Honourable Mention: Kid from Kwang Tung

Directed by Hsu Hsia and released in 1982 this lovely looking Shaw Brothers production was in equal parts martial arts extravaganza and comedy.

The comedy centred primarily on two boys from rival martial art schools, Jiayu (Wong Yu, the Shadow Boxing) and Dezhi (Chiang Kam, A Chinese Ghost Story), who also go to the same scholastic school.

There is a surrounding story of attacks on a clan – which the boys become mixed up in – but the comedy stems primarily from the rivalry between the two and pranks Jiayu, for the most part, plays. Whilst the clan story was under-explored, the film, as a whole, was great fun.

Wong Yu as Jiayu

The vampire aspect of this is found within the rivalry aspect of the narrative and begins with Dezhi challenging Jiayu. The goal, the first to remove the coin from the mouth of a specific corpse in the mortuary… what could go wrong? Well, our suspicions are raised when we see a Tao Master (San Sin, also the Shadow Boxing) buying supplies – his wards died unlawfully he mentions to the seller.

sneaking in

Dezhi gets to the mortuary first, with members of his school all dressed as either kyonsi or devils. He leaves them on look-out whilst he goes into the private parlour, where there are two coffins. His misadventure leads to one falling over spilling its decaying occupant onto him and him passing out. Meanwhile, hearing someone coming, the look-outs all hide in upright coffins. It is the Tao Master herding six corpses. He has them back into the coffins. Dezhi’s brother, Debao (Yuen Tak) manages to get out but the Tao Master sees him running off and (as he is in funeral garb) gives chase.

the actual kyonsi

Shortly afterwards Jiayu arrives, dressed as a Taoist priest, with six of his school dressed as kyonsi. Mistaking the herded corpses for their rivals, he has his six strangle them… to no avail. He then removes the spell scrolls from their foreheads, causing them to awaken. His pals leg it, leaving Jiayu to fight the six kyonsi – which he very quickly recognises for what they are and, eventually, re-scrolls five of them. Number 6 he uses his fake scrolls on, to no avail, when the real Taoist returns and saves him.

Chiang Kam as Dezhi

So, a brief moment of kyonsi (not unusually, they are referred to as zombies in the subtitles I saw), complete with hoping, long nails, spell scrolls and bells for control but no overt vampiric activity.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon USDezhi

On Demand @ Amazon UK