Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave (1982)

"It would be amazing if I lived!"

Hopping vampires! Ghosts! Count Dracula! Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave had it all. Except for decent special effects and a coherent story. It had me at hopping vampires, one of my favorite bonkers things in kung fu movies.

Billy Chong's Chun Sing wasn't always the sharpest knife in the kung fu drawer, but he was diligent in pursuing revenge for his murdered father, once his dead father's ghost appeared to him during the ghost festival a year after his death. Revenge is revenge even when it comes late.

Lo Lieh played the evil Big Bad who had his chief priest Addy Sung, and his henchmen, murder the good citizens of the area and steal their hearts to perform an unholy blood spitting rite to make him immortal and impervious to weapons and kung fu.

Chun Sing had his hands full fighting the priest and his black magic kung fu. In one fight he hired some hopping vampires to aid him and Addy hired Count Dracula in return! Thank goodness for kung fu garlic! The story bounced around, often making little sense. Somehow torch wielding mobs knew just when to appear and prostitutes threw female accessories that could thwart evil.

Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave had rudimentary special effects, a step up from a high school play. Pretty sure they were able to film this for $12.99 (USD). Having said that, the movie was funny---in all the wrong places. I laughed at the absurdity of many scenes. The dialogue was hilarious, probably unintentionally in some places. When Count Dracula pops up-"hahahaha!" I thought I was going to lose it. It was good laugh therapy. The lighting often went from daytime to night to daytime to night again, sometimes in the same scene!

The fight scenes could be uneven. A couple of the beginning fight scenes were quite well done, aided by Chong's quickness, kicks and fluidity. I have enjoyed his fighting in the movies of his I've seen. Later fight scenes were poorly choreographed looking like they were made up as they went along. Lo Lieh, at 50, was starting to lose a step in the fights but still made for a believable villain, a role he seemed to be relegated to.

Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave was campy, comical, cheaply made, and only for hard core fans of old martial arts movies. But honestly, how could you pass up hopping vampires?



8/29/22

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