Magic Cop

My favorite movies are those that drop you down a rabbit hole completely unprepared for the world they create.  And Magic Cop (1990), the fifth film in the Hong Kong produced Mr. Vampire franchise, fits that description to a tee.  Blending Chinese folklore, martial arts, special effects and physical comedy, director Stephen Tung’s film races along on an amphetamine level of energy to save its skeptical characters – and the audience – from magical threats sent from a spiritual plane they didn’t even know existed. 

Retired police officer Feng (Lam Ching Ying) doesn’t just protect citizens from typical criminals.; he’s also a Taoist monk trained to destroy supernatural entities who cause trouble in our world.  Here he’s roped into a case involving a drug-running witch using zombies as mules to move her merchandise.  Paired up with two naïve detectives and his beautiful niece, Feng offers up his mystical jade amulet as protection…which opens himself up to attacks from every side!

 

Magic Cop is exhilarating right from the opening scene, where Feng must calm down an angry spirit after an offering ceremony gone wrong.  The rules and weapons by which these beings are defeated come fast and furious.  But Tung’s film makes the viewer enjoy the confusion.  Feng’s ability to find a complicated counter-spell for every occasion never ceases to impress and the performance by Lam (a former stuntman at Shaw Brothers Studio) is infectiously fun.  By way of American comparison, it’s Big Trouble in Little China meets Dr. Strange.  But Hong Kong cinema is incomparably fearless and Magic Cop manages to do more with less.

 

88 Films’ Blu-ray includes a variety of language and subtitle options, audio commentary from Frank Djeng and Marc Walkow, interviews, image gallery, trailer, slip cover, fold-out poster and full Taiwanese Cut with alternate score presented in SD only.  

 

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