‘Past’ Imperfect
Louis Koo’s second labour of love in the last few years should be a goofier, more fun romp than it really is.
Back to the past
Directors: Jack Lai, Ng Yuen-fai • Writer: Lily He, based on the book by Wong Yee
Starring: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Jessica Hsuan, Michael Miu, Sonija Kwok, Joyce Tang, Bai Baihe
Hong Kong • 1hr 47mins
Opens Hong Kong December 31 • IIB
Grade: C
Roughly two decades after he stepped into a time machine to do his duty as a cop (!) and got hurtled back in time to 200-odd BC and the Qin Dynasty, Hong Kong cop Hong Siu-lung (Louis Koo Tin-lok) found himself caught up not just in Qin court intrigue but struggling with a time paradox, trying his best to ensure the timeline isn’t corrupted and a young man called Chiu Poon becomes the Qin Emperor Ying Ching (Raymond Lam Fung). It’s the stuff of Star Trek at its best, and occasionally its worst, and after succeeding in safeguarding two thousand years of Chinese history, Hong opts to stay in the past with his 2.5 wives: Wu Ting-fong (Jessica Hsuan Suen-huen), Kam Ching (Sonija Kwok Sin-nei) and rebel Sin-yau (Joyce Tang Lai-ming). But when the time machine’s inventor, Ken (Michael Miu Kiu-wai), gets out of jail (long story) he comes gunning for what’s rightly his: the throne. Or something.
That’s the gist of co-directors Jack Lai Jan-lung and Ng Yuen-fai’s Back to the Past | 尋秦記, a belated sequel (even when it started shooting way back in 2018 or 2019) to Koo’s last and Lam’s break-out 2001 TV hit adaptation of Wong Yee’s A Step into the Past. Everybody and their dog is getting a decades-later legacy sequel these days (Happy Gilmore, Frasier, Bill and Ted, Beverly Hills Cop) so why not the wildly popular TVB genre mash-up? Koo & Co. were wise to rein it in and stick to just one film. Writer Lily He (who got a lot attention this year with the buzzy Good Game) barely has enough story to tell for 100 minutes (it pulls from Wong’s The Chronicles of Searching Qin), never mind 1,800.
“Movie or series?”
Back in the day, Ying Ching has unified the six warring states and turned tyrant, while future-man Hong has made a life in a small village for himself, his wives and his son Hong Bo-yee (Kevin Chu Kam-yin), who may or may not be a thorn in Ying’s side in the future. In the future in the past. You get the idea. Hong and Ying haven’t spoken since 2001 in 20 years, but when Ken and his gang of mercenaries, among them Max (Wu Yue), who wants to retroactively loot the palace and make a fortune in modern Hong Kong, Phil (Timmy Hung Tin-ming), and the silent thug Tim (Chris Collins), he turns to his old master for help; his guys can’t fight the Hong’s future-man peers. On the bad guys’ side, Ken ropes in his estranged daughter Galie (Bai Baihe) in his quest to be emperor for… reasons, and brings a pile of tech with him. Mixed in with the high powered firearms are super-souped motorbikes that expand from what? a USB or something, and clear acrylic phones that show… maps maybe? Ken and his posse come through the portal, there’s some running around the forest looking for, first, Ying Ching, and then Sin-yau’s rebel stronghold, a hostage swap, doppelgängers, parental reconciliation, selfless sacrifice and a ludicrous post-credit sequence that at least gives us a glimpse of the late, great Liu Kai-chi one last time (yes, this started filming that long ago).
Bottom line is that Back to the Past isn’t nearly as much fun as it should be. It’s got time travel, it’s got nefarious ex-cons, estranged kids, money-grubbing opportunists, hoverboards, a rebel stronghold and – best of all in the year of Heated Rivalry – manful bonding (no fears, this is a family film so there’s zero raunchy sex). The script and story is built on a foundation of shout-outs and call-backs that staunch fans are probably going to love, but which will leave newbies stone cold. He’s script isn’t hard to follow; it’s just hard to care unless you float in on a cloud of nostalgia, which is entirely possible.
And it’s really hard to care when everything looks so shoddy. Sorry, but the janky SFX and VFX don’t look as good as the ones from the 2001 TV show the film drops in every so often as a flashback – and it’s a distrating problem. Lai was AD-ing around town before making his solo directing debut with the 2024 horror flick Possession Street (though this was supposed to come first), but Ng is a VFX pro Ng who made his debut with the 100% solid Warriors of Future. WTF happened here, and how has Sammo Hung’s action director work seemingly just evaporated? This is fan service of the highest order, and even die-hards may scratch their heads in wonder.