General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Rigor Mortis (僵尸) (2013 film)

Rigor Mortis (殭屍; also known as Geung si and by the alternate Chinese title 七日重生) is a 2013 Hong Kong horror film directed by Juno Mak in his feature directorial debut, a gothic reinvention of the classic Hong Kong jiangshi (hopping vampire) film.¹^•² It was co-produced by Mak and the Japanese horror director Takashi Shimizu, known for the Ju-on (The Grudge) films, and it reunites several actors from the 1985 genre classic Mr. Vampire, including Chin Siu-ho and Anthony Chan.¹

Key fact	Detail
Director / debut	Juno Mak, in his first feature as director; he also co-wrote and co-produced¹^•³
Co-producer	Takashi Shimizu, director of Ju-on (The Grudge)¹
Genre roots	Homage to the jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire) genre and Mr. Vampire (Ricky Lau, 1985)¹
Release	Venice Film Festival 30 August 2013; Hong Kong theatrical release 24 October 2013⁴
Principal cast	Chin Siu-ho, Kara Wai, Nina Paw, Anthony Chan⁵
Major awards	Best Visual Effects and Best Supporting Actress (Kara Wai) at the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards (2014)⁶
Reception	Douban rating 8.0 from more than 217,000 users⁴

Spoilers

Plot and cast

The film is set in a decrepit Hong Kong public housing tower whose residents range from the living to the dead and the undead.⁸ Chin Siu-ho plays a fictionalized version of himself, a once-famous action star who played a vampire hunter in Mr. Vampire but has since fallen on hard times. Depressed and suicidal after his marriage collapses, he moves into a haunted flat in the block, intending to end his life. His suicide attempt draws the attention of twin ghosts who possess his body, and he is saved by Yau (Anthony Chan), a retired Taoist vampire hunter who runs a food stall downstairs.⁹^•²

Other residents include Feng (Kara Wai), a traumatized single mother; Auntie Mui (Nina Paw), a kindly seamstress who hides a coffin in her flat; Uncle Tung (Richard Ng); and Gau (Chung Fat), a Taoist master dabbling in dark arts. When Auntie Mui suffers a tragedy, Gau uses his skills to bring back her dead husband, and the resulting creature becomes a bloodthirsty hopping vampire that Siu-ho and Yau must subdue together.¹⁰^•³

The casting is deliberately nostalgic: besides Chin Siu-ho and Anthony Chan, the film brings back genre veterans including Billy Lau, and it honors the departed Mr. Vampire stars Lam Ching-ying and Ricky Hui, who appear in the film via photographs.¹⁰

Background and production

The jiangshi genre, rooted in Cantonese folklore about Taoist priests who raise the dead, produced a wave of Hong Kong horror comedies in the 1980s, of which Mr. Vampire (Ricky Lau, 1985) became the defining example.¹ Juno Mak, born in 1984 in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, began his career as a pop singer and actor before turning to writing and directing; his earlier acting film Revenge: A Love Story (2010) won him a Best Actor award at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.³ Rigor Mortis marked his first feature as director and marked the tenth anniversary of his entertainment career.³

Mak recruited Shimizu Takashi, the director of Ju-on, as co-producer, blending Japanese ghost-film atmosphere with the Hong Kong vampire tradition.³ The screenplay is credited to Philip Yung, Leung Lai-yin (Jill Leung), and Juno Mak; the production company was Kudos Films Ltd., with cinematography by Ng Man-Ching, editing by David M. Richardson, and music by Nate Connelly.¹^•⁷

Style and reception

Unlike the broad horror comedies of the 1980s, Rigor Mortis is a bleak, slow-building horror thriller with a desaturated visual palette, heavy use of slow motion, and elaborate special effects; the vampire hops, but in ominous slow motion, and the violence is considerably amped up from the originals.¹⁰ The Rotterdam festival noted that the film does not depend on shock but builds a general sense of unease through gruesome sets and effects.¹ Critics praised the visuals and the veteran cast, with Nina Paw's mournful performance singled out, while some found the storyline of Chin's character uneven and the ending divisive.¹⁰^•¹¹

The film premiered at the 70th Venice Film Festival on 30 August 2013 and was nominated for the Venice Days Best Film award from the European Film Federation; it also screened at Toronto, London, and Tokyo festivals.⁴^•¹² It opened in Hong Kong on 24 October 2013, topping the local box office on its first day with more than HK$630,000 and accumulating nearly HK$1 million over its opening days.⁴^•¹³ Chinese commentary described it as a representative work of the 2013 revival of Hong Kong ghost films and a "love letter" to the golden age of Hong Kong cinema.¹⁴

Awards

At the 50th Golden Horse Awards the film won the FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) prize and was nominated for Best New Director, Best Visual Effects, and Best Makeup and Costume Design.³ At the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards (2014) it won Best Visual Effects (Enoch Chan) and Best Supporting Actress (Kara Wai), with further nominations including Best Actress (Nina Paw), Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Chan), Best New Director (Juno Mak), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound Design.⁶

Versions and runtime

Reported running times differ across sources: 101 minutes (Golden Horse, NYAFF, and the US distributor Well Go USA), 103 minutes (Douban), and 105 minutes (IFFR, BFI, and TheTVDB).³^•⁴^•¹ The film was first released in Hong Kong in a Category IIB theatrical cut that removed some violence and profanity; a restored Category III cut, which also played at international festivals, followed shortly after and is the version on the Hong Kong home-video release.¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026