Starring Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Michael Miu, Jessica Hsuan

Directed by Ng Yuen-fai and Jack Lai with action direction by Sammo Hung

One Cool Pictures – in Cinemas Now

After being stranded for twenty years at the commencement of the Qin dynasty (3rd Century BCE), 21st Century special agent Hong Siu-lung (Louis Koo) finds himself under attack from Ken (Michael Miu) the inventor of the time machine intent on revenge and with a plan to become the ruler of Imperial China.

There was a distinct party atmosphere at the packed first screening of Chinese historical sci-fi Back to the Past yesterday afternoon. I had never heard of 2001 Hong Kong TV series A Step into the Past but as the only non-Chinese member of the audience, it was clearly a ‘thing’! I chatted to the fortysomething Hong Kong couple sitting next to me. They’d waited over twenty years for their favourite TV show to come to the big screen and could barely contain their excitement.

To help Back to the Past newbies like me, the film kicked off with a grainy 4:3 video transfer recap of the TV series before expanding to its new shiny HD 1.85:1 movie iteration. To be totally honest, even with this bluffer’s guide, I wasn’t sure I quite followed it all, but it didn’t particularly matter as what ensued was a fairly standard time travel romp complete with Back to the Future 2 style hoverboard battles above bemused Chinese imperial warriors.

Chatting with my new Hong Kong friends after the movie, they explained that the plot hinged on time travel counterfactuals regarding the official history of the Qin Dynasty, and that much of the hilarity expressed by the audience was in response to wise cracking dialogue in modern Cantonese (incorporating occasional English words) counterpointing the formal language of the 3rd Century BCE characters, most of which had, of course, been lost in translation.

Verdict: Whether or not Back to the Past lives up to the expectations of the show’s TV superfans clearly isn’t for me to say, but while, for the uninitiated, Back to the Past may be fairly standard time travel fare, for non-Chinese cinema-goers, if you can find a screening somewhere with a substantial Chinese community, then sharing in the infectious sense of celebration is worth the price of admission. 6/10

Martin Jameson  

www.ninjamarmoset.com