Magic Cop

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.

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-

Lam Ching Ying is one of my favorite Chinese actors and when he passed on I was greatly saddened. Although I can't pick my favorite of the movies that he's done, as there are so many great ones, "Magic Cop" is up there. Lam once again plays his "Ghostbusting Taoist monk", but in this one he's a cop (but still Ghost-busting and Taoist) This film will bring a smile to your face, it's action packed & it holds up on multiple viewings. What's NOT to like?? Still not sold? The writer of this film also wrote suck greats as "In the line of Duty", the hilarious "God of Cookery", AND Shaolin Soccer.

My Grade: A

DVD Extras: Just the theatrical trailer & a short bio on Lam Ching Ying

This is really a cool movie, Ching-Ying Lam as a hard-boiled cop with some magic skills in a 90s environment, this is what I wanted the from Ching-Ying after all the comedic roles he had as the taoist in the Mr Vampire films.

Now this film still got a fair amount of comedic scenes in it, but they're not as embarrassing as previous films, this film actually takes itself a bit more serious and it works so well. The Police Force fighting walking corpses, controlled by a Sorceress and for some reason the Police Force just happens to have a cop that can deal with magic too and it's the most perfect example of a fight between Masters of Magic.

The film still got a limited amount of budget, so take it for what it is. It's not the same gory makeup you see in Hollywood films like Terminator or Romero's Dead Series. But instead you have things you've never seen in films before, like the "fortune telling car chase" - you have to see it for yourself to see what I mean, but it's why I love watching films, when I see things like this, great and fantastic ideas I would never have thought of myself.

There were still some dumb, comedic scenes I felt dragged the coolness of the film down, especially from the two cop sidekicks, but Ching-Ying was just amazing. And for some reason all of these HK horror/comedies seems to have a rule to not be longer than 90 minutes, on one hand I would love to have more content, on another hand it's very packed with what it got, and the ending is more closed this time than previous films. I hope we'll see a release of this film on bluray, because I would love to see this again and for many others to discover this gem. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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!