My Date with a Vampire

My Date with a Vampire is a 1998 Hong Kong television series produced by Asia Television (ATV). The series is a spiritual successor to Vampire Expert, a similar two-season television series aired on ATV in 1995 and 1996. It blends aspects of the "hopping" corpses of Chinese jiangshi fiction with those of European vampires, along with elements of Chinese mythology and modern horror legends. The series is also a tribute to Lam Ching-ying, the lead actor of Vampire Expert and a prominent cast member of the Mr. Vampire franchise, who died of liver cancer in 1997. It was followed by My Date with a Vampire II (2000) and My Date with a Vampire III (2004).

Kuang Tianyou was a Chinese guerrilla fighter during the Second Sino–Japanese War. In 1938, he was duelling with Yamamoto Kazuo, an Imperial Japanese Army officer, when they were interrupted by Jiangchen, an ancient vampire. The two men and a boy, Fusheng, were bitten by Jiangchen and have become vampires.

In the present-day (1998), Kuang has found a new life as a policeman in Hong Kong while Fusheng pretends to be his son. During this time, Kuang encounters Ma Xiaoling, the heiress to a sorcerer clan dedicated to ridding the world of evil supernatural beings. He soon gets entangled in a love triangle with Ma and her close friend, Wang Zhenzhen.

Meanwhile, Yamamoto has become an influential businessman in Hong Kong. Planning to turn every human into a vampire, Yamamoto sends his vampire followers to attack people and spread the "vampire gene". Chaos break out in Hong Kong as vampires multiply and roam the streets freely. Kuang teams up with Ma and their allies to stop Yamamoto and destroy him.

Shortly after, a sorcerer called Rahu resurrects Yamamoto and controls him to do his bidding. Rahu perform a ritual during a blood moon to dominate the world. Once again, Kuang, Ma and their allies combine forces to confront Rahu and stop him.

• Eric Wan as Kuang Tianyou
• Joey Meng as Ma Xiaoling / Ma Danna
• Kristy Yang as Wang Zhenzhen / Yamamoto Yuki
• Kenneth Chan as Yamamoto Kazuo
• Chapman To as Jin Zhengzhong
• Pinky Cheung as Yamamoto Mirai
• Berg Ng as Ken / Domoto Shingo
• Cheung Kwok-kuen as Fusheng
• Wong Shee-tong as He Yingqiu
• Kam San as Jiangchen
• Sin Ho-ying as Master Peacock
• Ching Tung as Luo Kaiping
• Chan Lai-wun as Luo Kaiping's mother
• Mak King-ting as Bai Susu
• Wong Mei-fan as Xiaoqing
• Keung Ho-man as Gao Bao
• Chung Yeung as Peter
• Lisa Lui as Ouyang Jiajia
• Lau Kwok-shing as Jin Shouzheng
• Ng Wan-yee as Jin Zhengzhong's mother
• Wai Lit as Rahu
• Alice Chan as Miaoshan
• Raymond Tsang as Liu Hai
• Yeung Ka-nok as Lin Guodong
• Leung Bik-tze as Bijia
• Lee Yung as Herman
• Lau Shek-yin as Vairocana

The script for My Date with a Vampire was written by Leung Lap-yan in 1997. Leung attempted to market the script to Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) but was rejected, so he went to Asia Television (ATV) instead. Chan Sap-sam, who wrote the script for the two sequels, revealed that Lam Ching-ying, a prominent cast member in the Mr. Vampire franchise, was their original choice for the lead actor, and that Joey Meng did not have a place in their initial cast list. However, after they finalised the script, they were unable to contact Lam, who was critically ill. Besides, ATV's top management was not pleased with the script because they felt that it did not fit people's impressions of how vampires should be like. ATV's top management wanted to cancel the project after Lam died of liver cancer in 1997. Faced with these problems, Chan decided to make bold changes to the script and create a new character – Ma Xiaoling, a female ghostbuster wearing high heels and a miniskirt who is greedy for money. Sin Chi-wai, the producer for the series, recommended Joey Meng to play Ma Xiaoling. When Eric Wan was offered to play the male lead character in the series, he wanted to turn down the offer because he felt exhausted, but eventually agreed as he became more interested in the story.

According to Netease Report, Fox Networks Group will remake the series.^[1] Cora Yim, the head of Fox Networks Group Asia, claimed that one-third of ATV's inventory had been acquired by Fox Networks Group, including 28 television series; My Date with a Vampire is one of the 28.^[2]

• Vampire film
• List of vampire television series

• (in Chinese) My Date with a Vampire official page on ATV's website