Louis Koo returns as the modern-day cop trapped in the Qin dynasty in this cinematic reprise of the hit 2001 Hong Kong TV series A Step Into the Past. The film picks up the main characters 20 years on, with former policeman Hong Siu Lung (Koo) lying low after putting his disciple Chiu Poon (Raymond Lam) on the throne.
In the present day, the time machine's inventor Ken (Michael Miu Kiu-wai) has just been released from prison for botching the technology and marooning Hong. Instead of seeking redress, he resolves to travel back to the past and become Qin emperor himself. The film proceeds at a nippy pace, but directors Jack Lai and Yuen Fai Ng do not take it in the expected direction of an anachronism-hugging comedy.
Ken's use of 21st-century ordnance against Qin footsoldiers is as subtle as it gets in what amounts to an extended chase sequence. There are passable sequences, such as a cart-borne escape down a hillside tea plantation, but the fight choreography is rote gun-fu, surprisingly as it is overseen by old master Sammo Hung, and often chopped into restrictive closeups.
The soapy convolutions of the story take on an increasingly sententious tone, with Ken's betrayed daughter (Baihe Bai) becoming a mouthpiece for lectures on megalomania and history. Lam's cold-eyed tyrant is too often asked to flip back into the character of Hong's misty-eyed ward, especially when a callback montage to the original show looms. A Step Into the Past diehards might appreciate the nostalgia, but it is far too basic a technology for most people these days.
