The Era of Vampires (2003)

In the 17th century, as the Qing dynasty declines, zombies roam everywhere. A Maoshan master (played by Ji Chunhua) leads four disciples—Feng (played by Lam Suet), Yu (played by Michael Chow), Lei (played by Zhang Zhiyao), and Dian (played by Chan Kwok-kwan)—down the mountain to exorcise evil spirits. At a general’s tomb, the master and his disciples encounter a thousand-year-old Zombie King. After a fierce battle, the master disappears in an explosion, and the four disciples continue tracking the Zombie King, eventually arriving at the wealthy Jiang family’s home in the remote town of Dafangbo to seek lodging. The Jiang family is holding a wedding for its dim-witted only son, who is marrying for the sixth time. The neighbors gossip because every bride has died suddenly after the wedding, yet the Jiang family never holds a funeral, and the whereabouts of the bodies remain a mystery. The day after the new bride, Shanshan (played by Anya), joins the household, the groom dies under mysterious circumstances. The four brothers discover that the Jiang family ancestral hall displays numerous wax figures of human bodies. They also notice that Master Jiang (played by Yu Rongguang) behaves strangely, though his martial arts skills are unfathomably deep. Meanwhile, Shanshan’s brother, Tang Long (played by Lee Wai-shing), is in fact the mastermind behind a plot to covet the Jiang family fortune, working with an insider, the steward (played by Lee Lik-chi). The missing master, meanwhile, lies in wait in secret, preparing for a fight to the death with the thousand-year-old Zombie King. In the end, the master and his disciples use heavenly thunder to ignite explosives, sacrificing themselves to blow the Zombie King to ashes, and the four brothers go their separate ways.