The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires' released by Shout! Factory in April, 2019.I'm giving this release a score of 4 stars despite some reservations. I was going to give it 3 stars but that became 3 1/2 stars after I listened to the audio commentary. From there I'm averaging up to 4 stars simply because I want these sort of releases to continue and because it the movie itself does something different.Let me be clear, if you are here for the picture quality, there is a lot of room for improvement. If the extra's are important, they are pretty good. For more on this, look below in 'BLU-RAY' and 'EXTRA'S'.THIS MOVIE HAS SEVERAL DIFFERENT NAMES, WHAT ARE THEY?:U.K. version - The Legend of the 7 Golden VampiresU.S.A. version - The 7 Brothers Meet DraculaU.S.A. trailer - The 7 Brothers and their One Sister Meet DraculaFar East - Dracula and the 7 Golden VampiresTHERE ARE TWO VERSION OF THIS MOVIE INCLUDED. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES AND WHICH SHOULD I WATCH?:I would imagine that most people would want to watch the longer version of this movie since this release provides the uncut version and you are paying a nice sum of money for the release. However, if you are with a group of friends and are having a movie night, you might want to watch the shorter version. The cuts that are made in this movie are not the normal sort of cuts you see in a horror movie from that era. This movie was made after the ratings system had begun. Therefore, cuts of excess blood or gore and nudity did not need to be cut. Those were the normal sort of cuts that were made in movies for territories with stricter content rules. This shorter version of this movie uses cuts to speed up the action. Mainly the slow or 'boring' parts were cut from the movie. For example, Van Helsing's speech at the school is cut. Even though, the American version is only 14 minutes shorter, 20 minutes of cuts are made. A bunch of scenes are re-used, sometimes several times, some of which reverse the images. If it's action you want, I suggest that you watch the shorter version.BLU-RAY: I'll get right to the point. The picture is very inconsistent and at times disappointing. I'm not sure if this is because the transfer uses different elements or splices together scenes from different prints. This movie is shown in two different versions. The American release is called 'The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula'. This American version is 14 minutes shorter than the international version. The picture is far from perfect. As always, I'd like to point out that I don't know much about film photography and/or film restoration. I only go by what my eyes see. The picture has some minor imperfections and some major imperfections. The minor imperfections are mainly some 'specks' you see in the picture throughout. They are not that bad and I only noticed them because I was looking for them. For much of the movie, the picture has the usual, just OK, look of many of these 'Hammer' releases. The picture is not tremendously sharp but is better than standard DVD quality. The downside is that parts of this movie are, to put it plainly, 'poor'. This is especially the case with some of the evening shots. There are a few short scenes that are near VHS quality. I don't know why this is. I'm guessing it's because there are several versions of this movie and there were various cuts made for the areas of the world where the movie was being shown. It's very possible that some scenes are taken from very poor original elements. There are some 'grainy' scenes and some scenes that have a very soft and dull image. On the positive side of things, the colors look pretty good. They are, for the most part, bright. I can't give this print a good score because there are many scenes in this movie that can obviously be made clearer. However, I wouldn't expect to see a better picture any time soon. This movie is shown in it's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio.EXTRA'S:-The inside cover of the Blu-Ray case is the poster of the American version of the movie. I prefer this one and made the switch. See the image I provided.-The American release of this movie, 'The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula' is included in this movie.-Audio Commentary by film historian, Bruce Hallenbeck: This is a very good commentary and adds to the value of this release. Hallenbeck spends most of the commentary focusing on this particular movie and doesn't go off on many tangents. While he gives brief biographies of some of the participants, he doesn't go into boring detail. As far as I'm concerned, this is a big positive for an audio commentary. He discusses many of the scenes being shown on screen and almost all of his story's focus on the production of the movie being commented on. By the end of the commentary, you will pretty much know everything worth knowing about this movie.-Interview with Rick Baker: Baker is a historian of Far East movies and his specialty is 'swordsman' movies. He is very enthusiastic about this movie. This featurette is about 20 minutes long. Baker talks a little bit about movies made by the Shaw Brothers and movies made in Hong Kong in general. He then goes into the details of the production of 'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires'-Interview with David Chaing: This is a short 6 minute interview with the actor who plays 'Hsi-Ching' in this movie. It is part of a longer documentary. In this snippet he discusses how Peter Cushing influenced his approach to acting. He talks about the advice Cushing gave him during the production of 'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires'. He then tells of an incident with a fan while in America.-TV Spot-Still Gallery-Theatrical Trailer-Subtitles*****WARNING - LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW*****PLOT/SYNOPSIS: The movie starts with a scene from 1804 in Transylvania. An Asian high priest named Kah, comes to Castle Dracula to ask Dracula for help. He is the high priest of The Temple of the Seven Golden Vampires in China. He tells Dracula that the vampires have lost their power. Dracula takes over Kah's body. He is now able to leave Castle Dracula.100 years later in China, Van Helsing is teaching at a school to disbelieving students. There is only one student that believes his tale of his confrontation with Dracula. He tells the students about a villager who killed one of seven vampires in a village somewhere in China. At his home, one of his students, Hsi Ching shows up and tells Van Helsing that he is from the village from the story. He produces the Golden Vampire that the killed vampire was wearing. He wants Van Helsing to travel to his village and defeat the vampires. Van Helsing is hesitant but ultimately agrees after Hsi-Ching's brothers save his son, Leyland, from being killed. In addition a wealthy baroness, Vanessa Buren, agrees to finance the trip if she is allowed to come along.The trip is long and treacherous. The group is confronted by a gang and eventually some of the vampires attack along with their army of undead. They reach the village and dig in preparation for a confrontation with Dracula, the remaining vampires, and the undead.WHAT TYPE OF MOVIE IS THIS?...IS IT A HORROR MOVIE OR A MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE?:The answer is simply, 'both'. This is an unusual hybrid of genre's in a movie. It is a Dracula movie and at the same time, a martial arts movie. The two genre's were combined for this movie in what has to be a first. Of course in today's world, there are lots of hybrid types of movies, but at the time this movie was filmed, it was very unusual. You actually see vampires using martial arts while battling their opponents!PRODUCTION: 'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires' was released in the Far East and the U.K in 1974. It was not until 1979 that it received it's American release.-This movie was a joint production between 'The Shaw Brothers' and Hammer Film Productions/Warner Bros. The Shaw Brothers were the largest Hong Kong film studio and invested half the money. Hammer and Warner each put up about 25% of the costs. Essentially, the Asian roles were cast by Shaw Brothers and the other roles were cast by Hammer. The martial arts sequences were choreographed by The Shaw Brothers. The movie was shot in and around Hong Kong.-As noted above, the American release of this movie is called 'The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula'. The American release didn't occur until years after the movie was made. The same was the case for the previous 'Hammer' Dracula release, 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'. Both of these movies were released at the same time, years after they were made. Warner Bros. had no faith in these movies and after their huge success with 'The Exorcist', they decided that these movies just weren't good enough to be released.-Originally, this movie was not going to have Dracula in it. Dracula's inclusion became a requirement from Warner Brothers if they were to provide some of the funding.-The production was very long and difficult. The principal photography lasted around 7 weeks. There were many difficulties due to the language barrier. Most of the Asian film crew and actors did not speak any English.-The director was Roy Ward Baker. Baker made a few of my favorite U.K. produced movies from the 60's and 70's. These include 'Quatermass and the Pit' from 1967 and Asylum (Amicus Productions) in 1972.-John Forbes-Robertson plays Dracula in this movie. Christopher Lee finally said "No" for real when offered the part of Dracula. Lee had for many years been saying that he would refuse to play Dracula again, but he kept relenting. For his part, Forbes-Robertson was not bad as Dracula, but his make up was awful. His voice ended up being dubbed. Forbes-Robertson had previously appeared for Hammer Films as the 'Man in Black' in 'The Vampire Lovers'.-Dracula, in his regular form, only appears in two scenes in this movie. Despite this, John Forbes-Robertson, has more dialogue than does Christopher Lee in many of Lee's roles as Dracula. HOW MANY TIMES DOES PETER CUSHING PLAY 'VAN HELSING'?:Peter Cushing played Van Helsing for the 5th and final time in this movie. Hammer Film Productions made 9 Dracula movies (if you include 'Brides of Dracula'). Cushing appears in the first two Hammer Dracula movies, called 'Horror of Dracula (U.S.A. version) and 'The Brides of Dracula (Dracula does not appear in this movie). He makes an appearance in stock footage taken from 'Horror of Dracula' in 'Dracula: Prince of Darkness'. This is not counted toward his appearances. He then returned for the final three 'Hammer' Dracula films, Dracula A.D. 1972, 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula', and this movie. WHAT ABOUT THE TIMELINE? DOES THIS MOVIE FOLLOW THE SAME CONTINUITY AS PREVIOUS MOVIES?:The timeline's are different for many of these movies and they can be considered to occur in separate universes. 'Horror of Dracula' and it's sequels up until 'Scars of Dracula' take place in one timeline. 'Dracula A.D. 1972 and the 'Satanic Rites of Dracula' take place in another timeline. 'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires' takes place in it's own timeline.COMMENTS: WHAT'S UP WITH DRACULA TAKING ON ANOTHER IDENTITY? Dracula assumes the identity of a Far Eastern High Priest. This is not the sort of thing that is part of the vampire mythology. I normally don't like when new powers are given to established characters. In this case, this sort of thing would open up a very large 'can of worms'. If Dracula had this power, he would be able to hide out indefinitely around the world and nobody would ever find him. I don't want to be overly critical of this new power. At the least, it was presented at the beginning of the movie so that it is part of the 'rules' of vampires in this movie. I absolutely dislike when characters in fantasy movies come up with some hidden and/or unknown ability to defeat opponents at the end of movies. In this movie, for the most part, this new power is more of a 'convenience' device to move the plot along. It doesn't actually effect the way in which Van Helsing defeats Dracula. HOW IS PETER CUSHING'S PORTRAYAL OF VAN HELSING IN THIS MOVIE?:Cushing is my favorite of the 'Hammer Film Productions' actors. I did not like his performance in this movie. His acting is not bad, rather it's his portrayal of 'Van Helsing' that I don't like. In general, I like him in 'stronger' roles like Dr. Frankenstein. Even though Van Helsing is a 'strong' role, Cushing appears feeble. He seems to be completely reliant on others. At this point of his life, he was not in a good place and was quite frail. This was because of the recent death of his wife that greatly affected him. Just compare his confrontation with Dracula from 15 years earlier in 'Horror of Dracula' to the confrontation in this movie. I hate to say it but he seem almost 'pathetic'. The confrontation is mercifully short. WHAT WAS THAT???: Again, I hate to say it, but Leyland Van Helsing (Robin Stewart), looks just ridiculous with his Kung Fu moves. I don't think I've ever seen anybody look less believable in a martial arts movie. His scenes look like scenes from a martial arts school where the instructor just stands there and lets the students do their moves.***Note *** I don't watch many martial arts movies, so I'm sure somewhere out there, there are equally bad or worse martial arts sequences that fans of the genre can easily point out! OTHER COMMENTS:-This was pretty much the end of the line for Hammer even though they existed for another 5 years before closing shop. After several years without making a movie, Hammer made one final movie in 1979 called 'The Lady Vanishes'.-I did not like Julie Ege as Vanessa Buren at all. I think her looks are overrated and her acting was decidedly poor.-The make-up in this movie, is in my opinion, terrible. Dracula's make-up is way overdone. The vampires look awful. It looks like they just stuck some sort of 'goop' on their faces. This was a joint production and the 'Hammer people' felt that the Hong Kong production team was a big step down from their own production team. Though they were impressed with some of the Hong Kong sets.-The plot has some questionable elements. For instance, why did Dracula only send 3 vampires to the cave. After a difficult battle, they were defeated. If he would have sent the whole crew then they might have prevailed.-Why didn't the villagers help until the very end? They only come out and defeat a vampire after many of the brothers had been defeated.-After defeating the vampires in the cave, Hsi Ching tells Van Helsing that his brothers do not think they can defeat the vampires. Wait... what??? They just stopped a sneak attack in a closed environment by half of the vampires and came away with no significant injuries. Why would they not think that they could defeat the remaining three, on their own turf, with no sneak attack, and the additional help of the villagers?-I'm still a little confused as to why the vampires lost their power in China.CONCLUSIONS: This movie is OK but it's not great. I don't share the enthusiasm of the guest speakers in the extra's. There is a reason why this movie was a box office failure in the U.S. This failure is part of the reason for the demise of 'Hammer Films'. To be clear, I think that this movie is entertaining enough to watch. As I mentioned above in my comments, there are some problems with the plot but it certainly isn't boring. As I say with many of these types of releases, I would be more enthusiastic if movies were released as part of a package that gave them more value. As I also say with many of these types of releases, it is not always financially possible to package several restorations together and make it profitable.Despite my reservations about the picture quality, you are not likely to get a better picture than what is presented here. If you are a fan of this picture then you will obviously want this release. It has some decent extra's that give added value.RATINGS:Plot: 6/10 or 3 stars - The plot is decent but not great. I like that they did something different.Acting: 5/10 or 2 1/2 stars - The acting is uneven. Some decent performances, some poor.Special Effects: 4/10 or 2 stars - This was not good. The make-up is terriblePicture: 4/10 or 2 stars - As noted above, this is very inconsistent and can be improved uponExtra's: 8/10 or 4 stars - Some good extra's, very good commentary.Bonus points: Very good commentary, very unusual plot. Something different is always a plus.Overall: 6.5/10 or 3+ stars - Obviously I gave this release 4 stars. I add in an extra star simply because this release is made available. We should be lucky that we get any sort of release at all for these types of movies. There is not a big market for them and the release company probably isn't making a whole lot of money on them even with an inflated price.

Fun hybrid Shaw/Hammer kung fu horror, goofy non P/C campy fun with David Chiang, Shih Tzu, Chris Lee, Julie Edge. Lau Kar Leung action director. The martial arts is early era slash up K.F. and not epic classic like Lau Kar Leung's "36 Chamber" or "Mad Monkey" but still very fun to watch. Chang Cheh and Roy Baker directors over all. The blue ray was very clear and no glitches. Not for kids. I first saw this at a military base circa 75' and had various ratty VHS versions and so was glad to get the very well done Blu-ray. Enjoyed seeing it crystal clear again. If you remember it you might as well...I double dog dare anyone to remake this movie lol.

Hammer and Shaw Brothers teamed up on this kung fu horror masterpiece. Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing visits China to deliver a lecture about vampires. No one takes him seriously except for David Chiang's character, whose village has been ravaged by the Seven Golden Vampires. Into this we see Dracula possess a Chinese man and fashion a cult of...you know what? Forget it. Peter Cushing and kung fu masters beat up vampires. Period. I've heard a lot of people hate on this film I expected to not like it. But the concept was so bizarre I was intrigued. And the film is so well done you can't ignore it. The entertainment value is thru the roof. Plus I must say the vampires and zombies are so grotesque they're downright scary. This film is far better than it has any right to be.Shout Factory delivers again with bonus features and commentaries an also the US cut of the film. Reversible cover art with the US title (The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula). If you like martial arts, and you like Hammer horror, this is for you.

Best looking transfer so far of this hybrid Kung Fu/vampire film. Set your brain aside, or as David Byrne said, "Stop Making Sense", and immerse yourself in one of the most FUN & entertaining Hammer's ever made, featuring a furious James Bernard score which propels the exciting kung fu action along. The main draw here though is Peter Cushing who plays Van Helsing for the last time for Hammer and he is AMAZING in this film! The man truly puts everything he's got into this role, falling into a bonfire, fighting off vampiric hordes with a flaming torch, encouraging the young people to press on when energy has flagged, shouting out vampire-battle instructions to the Kung Fu warriors, taking fierce blows from Dracula and being sent reeling, flailing over things - incredible for a man 60 years old at the time of filming (and this was probably filmed during quite hot weather as well). Mr. Cushing exhibited similar gusto in NYC at the 1975 FM con, signing autographs for FREE, for hours on end till the early morning hours so everybody in line could get an autograph from him. We miss you Peter!

Perfect waste of an evening. Thank You!

Hi everybody I ordered a moivie called the legend of the 7 golden vampires on DVD it's an awesome classic martial arts horror film set in China it stars DAVID CHANG MAI KWEI VANESSA BEREN & PETER CUSHING. its about a group of of chinese warriors who battle 7 vicious ancient Vampires to save village people from anihilation at the hands of the vampires. this film has action from start to finish and a great plot 1 of the best parts for me is that one of the warriors is a woman. I bought it here at a nice low price and got it fast about 3 days later I'v seen it in local stores in MA sell for about $30 on up because it's a classic but thats to expensive. the disc movie sound clarity and sound are all high quality I love it....THANH U

It was close but, after much deliberation, I am awarding this film the accolade of worst Hammer film, pushing the (almost) equally dire Lust For A Vampire (LFAV) into second place. Both featured stunning leading ladies who couldn’t act but at least in LFAV Yutte Stensgaard is kind enough to get her kit off – such fine margins, eh? This film has the type of plot development, dialogue and standard of acting that you would expect to find in a porn movie, the estimable Peter Cushing excepted. And like a porn movie, this flick is all about the physical action, with several longish (& dull) fight sequences. I get that some people can just enjoy real turkeys because they are so bad, and I really hoped that I would laugh along with the nonsense but sadly I found the film to be simply boring. Having just watched the 1958 Hound of the Baskervilles, I also felt sadness at how far Hammer had fallen since those early classics – with the wearied 1974 Cushing a metaphor for a studio on it’s last legs.

I think I recall seeing a version of this that had a lot more gore than this edition but in any case the storyline and much of the action is uneffected and its great to see a classic once again available and at a really affordable price too.The storyline follows Dracula's disturbance by a Chinese vampires servitor who has travelled to his keep to inform him of the misfortunes of his seven Golden vampires. Dracula isnt played by Christopher Lee, the make up is a bit of a disappointment and he appears, no doubt unintentionally like a stage magician. Anyhow, Dracula is pissed off and kills the servitor, takes on his appearence and high tails it to China. Unbeknownst to Drac is that Van Helsing, thankfully played by Peter Cushing, is on tour in China and while receiving a negative reception initially is called upon to lead a band of vampire hunters.From this point its pretty much a Chop Suey Kung Fu flick, Van Helsing's band first battles a gang of criminals, the armies of zombis which are resurrected from a graveyard with a gong, then the golden vampires themselves and finally Van Helsing has a final battle with Dracula rounding up the picture.There's a lot of elements in this movie which where becoming Hammer Cliches at this point, bodices being ripped and women running squealing topless around the place and obviously plastic bats on strings. The edition which I saw first was a lot more gory than this one, including scenes in which lots of people had their throats cut and it all drained from autopsy tables into a great big cauldrin, some of this has been toned down or cut and I thought some of the fight sequences where shortened too. Its a shame, even if the original amount of garish red paint blood gore was seriously OTT, but it doesnt spoil the movie.There are some odd elements in the picture, such as Van Helsing's explaining how Buddhist icons will mess up vampires as well as crucifixes or these big daft golden bat disco talismans which the vampires wear. That said the vampires and some of the zombis do resemble something more like those in  MR VAMPIRE SAGA 4 Legendary Collection DVD (All Region) (NTSC)  but I dont know if that's research shinning through or merely a coincidence.The actual kung fu battles are much like those featured in  Monkey! - The Complete Series [DVD ] or similar TV and cinema at the time. It is great if you are interested in that kind of thing, the film is a cult gem, discussed as either one of the worst examples of Hammer's dying breaths and attempts to coin in some how on a passing craze or something which prefigured the martial arts vamp slayers like Buffy or Blade. MR VAMPIRE SAGA 4 Legendary Collection DVD (All Region) (NTSC)Monkey! - The Complete Series [DVD

The Spanish blu ray is a big disappointment. Firstly it's a BD-R not a pressed blu ray. It looks like an upscale of the rather good Warner UK dvd so no real improvement picture wise. So until a better Region B disc comes along, it will suffice I suppose.

I approached this with caution as I'm really not into martial arts movies... however it turned out to be great fun. Hammer's final Dracula/Van Helsing film came 16 years after the first, sadly without Christopher Lee in the role of Dracula but happily with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. It sees Dracula take over a Chinese man's body and travel east to become the head of a group of Chinese vampires. Dr Van Helsing is helped in his quest to destroy him once again by a family of brilliant kung fu experts. A brilliant departure from the classic Hammer vampire film, but not TOO much of a departure, this doesn't seem like a Hammer film at all and yet on the other hand the classic Hammer hallmarks are there, not least the music, which could have been used in the 1958 original. Good fun and it's nice to see the Hammer Dracula series went out with a bang and not a whimper.

This is surely a worthy ending for the Hammer Dracula series with once again, fortunately, the great Peter Cushing in the role of Prof. Van Helsing.It is indeed a pity that Christopher Lee was not to be coaxed into playing the Count,What a worthy exit he would have made here.None the less his substitute did his utmost to live up to the part of the King Vampire and so this movie constitutes,to my mind, a true asset to the Dvd-collection of any true Hammer Dracula fan.