Magic Cop (1990)

Thanks for the memories!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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

This movie is fantastic fun and by this movie is fantastic fun I mean this movie is fantastic and I also mean that this movie is really, really, fun!The subtitles can get a bit annoying sometimes especially when there is a lot of action on the screen which you are missing in order to read the lines, then have to back it up to re watch it all over again, but this is the kind of thing I would complain about any time I watch a foreign movie that has subtitles, so I can't really attack it too much for that.Great action, some really funny parts, and the acting and story are better than you would expect.

This movie is absolutely brilliant and will become a part of my collection. Sometimes, with the number of unknown movies that I have been watching lately I have been becoming a bit board, but I must remember that every so often a movie of absolute brilliance appears and Magic Cop is one of them.Plotwise Magic Cop is not all that great. It is a very basic plot of good guy verses bad guy, the twist in this story is that the good guy is a cop who happens to be a sorcerer and the bad guy (or should I say girl) is a sorceress. Okay, the description of sorcerer is very European and the magic that occurs within the movie deals more with Taoist spirituality. Even so it still makes a very interesting movie to watch. Even though the effects are poor by Hollywood standards, they are the sort one expects from Hong Kong movies and adds to the flavour of the movie. I was going to describe it as having a comic book flavour, but it does not because the comic book movies have created a very fantasy feel to them. Movies like the Big Hit use bright colours while Batman uses very distinct props which create a twisted and Gothic feel to it.A zombie, or as the movie terms it, a walking cadaver, rampages through a restaurant carrying a case of drugs. The police are a little confused that this person was able to withstand multiple gunshots and being smashed apart by cars, and this attracts the attention of a retired sergeant. In the opening sequence we are shown that he has extensive knowledge on dealing with the spirit world and he saves an unfortunate mother and daughter from the anger of their ancestors. Thus he comes onto the scene though is rejected by his peers as being unorthodox and trapped in a world that does not exist. This changes when they discover that he is able to drag up information above and beyond any normal person can find out and that at the bottom of this drug ring is a powerful sorceress that is using the art in a skeptical world to advance her power.Magic Cop is a cool movie because it merges successfully the swords and sorcery feel within the modern world. It is a movie where magic is tossed freely and evil witches try to take control of our heroes. I do not know if the magic sequences were developed by the filmmakers or considered to be true. As for magic I am very conscience of its existence because of reliable sources documenting its existence. It is more an ancient phenomenon because our skeptical western minds refuse to accept the existence of that which we cannot see or touch. Faith in the western world has all but vanished, except for that which we have in ourselves. Magic is not a good thing: it is a very dangerous thing that we must beware of, but to totally ignore it is even more dangerous.

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