Vampire Cop Ricky Review

The film runs into trouble almost immediately. Following a fantastic opening sequence that sets up the basic scenario – Count Dracula rises from his coffin in Transylvania, ol’ Vlad is bitten by a mosquito, newly super powered vampire mosquito flies into high altitudes where it is plastered across the windscreen of a passing Korean jet liner, on arrival in Korea non-splattable vamp skeeter flies aimlessly into a ridiculously obvious bit of product placement and is locked into a shipping container from which it will eventually emerge to bite Kim – we meet Na Do-Yeol (Kim’s role), an energetic, fairly annoying cop who we quickly learn is firmly in the pocket of a local gangster who runs an illegal gambling ring. That Na is on the take seems out of character … it means betraying his boss who is also his closest friend; he doesn’t seem ambitious enough to particularly care about the money; he’s well intentioned enough that you can’t at all imagine him actually wishing to bring harm to his peers, but perhaps that last bit can be explained away by his believing that the gangster is himself harmless due to his being a flagrant gay stereotype rather than your typical butch goon. Once Na has been properly introduced and the crucial bite given … well, nothing much happens. Or, to be fair, stuff does happen but it takes at least twice as long as it should.

Vampire Cop Ricky has a pacing problem. A very, very large pacing problem.

An associate of Na Do-Yeol’s – and how exactly do they get Ricky out of that? - gangster friend is murdered and which puts Na’s relationship with the gangster at risk of exposure. Throw in a signal mixing girlfriend and his vampire powers quickly taking hold, and that takes you through the first half of the film. Hour two picks up slightly with the gangster and Na exposed, a near fatal attempt on Na’s superior’s life and the very, very delayed realization that vampires have powers beyond those of normal humans.

Why the lack of detail so far? Well, the movie doesn’t bother with much so why should I? The script is strictly paint by numbers as produced by a kit filled with nothing by gray, puce and beige paints. It’s shockingly bland. The humor isn’t particularly funny, the sex isn’t sexy, the characters are flat, the plot is telegraphed waaaaay in advance, and the action sequences poorly executed. In it’s best moments Vampire Cop Ricky hopes to be a Stephen Chow film but Kim is no Chow, not by a long shot and not on any level. In its best moments it is competent, in its worst rather dull.

The DVD release, at least, is high quality. The film is presented in its proper Cinemascope ratio with an excellent, crisp transfer. The subtitles seem a little clumsy but I’m at a loss as to whether this is a problem with the translation or with the source script. Both seem equally likely.