Earth might not be the most creative movie around, and it borrows heavily from other places, but it at least tries to be a bit different. It might not succeed at being totally unique or memorable, but the attempt makes it enjoyable to watch, and there’s nothing hugely egregious here to put you off or stop you from recommending it. If you’re looking for something a little schlocky to pass the time this film will probably be entertaining enough to dedicate 90 minutes to.

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Hopping Mad: The Mr Vampire Sequels – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

One of the things that movie fans seem to complain about a lot is the speed at which modern movies make sequels. Once a studio has a hit on their hands it seems like almost no time at all until another film is underway, and a franchise in the works.

And I guess compared to Hollywood of decades ago when it could take several years for big name franchises to bring out another film, a two or three year turn around can seem fast. But I don’t think I’ve seen anyone produce sequels faster than Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s; once they found a good thing that was a hit with audiences you were almost guaranteed to have another film before a year had passed. And the horror comedy series Mr Vampire was no exception to this, with five films being released over five years.

With Eureka Entertainment having previously released the first film in the series as a stand-alone Blu-ray, fans of the franchise were waiting for the other films to come out, preferably with the same speed and efficiency as their initial release schedule. But rather than releasing them one at a time, Eureka Entertainment have unveiled Hopping Mad: The Mr Vampire Sequels collection, which brings all four sequels together in one set to complete the collection. It’s never been a better time to be a fan.

The first film in this set is Mr Vampire II (1986), which is perhaps the most distinct of the bunch thanks to taking some bold story choices. Since the release of the first movie the popularity of the Jiangshi genre had exploded, and there were multiple knock-off movies all trying to cash in on the success, and brand themselves as the next Mr Vampire. This, in part, led to the choice to transport the action of the second movie from the turn of the century mainland China to modern day Hong Kong. Despite being set in a whole new era, with a new bunch of characters, the film saw the return of a number of actors from the first movie in new roles as a form of connective cohesion.

The film begins with an archaeologist and his two students stumbling across a burial site where they find three bodies perfectly preserved. This man, woman, and child, likely a family, all have Taoist talismans stuck to their heads. Thanks to the desire to sell the corpses and make money, the three men don’t bother researching into what they’ve found, and end up unleashing the three vampires. Luckily, a local doctor, played by series icon Lam Ching-ying is on hand to deal with the threat. Despite the change in location and era, Mr Vampire II does share a surprising similarity with the first film (and not just because of the cast). The first movie had a lot of subtext in regards to the clash of traditional values and culture with that of modernisation and western influence. This is even more prevalent in this movie, and is a theme that is explored in Hong Kong cinema a lot thanks to their unique circumstances.

The Chinese title for Mr Vampire II translates to ‘Vampire Family’, and the group of vampires at the centre of the film also make this a stand out movie amongst the others in the series. The vampires are very much presented as a family unit, and much of the carnage is caused by the two parent vampires trying to find their missing child. The child, who gets separated, ends up making friends with a couple of modern kids, who mistake him for an immigrant child and try to help him. The movie even gives you a cutesy montage of the vampire boy and his new human friends going on a day out, riding the bus, and playing in the park. It’s very jarring, and doesn’t fit completely with the tone of the rest of the movie, but this is a series that likes to mess with expectations and genres, so it’s not the oddest thing that a Mr Vampire movie has done.

Thankfully, much of the horror comedy and action of the first film has been included, and those that enjoyed the weird hi-jinks of the original will find a lot to enjoy here too. The scene in which one of the archaeologists assistants has to desperately switch talismans between two vampires trying to kill him is an incredibly well put together and choreographed scene that walks the line between horror and comedy perfectly.

Mr Vampire III (1987) is perhaps the oddest of the four films collected here for one very big reason: there are no vampires in it. It’s possible that the lack of vampires in this film is due in part to the proliferation of Jiangshi movies that were being made at the time, and that the series wanted to keep itself different and interesting. Whilst Mr Vampire III gave up on vampires, it did return to the series roots and went backwards in time to a more traditional setting. The film focuses on a dishonest priest, played by the hugely popular comedian Richard Ng (who sadly passed away just last month), who use two friendly ghosts to scam people out of money.

When the dishonest priest stumbles across a small community that is under attack from evil magic practitioners, he ends up getting dragged into the fight thanks to their village priest, played by Lam Ching-ying. Thus, spirits and evil wizards get the centre stage this time round. This leads to a neat expansion of the lore introduced in the other films. Western audiences are, more often than not, ignorant of other the traditions and beliefs of other parts of the world, and as such many of the rituals and traditions present in these films have little frame of reference for audiences outside of China and Hong Kong. As such, the new lore added in this film can be both surprising and baffling, as characters strip off and cover themselves in soot to become invisible to ghosts, and deep fry spirits in order to neutralise them.

Mr Vampire III is perhaps the strangest, most comedic of the films on offer here. This is in part down to the supernatural antics, but it’s also in large part thanks to the casting of Richard Ng, whose career became synonymous with comedic roles, and whose inclusion in a movie guaranteed ridiculous moments to come. Here he works perfectly alongside Lam Ching-ying’s straight laced priest, and the two of them develop a decent rapport as the film progresses, and they become the priestly equivalent of a buddy cop duo.

The third film in the collection is 1988’s Mr Vampire IV, and is the only film in the series that doesn’t feature Lam Ching-ying. Instead, the film has two lead priest characters, one a Taoist, the other a Buddhist. These two older masters live in houses set side by side in the middle of nowhere with their two students, and are constantly warring with each other. The first half of the movie becomes a slapstick comedy as the two priests play pranks on each other, even going so far as using magic to mess with the other and tormenting them to breaking point.

It’s at around the halfway point that the film finally introduces its vampire, and it’s a hell of an introduction. The vampires featured in the other films in the series have so far been presented as pale people with fangs, maybe a bit greenish in places. This movie’s vampire, in comparison, is much more frightening. The film uses heavy make-up to make him look more monstrous and aggressive, and the moment he’s let loose from his coffin he begins slaughtering people. The scene, accompanied by rain and lightning, feels like the closest the series gets to out and out horror, and it makes for an even more shocking scene as it’s set within a film that’s been a pure comedy up to this point.

The film isn’t just about the comedy, however, as once the action begins there are a number of really well done set-pieces and gags, such as the students dressing themselves up as vampires to try and get away from the undead, huge swords that would make Cloud Strife jealous, and sticky floor designed to trap the hopping monsters. However, it really does end up feeling like a film of two halves, one that might end up testing the patience of those wanting some vampire action.

The final film in the collection, 1989’s Vampire vs Vampire, is something of an oddity, as it’s not an official sequel. Thanks to the popularity of the series more and more supernatural comedy films were being made, and Lam Ching-ying appeared in a number of them. The booklet that comes with this set compares Vampire vs Vampire to Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again, and the way those films are mostly, kind of, included in the Bond series even though they’re not official. This film gets the same kind of treatment thanks in large part to Lam Ching-ying playing a similar role to the other films, and him directing the movie. It also hits upon several of the themes from the first movie.

As the title suggests, this film will pit vampires against each other, though likely not in the way you’d expect. The film deals with a Taoist priest, played by Lam Ching-ying, his two bumbling students, and the little boy vampire who lives with them. The priest ends up getting to know the head nun of a nearby Christian mission that’s being renovated, and ends up getting into a number of embarrassing situations with her that makes for a delightful change to the normally serious characters he plays in the series. However, when a vampire is freed from its imprisonment within the mission, the priest will have to battle against it.

The promised vampire fight doesn’t really come, and whilst the little vampire does come the priest’s aid once or twice this is still very much Lam Ching-ying fighting vampires. But, the second vampire is not a Jiangshi, but is a western vampire (and is even named Western Vampire in the credits). This makes for a delightfully jarring movie, where a very Dracula-like vampire is running around the Chinese countryside in a cape. It also means that a lot of the methods in which the Taoist priest would usually deal with vampires no longer work, as this vampire has different rules.

The clash of East and West that has been a theme in a number of these movies is very much pushed front and centre here, with a Toaist priest fighting the kind of vampire you’d expect to find in a Hammer Horror film, as well as the moments where the priest and the head nun are getting into odd, almost Carry On style scrapes and embarrassing situations. Previous movies in the series have very much treated traditional values as something that is needed to save the day when those pushing for advancement and westernisation come under attack from the supernatural, and whilst Lam Ching-ying isn’t able to save the day in the same way, with many of his traditional methods bearing no results, it does carry a message about traditional values adapting to find a place in an increasingly westernised society.

As previously mentioned, this new set comes with a booklet written by film critic, film maker and historian James Oliver, who delves into the franchise, and how each movie fits into it. Alongside that, each film has been given a new HD restoration, and is presented with the original Cantonese audio on all of the films, as well as an alternate English dub for the second movie. Each film comes with an audio commentary, and there are a couple of extra features that explore the rituals and practices used in the films, and the impact of the Jiangshi genre.

The Mr Vampire series is one that became hugely popular, especially outside of Hong Kong. The original movie did exceptionally well, and helped to introduce the concept of Chinese Hopping Vampires to the rest of the world. However, despite that popularity few of the sequels ever actually made it outside of Hong Kong. As such, this set is the perfect opportunity for fans to finally see the other films in the franchise, and to add them to their collection.

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