VAMPIRE HUNTERS

China, Qing Dynasty: Vento, Tuono, Pioggia, and Lampo, along with their Master, form a team of vampire hunters who travel across the Empire to free people from the undead, vampires or zombies, who, according to legend, would rise from the dead consumed by hatred, aided by some "negative energy detectors": that is, octagonal boards that measure the psychic energy of places like cemeteries... It was during a battle against a fearsome vampire near the tomb of a great general of the past that the Master disappears, and the four are forced to continue the hunt for the undead alone in a nearby city, where unsettling events are taking place... Presented this way, the plot seems like that of a low-budget, slapstick film, but in reality, it is a strange and semi-unknown film produced by the Hong Kong film industry (now assimilated into the People's Republic of China). Indeed, a story of vampires, a typically Western myth (at least for us...), set in the Celestial Empire, is not something usual... One should not expect the usual noble and distinguished pale gentleman in the role of the bloodsucker with pointed canines: the vampire (or zombie, the terms in the film are synonymous) is in reality a very Eastern creature, that moves suspended in the air, does not fear crucifixes but water (!!!) and sucks the blood in a quite... original way. The makeup actually reminds more of Western zombies than vampires and one cannot say that the whole is not well done. The four protagonists plus the Master are played by five excellent actors, who manage to brilliantly characterize their characters to the point that a Westerner cannot confuse them: the lover, the reflective one, the one who goes after women, the man of action, etc... and in general the interpretive level of the entire cast is good, sometimes livened up with hilarious comic moments. The screenplay turns out to be linear but not devoid of surprises, and quite well devised but never really predictable, with very nice twists (the scene of the real vampire feeding on the actor hired to play the role of the undead, the spectral family of embalmers, the nice girl daughter of the funeral home owners who is always avoided by men for her job...). Ample space is given to the fights, as is the tradition of Eastern action cinema (the film is Chinese, but the influence of the Hong Kong school "absorbed" into the reality of the People's Republic since 1997 is evident), well devised and very spectacular; interesting how the use of martial arts is finalized to the vampire hunt. The settings and direction are typical of this kind of film, so the viewer who is familiar with Chinese cinema will find it appropriate, while those who are not might feel disoriented... In fact, it is precisely this the big flaw of films like these: many Westerners risk not appreciating a product of this kind, mainly for cultural reasons, despite the film being enjoyable and far from being boring or falling into the already seen. Precisely for this reason "Era of vampires" apparently never arrived in Italian theaters in 2002, but it was re-released for rental and the home video market in 2004: certainly for lovers of Eastern cinema and for those who consider the "Western" vampire film now stereotyped, the title is warmly recommended.