Universe HK DVD Synopsis: Southern Mao and Northern Ma are the professional corpse escorts. Although they always compete for the fame and glory by playing different tricks on each other, but it cannot stop Ma's young apprentice and Mao's adopted son from falling in love. One time, the black wizard is paid to destroy two corpses of Mao and Ma. Being encouraged to an ultimate fight, Mao and Ma kill each other...

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Views: 'No one hides a secret letter in a vagina!' is a line delivered by Yuen Wah in Vampire Controller, a horror comedy from Tony Leung Hung Wah and independent Hong Kong studio Matrix Productions. For the 10 or 12 years they were seemingly in the business, the Matrix studio never really produced anything too memorable and mainly focused on dark sex thrillers and horror comedies, with the odd action or crime film thrown in like Michael Wong's Ultimatum or Psychedelic Cop starring Danny Lee. Vampire Controller is probably one of their more entertaining projects (which is saying a lot) and has some decent comedy and action to keep viewers entertained to a point. The film opens in 17th century China where British actor and stuntman, Jude Poyer, is dressed as a ninja and trying to sneak into a guarded mansion to meet his lover, Jenny. As they embrace, a second masked man attacks them and poisons the lovers which leaves them dead. Before he passes, Poyer accidentally swallows a mysterious pill that has been thrown from the attacker – who suddenly disappears through a wall. After they are prepared for their funeral, the bodies are moved to their final resting place by two teams of corpse escorts – one for the male led by cousins Mao and John, and the other for the female led by Ma and her apprentice Tien. As the attacks keep coming, the escorts soon learn that their new additions had a secret letter from the king and are soon asked to help a Japanese agent find it. As they continue to guide the dead, the team come up against a black magic wizard who has been hired to stop them, forcing them to fight between themselves and against the very creatures they are guiding!

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I wouldn't say that Vampire Controller is the best of Hong Kong cinema's vampire genre, but it's not completely unwatchable either. Even though it seems like there is enough going on, the film moves quite slow and when you think you've sat through a full 90 minutes already – you're only halfway there. Saying that, it has been shot decently thanks to Yip Wai Ying, the man behind the lens of many other Matrix Productions and director of over 20 titles himself including Troublesome Night 12, 14 & 19. This, however, was penned and directed by Tony Leung Hung Wah, an actor/writer/director who has been a part of the Hong Kong film industry since the early 80s. Apart from bit-part roles in films like Law With Two Phases, It's A Mad Mad Mad World 3, His Fatal Ways, and The Untold Story, Leung wrote the scripts for many Hong Kong hits including The Ghost Snatchers, In The Line Of Duty 5, 6 & 7, Triad Story, Best Of The Best, Taxi Hunter, Bomb Disposal Officer Baby Bomb, and a host of titles for Matrix Productions. The mid-late 90s would see him director his first film, Mystery Files, followed by A Lamb In Despair and The Wicked Ghost (all of which he also wrote). While I can't say I've ever seen any more of his directorial efforts, I know that there isn't many of them that have ever been highlighted to me as 'must sees', if any at all. The action is handled by Cheng Ka Sang, an actor who appeared in over 90 films from the late 1970s including By Hook Or By Crook, The Clones Of Bruce Lee, Fearless Hyena 2, The Innocent Interloper, The Killer, Seven Warriors, Shanghai Shanghai, Police Story 3: Supercop, Heroic Trio 1 & 2, Love On Delivery, this film and so much more. And while his credits as an action director are much smaller, he still manages to provide some clean fights and action scenes throughout Vampire Controller – even with a cast of non-fighters...

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Wayne Lai Yiu Cheung leads the way as corpse escort Mao Mao, joined by Gallen Lo Ka Leung as his apprentice John. While neither are actors I would ever rush out to see, I have caught the former in films such as Satan Returns, Armageddon, Bio Zombie, Storm Riders, A Killer's Expiry Date, Gen X Cops, and Dog Bite Dog for example – and most of which he did a pretty good job. In Vampire Controller, Wai works with what he has and entertains for the most part as does his partner in crime, Gallen Lo who started off as a TV actor in shows such as Legend Of The Condor Heroes and Cold Blood Warm Heart, as well as appearing in films like Fatal Mission and A Warriors Tragedy with Frankie Chan. The wonderful Kingdom Yuen stars as Ma, corpse escort extraordinaire and competitor to Mao Mao. Mostly known for her outlandish roles as a brothel madam or village loud-mouth in films such as Fight Back To School, Justice My Foot, King Of Beggars, Last Hero In China, Hail The Judge, and then some, Yuen has managed to rack up over 170 film roles since coming into the Hong Kong film industry in the late 1980s. The beautiful Kathy Chow stars as Tien Gee, assistant to Ma and love interest of John. Since her film debut in Cadets On The Beat, Chow has went on to star in many fun films such as Holy Virgin Vs The Evil Dead, Don't Give A Damn, Beast Cops, Legendary Amazons, and The Rookies with Milla Jovovich. It was nice to see Brit-kicker and stunt director Jude Poyer open the film in a different role to what he would usually play, and to have the great Yuen Wah appear as the black wizard who is hired to stop our heroes in their track. He doesn't really get much to do in the way of action which was slightly disappointing, but he still manages to entertain. Wah's career was a little wobbly around this period and had worked on this and Ultimatum for Matrix Productions in the same year. Thankfully, he would get another chance at fame when Stephen Chow Sing Chi cast him as the landlord in the awesome Kung Fu Hustle just a few years later, and has since joined the MCU with his memorable performance in the epic Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. Regardless, his presence is hardly enough to make Vampire Controller a Hong Kong classic and hardly shines a light on many of the great roles he has delivered over the years before. The film does have its moments here and there, but in a genre that is bunged with so many great titles already, Vampire Controller just manages to stay afloat...

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Overall: Slow-paced and anti-climatic, Vampire Controller has a few moments of entertainment but I wouldn't rush to see it!

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DVD Extras: Trailers