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Mr. Vampire (1985)
Mr. Vampire (1985)
1985 | Action, International, Comedy
9
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
When a 20 year old corpse is exhumed for a re burial Master Gau and his two students find that the body hasn't rotted. When the corpse re animates as a vampire the trio have to protect the vampires family and find a way to stop the monster.

Mr vampire is a Chinese horror/comedy and a breakthrough 'Jiangshi' (Rotting Copse) movie due it's mixing of slapstick comedy, kung-fu, Chinese folklore and western vampire myth and has a number of sequels.

The humour is very slapstick, with people getting hit with furniture or getting their head stuck in prison cell bars and the horror level is quite low and most of the effects are quite cheesy.

The Kung-Fu aspect makes the fight scenes entertaining and both the vampire and the ghost have to be dealt with slightly differently..
The image of the living corpse, be it vampire or zombie, being controlled by a yellow paper talisman stuck to it's head is though to have come from Mr Vampire and has been used in many subsequent Jiangshi film as well as many other shows, including the recent Netflix show 'Kingdom' where we see a scene of villagers selling the talismans when the zombies are threatening their village.

Mr Vampire manages to pull off Horror comedy in a way that is watchable by almost anyone. The film has a 15 (UK) rating and does contain vampires and ghosts but neither are overly frighting, partly due to the effects of the time.
  
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited Library.

This starts with Lexi and some of the crew heading up a mountain in the hopes of recruiting a strong rock/stone giant to their crew as they gear up to appear at the Magical Summit in a few months time where Kieran will hope to become the recognised Demigod of San Francisco. Kieran doesn't know where she's heading and they're all hoping to get the giant on side before he realises. Then a ghost who used to be a spirit walker gives Alexis details of someone else who'd be good for the team and they head out after him, too. There's also the issue of Lydia, a Demigod of Egypt, who has invited them to her territory after being caught sneaking around their property. Kieran is hoping for an alliance with her so they go.

I do still really love this group of people. They are one big extended family that look after each other and compliment each others abilities magically. The new additions are great characters and I quickly grew to like both of them. I loved watching them all kick arse in this at the end. I was willing them on and grinning like an idiot at times.

There was a little twist/surprise at the end revolving around Magnus, Lexi's dad, that has me intrigued to see what might go down in the last book at the magical summit, so I'm off to go borrow it from the KU Library.
  
Invisible In A Bright Light
Invisible In A Bright Light
Sally Gardner | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This story is told from multiple perspectives and the protagonist of this book should be Celeste, a girl who wakes up in a basket as someone else, a girl called Maria. Celeste is very confused about who is this Maria, and why she is living her life. Even though this book tells Celeste’s journey, for me, the true protagonist of this book is Hildegard, a young girl, who was abused and bullied by her self centred mother. This whole story is kind of about her. That is the beauty of this book, the characters are so closely connected and entwined, that it makes this book a one beautiful and complex work of art.

I have to admit, this book was quite hard to read sometimes. Even though the plot is great and absorbing, the writing style felt quite jumpy and chaotic, and that made this book a little difficult to understand sometimes. I have to admit, if I would read it as a child, it would not make sense to me, but reading it as an adult, I truly learned how to enjoy it to the fullest. The author discussed very important topics in this book, such as emotional and physical abuse against children, lack of confidence in children, loss, friendship, self-obsession, and many more. The plot was quite layered, sometimes it is a ghost story, sometimes an adventure and it is filled with plenty of magic as well, all these changes in the atmosphere kept me entertained throughout the pages.