So, now it is time to write your awesome comments about this awesome movie. Be sure to answer this question:
- For you, what is the theme of Mr. Vampire. Provide three examples from the movie that illustrate this theme.
And then, answer one of the following questions or respond to something someone else has said:
- How did the cultural research we did in class prepare you to enjoy this movie more?
- How did this film help you to become a better world citizen?
- Who would win in a fight: a Chinese vampire, an classic Dracula-style American vampire, or a Twilight vampire?
Gabbie Garcia :
ReplyDeleteI really had enjoyed this movie alot! I Thought this movie was funny. Why? Becuase how thier vampiers are really different than the vampires in the United States. I honesty thought they were more like zombies than Vampires.! In this movie vampiers, jump, don't see. don't fly like the vampires in the United States. What they use to keep the vampire away is rice not onions.! Its insane!!!
How did the cultural research in class prepare me to enjoy the movie? To say the truth I honestly thought this moive was going to be dumm. But as soon as the movie started I had thought wrong. Because the way they made this movie was entertaining!
Gabbie, I am SO happy to read that you enjoyed the very "different" kind of vampires in this film. I am glad that the cultural research you did helped you to prepare to enjoy the film more. Keep up the good work of explaining in your blog posts how the cultural research we do enhances your viewing experiences with the movies we watch in class.
DeleteBe sure to also talk about what the theme is in your posts and backing up your response with evidence from the film.
i think the theme of this movie is no matter how much you think you or someone you love is safe. my three reasons would be: after the grandpa dies and pulles his coffin back up he turns to a vampire and goes after the uncle. the uncle dies and turns into a vampire himself. second, when the master asked one of his students to go get rice and he finds a love in a beautiful...ghost! they have great love but in the end they couldnt be together because he would end up dead. my third reason would be when one of the students gets scratched by the vampire so he slowley starts to turn into one.
ReplyDeletei thought the reaserch we did before watching the movie was very helpful in helping me why the vamoires hoped around, and how the vampires could chase after you even though they are blind. just findig out about how China's stories are different then what we think of the story.
-Courtney Valdez
Great blog response, Courtney. This is a unique theme to draw from the film and I like it (although I think you may have accidentally deleted the last few words of the sentence where you explained the theme as it does not feel totally complete -- but I understood what you meant). I liked how you backed up your theme with concrete examples and provided specific examples of cultural research that helped you.
DeleteOne thing that will make future blog posts stronger is to tie the ideas you use to show the theme into the them more concretely. For example, you could say, "When the grandpa dies and pulls his coffin back up, he turns into a vampire himself. This shows how someone we love (a grandpa) is not as safe as we thought."
C.J. Barrett: One of the themes in Mr. Vampire is respecting/listening to your elders, or people with authority, etc etc. There's so many ways to say it, I hope that oddly composed sentence explained my gist. For example, Master mentioned at the re-burial that the body needed to be burned, or something horrible would happen (that being the vampire outbreak.) The son said that his father hated fire, which was a prime example of respect for an elder. Also, when Master was trying to cure Dan of the vampire disease, Dan wasn't following orders to their full extent, and went further in the stages of vampirism because of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Harry was at the rice store, the rice owner's son was ordered to give Harry 30 catties of regular rice, and 20 of sticky. Rather than that, the son gave Harry 50 (actually 45) of sticky, and 30 of regular. This was less of an example for the theme of respecting elders, but more of misinterpreting things people with authority over you say, or following orders more closely.
I'm sad to say it... however I think that a Twilight Vampire might be able to win in a fight. Chinese vampires, especially the way they were portrayed in Mr. Vampire, don't seem all that mobile. They hop everywhere, and that limits a great deal of their mobility. Chinese vampires also seem like they don't have that many methods of attack, they have biting and stabbing with their nails for the most part. Dracula may have a chance against a Twilight vampire... but it would be like trying to beat Meta Knight with Gannon on Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Dracula definitely has much more mobility, and behaves less like a zombie than Chinese vampires, but Twilight vampires are more like super-heroes than vampires. They have that super speed, and the astounding strength, on top of the fangs and limited mortality. So yes, in a physical bout... Stephanie Meyer's horrible version of vampires, that are a complete insult to the supernatural, would most likely emerge victorious.
C.J., you did a very good job of providing many very thoroughly explained examples to back-up your theme. I love it. I find it interesting how, in your examples, there are two elders with conflicting desires: the priest says to burn the body but the dead grandpa didn't life fire. The rich man has to choose between obeying one elder or the other. I find that fascinating.
DeleteI think that the theme which you pinpointed exposes a VERY important aspect of Hong Kong culture: respecting elders is one of the highest ideals in their society. So, it makes sense that in a movie that is mostly meant to be fun and silly, this foundational cultueral theme would emerge.
I also very much appreciate your reference to Super Smash Brothers Brawl. What a great game.
One word of advice: in your writing, work to avoid redundancy. There are times when you use the same word many times very close to one another. I of course would never grade you down or fault you for doing this in a simple blog post but if you can get in the habit of avoiding redundant use of words, it will strengthen the essays that we will be writing later.
The theme of this movie in my eyes would be, probably don't disrespect others! Because when you disrespect people, good things usually never happen in the end. And I think that it's hard to figure out a theme for this movie because of all of it's silliness! But I really really enjoyed the comedy in this movie, so it all works out!
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed this movie because of all the differences in it, stuff that you're not used to here in the U.S., like how the vampires hop instead of just walk, I think that is so hilarious, and it surprised me how fast the could hop! I thought for sure the vampires would catch who ever they were chasing after because I figured they would hop slow, but I stand corrected. I enjoy all of these movies, because they have great comedy, that I could be greatful for.
-Bambie T.
Yeah, those vampires sure do hop fast, don't they! Crazy sauce! I'm glad you enjoyed this unique (to us) take on vamps. It's pretty great.
DeleteI appreciate you working so hard, Bambie, to find a theme is such a silly movie. It is a lot of work to do so. Be sure to also back up your theme with three examples from the film.
Tayia Groesbeck- I think the theme was basically to respect people. I really liked this movie and i found it cool that are vampires are way different than theirs. I don't really understand why they hop tho, maybe this was explained and I wasn't paying attention but i would like to know why they hop ?
ReplyDeleteI think and american vampire would win because we don't have ropes on are vampires and are vampires could just hold up writing and the Chinese vampires would stop.
I'm so glad, Tayia, that you enjoyed it. It can be risky to watch movies from other countries because they can be so different that it can really be hard sometimes to enjoy them. So it is so wonderful when the risk pays off and you find something you love.
DeleteOne of the people in our class did some cultural research which she shared with us which explained the hopping so be sure to pay close attention to what we share with one another in class so you understand these sorts of things. Ask around to your classmates and someone can probably help you out with this question still.
-Tommy Kiter
ReplyDeleteMy themes of this movie is to just respect people. I really liked this movie mainly because its more of a action movie. And it is the type of movie i would consider to watch. The thing that confused me the most was why the vampires hopped instead of running? Yeah they are dead but Wouldn't it make more sense if there could run.
American vampires are more intresting because it makes more sense our vampires run, the hongkong hop. I thought it was kind of dumb because you could write a spell stick it to there head and they would stop. This Movie was more like a comedy and action movie. It made you laugh at times and certain parts but then got into action. I Liked the movie.
I really adore the phrase "hongkong hop". I would love to see that phrase in an essay :D
DeleteI'm so glad you liked the movie so much! That makes me really happy.
See the notes I wrote on Tayia's post in regards to the vampires hopping. Be sure to pay close attention when we explore the cultural background in class and share with each other because it will help you appreciate the films much more.
-Randi Ralston :3
ReplyDeleteSo, I honestly don't know exactly what the theme of this movie would be. I do think that there was a message in there saying to respect others and to do what you're told the first time you're told to do it, because of how those younger guys didn't listen to what that older guy told them to do until the very end when everything was all messed up with that vampire dude. If that makes sense, I forgot what their names were..so sorry if you didn't understand any of that, haha. Anyway, I personally just thought it was really trippy, weird, but still funny. In the beginning I was expecting the Hong Kong vampire people to be like American ones, but holy crap I was way off. I loved how they hopped around like cute little kangaroo zombie creature things, especially when the Hong Kongian (I don't know what a person from Hong Kong is called so I just made up my own name for them) rang the little bell for them to follow, and one got stuck on the stairs. What really creeped me out though was when that almighty powerful vampire guy came back from that cave, and was all hobo like. It was just...weird.
Now, who would win in a fight: a Chinese vampire, an classic Dracula-style American vampire, or a Twilight vampire? Well, I don't think a Chinese vampire would win, since their moving skills is only kangaroo hopping, if you didn't breathe they wouldn't be able to find you, and because they're already dead so they don't really have the intelligence to know what's going on in the world around them. Dracula style vampires I don't think would win either...because they have too many weaknesses, like garlic, sunlight, etc. Even though I hate to say it, I think Twilight vampires would win, because of how they basically have more super powers and less weaknesses than other vampires. However, if really creepy demon vampires were included in the fight, or like a Skyrim vampire, they'd hands down win because they're super cool and would automatically win by being so awesome.
Oh snap. Randi threw down the gauntlet and brought Skyrim vampires into the mix! ;)
DeleteI understood what you were trying to say with your theme statement quite well and I like it! I think the idea that we need to respect others (particularly elders) by listening to them the first time (instead of waiting until we're almost toast) is very present in the movie. This is more or less the very theme statement that I took from the movie watching it this time.
This movie was pretty fantastical to say the least. The style of it was so crazy to watch. It's unlike any American film (which is good because an American film of this caliber would get torn to shreds). It is crazy how even in the most intense moments, it still had a comedic quality that made me kind of just want to giggle throughout the entire thing.
ReplyDeleteAs for the question of if American or Asian vampires would win in a fight, that's easy... AMERICAN. Asian vampires might as well be zombies (which are nothing more than mentally challenged vampires). American vampires are cunning. They are devious. They are wicked. The fight would be over in two milliseconds.
"Mentally challenged vampires". LOL.
DeleteAlyssa Strasburg
ReplyDeleteMr. Vampire
I think Mr. Vampire is just a great comedy. There’s silly vampires hopping around, the two guys are constantly fighting, the scene with the tea is just so funny and brilliant, I just loved the humor honestly.
The research helped me enjoy the movie by knowing how small the budget was for how well the movie was made. They used really animals because they couldn’t afford the fake prop animals. The snake used was real and later used for snake soup. And the chicken and goat scene had to be cheated.
I became a better citizen by gaining a better sense of humor.
I want Dracula to win a Vampire fight. But Stephanie Meyers just had to make it nearly impossible to kill Twilight Vampires. So realistically Twilight Vampires would win. So sad.
Wow! The snake was real! Crazy sauce!
DeleteI remember this movie vividly. Seriously, i would go rent it right now if i had a car. It is NOT bad, pretty humorous actually. As for a theme though, i cant really think of anything. Unless you wanna go with the "Even if your being over runned with crazy-retard-asian-vampires you can count on your friends and family." But thats lame. I really just enjoyed it for the laugh and the cultural experience. Looking up background information in class really helped me, i probably would have fallen off my chair if i didnt know asian vampires were more like american zombies (classic zombie) with a hint of bunny rabbit before seeing it. And honestly, in a fight im betting Asian vampires would lose because American Vampires are just smarter. And between a classic vampire and a twilight vampire...... Im sorry to say it but Twinkle Toes would probably take that one. You throw Dracula in the sunlight and he combusts. Twilight just sparkles.... like a pretty little fairy.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the movie so much and that the cultural background helped you appreciate it. I'm glad you tried your best to figure out a theme for this crazy film. I think you actually happened upon one that works if you just universalize it more. Maybe something like this: "When things go wrong, you can count on your friends and family."
DeleteI find it hard to really find a theme in Mr. Vampire. But if I had to find one, I'd say it was about how dedication and skill triumph all. For most of the movie, the two lackeys, whose names escape me at the moment, flip arounds screwing up and being unprofessional. They have no dedication. They're easily distracted. They don't have enough experience to combat the vampires, as is apparent in the opening scene where they accidentally wake up the vampires and have to be saved. The one guy falls in love with a ghost, because he has no experience with them. He has to be saved by his master AGAIN. Only when the two boys mature, and have some experience are they able to combat the vampires, and save the world!
ReplyDeleteWho would win in a fight? Obviously, the European variation, the Dracula-style vampire would win in a fight. Twilight vampires have no desire to kill anything, and are weak. Chinese vampires are slow and cumbersome. Dracula-esque vampires are agile and quick and bloodthirsty. He'd win any day of the week. But i\I'd be more scared if I encountered a Chinese vampire...
It's cool that you found a theme that's different from what most people put for this one.
DeleteFirst of all I rather enjoyed this movie it is so funny and random. Like when you see a movie called Mr. Vampire. Well I expected some weird, stupid movie that is extremely cheesy. But I was entirly wrong it. I loved this movie its just like a playful comedy that you really dont take seriously. Which I like alot. Sometimes you need a movie that doesn't make you think a lot or doesn't have a bloody fight scene.
ReplyDeleteI think the theme of this movie is well... yeah respect for your elders and dont do stupid things that your father specifically said for you not to do haha If they had just listened to their elder then things wouldn't have gone so wrong. But it would make a horrible movie if they did just saying. ha oh and sorry it took so long to put this up I sorta forgot a lot of the movie
I know that I liked it though... Thats all that counts right? ha
I think that "I know that I liked it though" is a very common response to Mr. Vampire. It's just awesome but it's so awesome that it's hard to describe why.
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