Mr. Vampire 3 left the hopping vampires behind and embraced ghosts, both the friendly and unfriendly kind, in this installment of the franchise. Lam Ching Ying’s vampire slayer was joined by a fellow Taoist played by Richard Ng. Stronger than the second film, it lagged behind the first for me.

Uncle Ming, a Taoist priest who utilizes two ghostly brothers to help him make money exorcising “haunted” houses finds himself in the middle of a skirmish between villagers and deadly horse thieves. Uncle Nine leads the villagers and figures out very quickly that the bandits who are impervious to weapons have had a heavy dose of black magic. Uncle Nine convinces Uncle Ming to release his ghosts, but they might just need them when the bandit’s leader, the Devil Lady, decides to seek revenge against the village.

Lam Ching Ying owned this role and despite this being his third outing as the unibrowed Taoist priest gave it his all. Richard Ng was a welcome addition as the Taoist priest who had fallen on hard times yet still had some magical chops. His relationship with the two friendly ghosts was one of the sweeter parts of the film. Pauline Wong, who played a ghost in the first film and a hopping vampire in the second, returned this time as the malevolent Devil Lady. What caused me to drop my rating for this film was the overuse of Billy Lau. As an antagonist with limited screen time in the first he accomplished his task. In the third installment his sycophantic, contemptible disciple of Uncle Nine grated on my nerves. I was rooting for the Devil Lady to tear him apart instead of his friend. Sammo Hung, Wu Ma, and Corey Yuen made guest appearances at a birthday party when they served up a “foreign moon cake” with candles.

This film had very little kung fu unlike the first, which was a shame. Lam Ching Ying in action is a sight to see although he did have a few cool moves in this film. Like the other films in this franchise, the wires were rarely edited out and I could see them in several scenes when the supernatural fights took place. There were rudimentary special effects for the ghostly battles and a deep-fried ghoul scene to top it off. Director Ricky Lau kept the action coming from start to finish.

Mr. Vampire 3 was entertaining for the most part and I enjoyed Richard Ng and his ghosts, though I could have used less of his bare behind. Lam Ching Ying and his twitchy brow were worth watching the film alone. If the writers and director had remembered to dial back the most annoying character it would have been far more enjoyable for me.

14 October 2024

***Trigger warnings: Cockroaches and bats***