''Kung Fu Zombie'' is a 1981

Hong Kong martial arts Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kon ...

film written and directed by Hwa I Hung. It stars

Billy Chong Willy Dozan, formerly known by his stage name Billy Chong (born Chuang Chen Li (庄陈力), 10 February 1957, Magelang, Indonesia) is an Indonesian martial artist, actor and stuntman. His acting career started in 1977 with ''Pembalasan Si Pitung' ...

as a martial artist who must fight supernatural foes. In the film, a thug is killed by the

zombies A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which ...

which he planned to use in a revenge scheme. Various attempts to resurrect him, result first in the accidental creation of a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

, and secondly in two spirits inhabiting the same body.

Plot

Pang, a martial artist, foils a robbery and sends thug Lu Dai to jail. Desiring revenge, Lu returns to the town and hires Wu Lung, a

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

priest, to raise several

to fight Pang. The plan backfires when Lu is killed by his own trap. His ghost then haunts the priest and demands to be resurrected. Kwan Wei Long, a serial killer, enters the town looking to duel with Pang and is seemingly killed by him. Happy to find a suitable corpse, Wu Lung attempts to put Lu Dai's spirit into Long's body. Long, however, is so evil that he is reanimated as a free-willed vampire. When Pang's father dies, the priest uses his corpse to host Lu's spirit, but the ceremony is interrupted, and the thug and Pang's father share control of the body. Pang must now defeat the vampire and his father's possessed corpse.

Cast

as Pang * Chan Lau as Wu Lung * Chang Tao as Fong * Cheng Ka Ying as Lu Dai * Kwon Young Moon as Kwan Wei Long * Pak Sha Lik * Shum Yan Chi

Release

''Kung Fu Zombie'' was released in 1981 in Hong Kong and 1982 in the US. Ground Zero released it in the US on DVD in 2002.

Reception

J. Doyle Wallis of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

rated it 3.5/5 stars and called it "pure, cheap, unadulterated, stupid fun". Todd Rigney of Beyond Hollywood called it "an obvious rip-off" of ''

Encounters of the Spooky Kind ''Encounters of the Spooky Kind'' () is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts comedy horror film directed by and starring Sammo Hung, who also wrote the film with Huang Ying, and produced by Hung's production company Bo Ho Film Company. Released as ''S ...

'' that approaches the fun of ''

The Evil Dead ''The Evil Dead'' is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, produced by Robert Tapert and executive produced by Raimi, Tapert, and Bruce Campbell, who also starred alongside Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeMan ...

'' and ''

Braindead ''BrainDead'' is an American political satire science fiction comedy-drama television series created by Robert and Michelle King. The series stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Laurel Healy, a documentary film-maker who takes a job working for ...

''. In ''Horror and Science Fiction Films III'', Donald C. Willis called it "95 minutes of pure silliness". ''The Encyclopedia of Martial Arts Movies'' called it "a very unusual, funny film". In ''The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia'',

Peter Dendle Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and ...

wrote, "The speeded-up cinematography of martial arts action sequences always gives zombies in East Asian cinema a novel, charismatic twist." Brian Thomas, who wrote ''VideoHound's Dragon'', said, " r the most part, this has all the dumb spirit of a ninja movie with the added bonus of horror and gore!"

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0199148 1981 films 1981 comedy horror films 1980s action comedy films 1981 martial arts films 1980s ghost films 1980s serial killer films Hong Kong action comedy films Hong Kong martial arts films 1980s Cantonese-language films Hong Kong ghost films Vampire comedy films Zombie comedy films 1980s Hong Kong films Films about spirit possession