Magic Cop

It's just good martial arts with solid pacing, a decent story about a cop investigating spirits, not-too-goofy characters, and it provides a big action blowout at the end, and actually a bit of creepiness. Lots of fun "action rituals" performed by Uncle Feng throughout his investigation, and in turn by the evil witch, the rituals mirror that of Weapons (2025) but in fast motion.

Successfully capitalising on the wholly deserved popularity of Mr. Vampire, charismatic HK icon Lam Ching-ying returns as taciturn mystic rural cop Feng, summoned to the mainland in order to solve the confounding case of a zombie drug mule! Hugely inventive, exciting, winningly playful, and frequently very funny, Magic Cop remains a compelling admixture of athletic physical comedy, kinetic action, lively badinage, and exhilaratingly strange interludes of arcane Chinese sorcery! For me, Stephen Tung Wai's wild, deliciously eccentric, intricately bizarre opening sequence remains one of the most dynamic expressions of a hero's heroic persona ever conceived, with palpably more cinematic vitality than John's increasingly flaccid Wick!

When a famous actor dies, I usually think, "oh, that's sad", and pretty much forget about it. When Lam Ching Ying died, I was truly sad, and this movie is one of the major reasons why. In Magic Cop, Lam brings his Taoist Priest persona out of the hopping vampire genre and into a modern setting. The film masterfully combines the best elements of films like Mr. Vampire and A Chinese Ghost Story with modern Hong Kong police action films.

Somebody tell me if this one ever comes out on DVD!

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-

Ching-Ying Lam is very famous for his ghost busting Taoist priest in the Mr.Vampire series and any horror comedy movie with Chinese hopping vampire after that so in 1990 his battle with the force of evil one again happen in the modern times when science take over and the old traditional being left behind.This time we still get the slaptick humor from his co-star and many crazy ghost busting techniques that too awesome to put into words.Magic Cop is very entertaining and a must see for fan of Ching-Ying Lam and Hong-Kong cinema in general