Hocus Pocus
4/24/2001
Review
Format: VCD
Stars: Lam Ching Ying, Tung Wei, Peter Chan Lung

A Peking opera troop encounters a wandering ghost and helps it to become reincarnated. However, they slip up a few times which brings them into a heap of trouble.

I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to this film. A review I read stated that it was Lam Ching Ying's last fighting role, with tons of fight scenes and all the supernatural effects were acrobaics instead of special effects. I popped it in and waited... here's what happened.

It starts off with an opera scene with wirework, and this isn't the kind of opera I was thinking of. There is wirework everywhere, but after some time they get Lam Ching Ying in there and there's a miniscule amount of fighting and some nice acrobatics from everybody. Short thing.



Tung Wei has a small opera scene where he does a branny off a big box and a backflip. It lasts 30 seconds at most.



And... then Tung Wei gets in a fight with a man who is working with the opera in a restaurant which is fast and very good, but short. Tung Wei seemed to know how to fight with the really fast style and he looks like a pro. I wish I could find more on this guy. Download the good stuff from this fight by clicking on any of the pics below. He and the same man fight in the dressing room later which has nothing really.

To see the only worthwhile fight in this entire movie, click here or on the pics


Tung Wei and the same guy get an opera scene together and they do some fighting, which is opera style. The other guy has a sword at first and manages some nice acrobatics, one being a backflip immediately into a front flip. Tung Wei does a move all the time where he kicks a long scarf he's wearing over his shoulder to get it out of his face. Nothing too great though unless you like Peking opera.



That's all the action I could derive from this before the ending. Lam Ching Ying does almost nothing to this point, his character is important, but he doesn't get much screen time at all. Tung Wei, well, the guy plays practical jokes on the other guy the whole time. Tung Wei and his buddies continually play tricks on the other guy, trying to scare him. It happens OVER AND OVER, I was getting seriously tired of the whole gag half way through.

There seemed to be relief though when the final scenes were coming about, when a ghost started attacking a woman and Peter Chan Lung at dinner, and there are some nice stunts with people falling through furniture and everything, and they get ready to square off against the main ghost, which is what excited me. "Finally," I said, "I can see something really good come out of this."



They cover the floor with blood, prepare bloody curtains, and get ready to trap the ghost in the opera house. It seems to be pretty successful until the ghost starts throwing people everywhere. Oh by the way, the ghost flies the entire time, which is nausiating. But I was ready when Tung Wei was the last man standing... and gets knocked down in one hit. The ghost goes near an alter by mistake, the alter god comes out, and makes the ghost explode..... the end? Yes. That's it.



I'm absolutely in shock, I felt like I had wasted a year of my life after seeing this. I got almost NOTHING out of it. All I learned were 2 or 3 Taoist mysticism tricks. This shouldn't happen, Lam Ching Ying never threw a punch, Tung Wei had about a minute of fighting time (in 2 parts), there wasn't ONE solid scene in this film. Sammo Hung directed this, and maybe he was thinking in the opposite direction of Spooky Encounters, but I don't like it, I can't tell you how disappointed I am.

1/5 - Just for Tung Wei's fight and the stuntwork that OCCASIONALLY pops up.

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