the legend of the 7 golden vampires (cinema history class)

Session: Supernatural Martial Arts, week 3
Movie: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
Directed by Roy Ward Baker and Chang Cheh
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL


Plot:
A European vampirologist travels to China to fight vampires alongside kung fu experts. Hilarity ensues.

Background and Reaction:
It's still not entirely clear to me that there was a need to combine Hammer horror with Kung Fu into one movie. In fact, it's kind of tempting to dismiss the concept out of hand. On the other hand, it's no more ridiculous than Jesse James Meets Dracula's Daughter or Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

There were some things to like in this movie. I loved the use of color -- there was a lot of orange/blue contrast that really made for a visually interesting look. Early on I was thinking that it had the comic book look of Creepshow or Eaten Alive. But as it wore on I realized that that wasn't the case.

This was better than the two pure kung fu movies we saw the prior two weeks simply because there was less kung fu. In those movies, the plot is really just a thin device to get us between kung fu fight scenes. It's been explained to me that that's the genre, but I don't like it.

So this had more of a real plot than the other two movies, but I just had trouble getting into the plot.

Ratings:
Joe: 9.8
Dave: 9.7-9.8
Sean: 3 out of 4
Scott: 9.5
Me: 7.5
Ethan: 8

Bechdel:
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires fails the Bechdel test.

Extras:
Joe, back from his trip to Israel, gave us all Western Wall commemorative yarmulkes.