Magic Cop

This flick stars the awesome Ching-Ying Lam as a kind of current day Mr. Vampire. Sounds promising, and so are the first scenes.

Things quickly go downhill though as the two sidekicks are introduced, who might manage to provide some low brow comic relief for ages 5 and below, but are guaranteed to annoy anyone else, and who are given way too much screen time. The other prominent character, Mr. Vampires niece, must be around 18 years old, yet acts like she is a whiny cognitively challenged toddler which obviously gets irritating very quickly as well.

On the up side: Michiko Nishiwaki is convincing as a wicked sorceress, and Ching-Ying Lam doesn't disappoint.

To sum it up, there sure are some entertaining scenes and fights, but you will probably find yourself fastforwarding a lot as well. Might be worth it for Mr. Vampire fans, but certainly not required viewing.

Lam Ching-Ying--Mr. Vampire himself--is Uncle Feng, a Hong Kong policeman who uses magic to battle an evil sorceress (Michiko Nishiwaki), head of a drug smuggling operation. When he's not fighting ghosts, vampires and ghouls, Feng tries to keep two randy cops from pestering his pretty niece Lin (Mei-Wah Wong).

Like so many supernatural Hong Kong movies, Magic Cop mixes comedy with its horror, and your level of enjoyment will depend on your sense of humour. I always struggle with Hong Kong comedy, so the gags, and the irritating comedic characters, did spoil the film somewhat for me. As far as I am concerned, Magic Cop works best when it forgets all about the silly slapstick and concentrates on delivering horror, magic and crazy action, which it thankfully does in the very entertaining finalé that ends the film on a high.

Magic Cop also features just a smidgen of kung fu, but I would have liked to have seen more, especially considering the presence of Nishiwaki and the amazing Billy Chow as the sorceress's servant.

Overall, I rate Magic Cop 6/10.

It introduces us to Uncle Fung (Ching Ying Lam), a kindly rural policeman who is "more like a Taoist priest than a cop" -- including apprehending an angry ghost with a candle and cloth, after an old lady accidentally angers it. There must be a lot of people who get killed by angry spirits, if this scene is any indicator.

Then we switch to undercover cops Lam (Wilson Lam) and 'Head' (Miu Kiu Wai), who try to apprehend a drug courier, only to get tossed away like rag dolls. Turns out she died several days ago. This is the ideal crime for Fung, so he and his pretty niece Lin move into Lam's bachelor pad. No, I don't know why Fung doesn't kick Lam out the window for hitting on his niece.

When Fung isn't keeping the womanizing Lam away from his niece, the three cops are tracking the dead woman's boyfriend. The man unwittingly leads them to the head of the drug ring -- a Japanese Taoist sorceress, who reanimates corpses as couriers. Only Fung can stop another Taoist magician -- but soon they've unleashed a horrific zombie that wants them all dead.

Ching Ying Lam reprises his "vampire busting" role but as a cop as well as a priest and combats vampires really well as seen in this highly imaginative and lively HK film that mixes comedy and horror quite well. Ching Ying Lam is great as usual, exuding authority and seriousness, and is very protective towards his cute niece especially where Wilson Lam is concerned, who is quite a lustful guy. His modernity clashes with Ching, highlighting the differences between cultures. Lam is really good as the cop who doesn't believe in such mumbo jumbo and vampires but he soon changes his mind quick. In contrast, Michael Miu, another cop, is respectful to Yam. He's quite funny in his role. The special effects are a highlight. Check out the finale where our hero takes on Michiko Nishiwaki who is great as usual as the villain. She's effortlessly menacing and alluring at the same time. The humour is good, though never overwhelming. Overall, a fun watch.

Vampire Buster Lam Ching-Ying does it again with his skillful and magical persona, playing Uncle Feng who joins forces with Hong Kong police detectives Lam (Wilson Lam) and No. 2237 (Miu Kiu Wai) to investigate a drug ring, whose leader is a black magic practicing Sorceress (Michiko Nishiwaki) that can turn the deceased into zombies.

Lam Ching-Ying sheds his usual Taoist Priest character but brings the same personality and bagful of magic tricks and charms into this modern story, catching ghosts left and right in the attention grabbing introduction, which then leads to the detectives trying to stop a runaway drug dealer - all leading to a funny culture clash between Feng's mystical style in solving the case and Detective Lam's more conventional and by-the-book method.

There is only some light martial arts action, but the film is pretty fast-paced with all its investigation scenes and zombie action, including the thrilling battle scenes between Uncle Feng and the Sorceress. The special effects of the film were nicely done and I thought the acting was actually good.

The story could have emphasized the drug dealing plot a little bit more, but other than that, this film is great zombie and magic action fun!

Grade A-

Most of us are familiar with the Hong Kong police movies, all feature extremely charismatic protagonists, a quick witted plot, full of exciting and complicated choreography sequences and some fun humour to spice all that up. Now, imagine all that but with added mysticism and magic on top of it- Wei Tungs "Magic Cop" brings all that and much more.

Magic Cop follows "Uncle Feng" a cop that uses extremely ancient Daoist methods to solve crimes. In the city of Hong Kong a zombie with drugs in its bag is discovered so the Hong Kong police department calls him in for his help, due to his history with the Hong Kong police department he reluctantly accepts the job. He's paired up with two sergeants, Lam and 2237 who bring up their own quirks to solve this case.

Now first to the positives, this movie is GORGEOUS, the shots are nice and the effects are even better and so impressive for their time. Speaking of gorgeousness, the city of Hong Kong makes itself to be a beautiful backdrop for such a fast paced and mystical movie, I knew this before but it never ceases to amaze me what a wonderful place this is for movies.

The story is brief and effective and it doesn't dwell too much on the rules of the mystical powers behind Uncle Feng's magic leaving it all into a mystery. The comedy is well executed with some funny moments, the comedy isn't forced; instead it lends itself to these moments naturally with some laugh out loud happenings.

The acting is also very good, the characters portrayed all have distinct personalities and it looks as if they're all having a blast.

Now to some negatives, while the movie is very effective and entertaining I feel like the motives of the antagonists in the movie aren't really explained or explored all that well, they're just bad guys who happen to use zombies to smuggle drugs which to be honest doesn't need a lot of explanation but it would've been nice to see some more motive besides just being pure evil, in a mystical way.

Also there's some story threads that weren't really resolved within the main plot, like Uncle Feng's involvement with the HK Police department before there's a whole scene with a bag and a document that he needs to sign but for some reason the movie doesn't really return to this point after this.

Also the ending is a bit abrupt, I wish there would've been some form of conclusion for the case or something- as it is presented in this movie it's like:"Evil has been defeated, good! Case closed!" Which can be a bit confusing.

Anyways these are just nitpicks and they didn't really take away from the main experience which was very enjoyable. It looks as if the movie also opened up for some sequels but there was none unfortunately, however there seem to be more Hong Kong cop movies with a mystical touch- can't wait to see more!