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Dracula, Vampires, and Kung Fu Fighters: The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires and Transnational Horror Co-production in 1970s Hong Kong

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Transnational Horror Cinema

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Abstract

The hybrid genre film, The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, incorporates the genre conventions of kung fu and those associated with Dracula. Lee analyzes this unique Hong Kong-UK transnational horror co-production in which Count Dracula goes to early twentieth-century China, and Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) teams up with Chinese martial arts brothers to fight against seven golden vampires, and ultimately Dracula, who takes over the body of the Chinese villain, Kahn. Reading The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires entails that we should situate the film in terms of its geopolitical and generic positions in Hong Kong and the UK film history and legacy. Lee provides much-needed critical insight into the politics and poetics of transnational co-productions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asian Cinema at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Ave, Singapore

    Sangjoon Lee

Authors
  1. Sangjoon Lee
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Film, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

    Sophia Siddique

  2. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

    Raphael Raphael

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Lee, S. (2016). Dracula, Vampires, and Kung Fu Fighters: The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires and Transnational Horror Co-production in 1970s Hong Kong. In: Siddique, S., Raphael, R. (eds) Transnational Horror Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58417-5_4

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