So this is a Hong Kong martial arts comedy from 1980, directed by and starring Sammo Hung.

I’m not really a genre aficionado here; but watching this, I think I could be, because it’s a lot of fun. The loose premise of the movie is that Hung’s wife is cheating on him with a local… aristocrat? official?… important rich guy, anyway. And so apparently Hung is known around town as a kung fu master, so the guy doesn’t want him to find out about this, and hires a… wizard? alchemist? witch?… magic guy, anyway, to kill him. Hung’s wife is enthusiastic about this killing as well.

For contrived reasons I don’t remember, Hung ends up going to spend the night in a crypt; but before he gets there, the magic guy’s former compatriot (who doesn’t like the idea of using their power for evil) warns Hung that he’ll be in danger, and gives him some steps to take to stay safe.

This is all by way of setting up some martial arts fights between Hung (who is indeed really good at movie kung fu, fast and athletic in a way that you wouldn’t expect from a guy his size) and a hopping vampire (jiangshi). Apparently this is the movie that popularized hopping vampires in cinema, go figure.

Anyway, the movie progresses from there with more light-hearted action setpieces and light-hearted humor, up until a big final battle settles things. All the fight scenes are creative and interesting, with a lot more going on than guys just hitting each other; the characters are likable or extremely hateable; and there’s a general air of fun to the thing. Maybe it’s the historical/fantasy setting, maybe it’s Hung’s charisma, but I liked this more than Jackie Chan’s Police Story.

Definitely a solid recommend for anyone who likes martial arts comedies, and plausibly even for people who aren’t sure if they do.