A Different Kind of Chinese War Film: Tony Rayns on Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain

In Chinese folklore, the corpse-herding rituals of Xiangxi gave birth to the myth of the jiangshi, or hopping vampire. In 1985, Mr. Vampire brought the jiangshi to the big screen, making it a cultural icon. Over thirty years later, as the genre fades into memory, The Last Jiangshi (original title: China’s Last Vampire) finds the only known jiangshi still existing in the modern world—Old Li.

Interview with Tony Rayns on the history of early Chinese cinema and the 1931 silent film Love and Duty.