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THE VAMPIRE EFFECT (2003) - d. Dante Lam
aka 'The Twins Effect'
Mind-blowing. Who would've thought that a teeny-bopper Hong Kong action/vampire flick could serve as both a poignant examination of the power of love and a devastating portrait of disease? In the case of 'The Vampire Effect,' vampirism is a proxy for Bird Flu or AIDS or chicken pox, and though the characters use Kung Fu to do battle on the physical plane, the war is for their souls and love lives beyond the grave.
The premise is dense, complex, rich and nuanced, and takes some careful explanation to be truly understood. Actually, it's wildly convoluted, overstuffed and ridiculous, but it's also fun, even if it makes zero sense. I'm not great at abstracting plot elements and there's way too much going on here in the first place, but here's the gist of it:
PREAMBLE
I know almost nothing about Hong Kong/Chinese pop culture. I don't feel like I'm missing out on much. That's cultural snobbery, sure, but we've got enough crap culture of our own that I don't feel my time is best spent rooting around looking for a rare HK gem. If there's a prize in the box, hopefully someone will tell me about it. I sleep especially easy when it comes to pop music from the reunified PRC. A big group in Hong Kong right now is the duo Twins, who aren't actually twins, but starlets Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung. 'The Vampire Effect' is primarily another vehicle for the two of them, a la the Olsen twins' 'Passport to Paris' or 'Switching Goals,' and is part of a growing canon of Twins tie-in movies, albeit with a bigger budget than their earlier efforts.
THE FILM
There are vampires all over the world, though European vampires are still the predominant threat. Vamps come in all kinds of temperaments, as well. Some are craven, blood-starved monsters who will stop at nothing to see humanity buckling under the thumb of the undead, others are more soulful, kind-hearted creatures who drink bottled blood and are experts in the long-forgotten art of installing killer sound systems in their coffins so that they can bump shitty C-pop bass during the daylight hours. Long story not much shorter, there's some prophecy about five princes (or six?) who, if anyone can kill them, the killer becomes all-powerful. I think, I wasn't really paying attention. It's a bit like 'The One' with Jet Li, except it actually makes more sense here, which says something about 'The One,' because this'un don't make much sense.
To no one's surprise, the prophecy leads to a pretty big royal bloodbath. That someone doing all the bloodletting is a European vampire with long hair, day-old stubble, red eyes, and a detachable metal hand; which, if nothing else, makes him the most clearly threatening creature since Rosie O'Donnell quit her show and got that NKOTB hair cut. He's also quite successful, as he's managed to kill all but one of them. The last of the royal bloodline is young Prince Kazaf, he of the bottled blood, Crutchfield catalogs, and lackey named Prada. The two of them live in a church, and there's a slightly homoerotic vibe to their particular blood pact.
On the other side of the equation, there is - I think I got this right - a group/cult/sect/whatever of vampire hunters. A group of people more or less sworn to protect the rest of us from the ultimate evil. They've got a pretty nifty trick up their sleeves, too, because they've extracted vampire blood, which means that they can temporarily turn into Vamps themselves, just so long as they make sure to drink the banana potion which turns them back into humans. The HK representative of this group is Reeve, played by Ekin Cheng, one of the more appealing of the current crop of Hong Kong leading men. He puts in for an assistant, and who should turn up but Gypsy (Gillian Chung), who I will discuss in further detail in a moment. Reeve's sister, Helen, is the other Twin, Charlene Choi, and she ends up romancing Prince K while displaying the kind of acting chops which make elementary school productions of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' look like Lee Strasberg's been at the wheel.
So, yeah, Gypsy and Reeve fall in love, everyone understands what Helen sees in Kazaf, and the bad guy's dispatched with much fanfare, though not without 'great' personal cost. The real winner, though, is Gillian Chung, who is damned cute and can actually kind of act. I haven't had it his bad for an HK actress since Faye Wong did the OCDance in 'Chungking Express.' Ms. Chung's going to be around, at least in Hong Kong, for a while.
Cute like button.
On a macro scale, I'm really bummed out by the way the bottom completely dropped out on the Hong Kong film biz. Global audiences really only started to appreciate it (in the early 90s) as it was beginning the current swoon, and, honestly, what happened there with VCDs does boost the MPAA's file-sharing argument. While there isn't a whole lot out there which suggests any kind of near-future turnaround, production has increased lately, and this is the occasional release which reminds us what makes Hong Kong films so much fun in the first place.
I'm not going to try to tell anyone that this movie is actually good, but it's definitely a good time, and a lot less soul-deadening than, say, 'From Justin to Kelly,' or, for that matter, 'Charlie's Angel's: Full Throttle.' There's a sequel on the way, which, if you're familiar with HK, you already know will suck.
Wait, I just wrote that whole thing without mentioning the fact that Jackie Chan has a 'guest-starring' type role here, which pretty accurately explains how I feel about Jackie and how much he adds to the proceedings.
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