MR. VAMPIRE (Hong Kong, 1985)
Director: Ricky Lau 
Starring: Lam Ching-ying, Ricky Hui, Chin Siu-ho, Moon Lee 

Bouncing through the moonlight like demented, bloodthirsty pogo sticks, hopping vampires are one of Hong Kong cinema’s most absurd and unique sights, and this is the movie that launched the craze that spawned hundreds of films. It’s the Big Bang of hopping vampires, so to speak. Produced by Sammo Hung, it stars Lam Ching-ying (Bruce Lee’s stunt double) as a stern Taoist priest who specializes in reanimated-corpse disposal, with the assistance of Chin Siu-ho (Rigor Mortis), as his kung-fu kicking right-hand man, and comedian Ricky Hui, as his idiot assistant. Set in Republican-era China, Mr. Vampire begins with a rich man’s old ancestor (played by Yuen Wah, one of Jackie Chan’s Chinese opera school brothers) getting buried in a less-than-ideal cemetery plot. Before you can say “Black Dog’s Blood,” his corpse is bouncing up out of the ground like a blood-hungry beach ball and it’ll take a foot to the face, a cherrywood sword through the heart, and a yellow talisman pasted to his rotting forehead to make him rest in pieces. An avalanche of Canto comedy, genuine horror, and slambang stunts, Mr. Vampire is probably the movie people are talking about when they say how awesome and insane Hong Kong movies are.