28. A Post-2000s Hong Kong Horror Film

Chin Siu-ho, the star of Mr. Vampire, is suicidal after his wife divorces him and takes his son. Moving into a run-down apartment, he soon tries to hang himself, which brings twin ghosts his way, possessing him. He’s soon saved by Yau (Anthony Chan, who was also in Mr. Vampire), a vampire hunter who has begun using rice to fight them.

Meanwhile, Uncle Tung (Richard Ng) falls down the steps and dies. His wife, Meiyi (Paw Hee-ching), asks a magician named Gau (Chung Fat) to resurrect him. She must keep a mask on his face for several days to allow him to come back to the land of the living. However, when she removes the mask — and also seeks virgin blood to speed up the rebirth — her now monstrous husband murders a child while she listens.

But it gets worse: Gau is attacked, and as he dies, he tells everyone that Tung has risen as a jiangshi to haunt the building. Worse still? The warlock was responsible for Tung’s original death. That’s because Gau is terminally ill and had planned to bind the twin ghosts’ souls in Tung’s soulless body to gain power and extend his own life. Meiyi ruined everything by removing the warding mask.

The child the reanimated old man killed, Pak (Morris Ho), is also a ghost. As for that hopping monster, a mace and a moatov cocktail barely slow him down. You know what stops him? Rice. Well, he’s stopped long enough to be possessed by the twin ghosts.

Despite saving the day, this all ends up being an O. Henry story. Chin really did hang himself, and everyone he met on his last day appears in his story. Yang and Pak are neighbors. Meiyi is a widow, and Yau is a neighbor who fails to save him. At the morgue, Chin’s adult son identifies his body for the medical examiner, who is Dr. Gau.

Directed by Juno Mak, who wrote it with Philip Yung and Jill Leung, this features multiple Chinese ghosts and grim reapers, as well as tons of cultural magic, such as the unlucky number four. And while it’s a tribute to Mr. Vampire, it’s not as light as those films. Chin Siu-ho, Anthony Chan, Billy Lau (who plays a cook) and Richard Ng were all in installments of the series.

You can watch this on Tubi.