The Iceman Cometh (1989) User Reviews

Rich piece of jaw-dropping entertainment

[fertilecelluloid · 8/10 · 21 December 2005]

I really like this beautifully shot and choreographed action-fantasy/time travel yarn from Clarence Fok, the director of the moody "Gun and Rose" and the highly regarded "Naked Killer". It is an ambitious, rich production that boasts several stunning martial arts sequences and not a few jaw-dropping stunts. It is such an aesthetically rich and varied piece of entertainment that it never fails to please.

Yuen Biao plays the film's hero, a Ming Dynasty palace guard who resumes his pursuit of a nasty rapist/butcher, the great Yuen Wah ("Eastern Condors"), in the 20th century after their bodies, long encased in ice, are thawed. There are elements of Schepisi's wonderful "Iceman" here and aspects borrowed from Mulcahey's "Highlander", but, despite the film's varied influences, this is a fresh, fascinating synthesis of its raw elements and a damn great example of energetic film-making.

Biao is excellent as the naive palace guard who comes into contact with sweet-natured callgirl Maggie Cheung. He is totally believable as the fish out of water and stunning when asked to demonstrate his extraordinary physical skills. A fight atop a crane is masterful, as is a snow-bound sword fight, a duel inside a museum and a heart-stopping leap over a speeding car on a freeway. Yuen Wah, whose character warms immediately to 20th century firearms and criminality, is also amazing in his demanding, bone-punishing role.

Fok, who always brings a strong visual style to his movies, directs the sometimes brutal action with consummate professionalism and fills the cast list with memorable character actors and assorted beauties. A great score helps, too.

A gem.

Yuen Biao underrated

[phillip-58 · 7/10 · 10 August 2007]

Most fans of martial arts films can never understand why Yuen Biao somehow never made the big time like Jackie Chan or Jet Li. He came from the same background had a boyish charisma and charm shown to great effect in this film. His athletic abilities are legendary and the fights here show he had real martial arts abilities. This film has genuine comic moments and to my mind Maggie Cheung gives one of her best ever performances as the hooker /model with a heart of gold. Wah Yuen is a great evil brother and the final fight is surely one of the best recorded. OK the effects are fairly poor even for 1989 but the stunts are terrific. My Hong Kong Legends has good interviews with Yuen (where he shows the snow burns he got making this film) and Wah and a very clear print. An underrated film from an underrated artist.

Action, dark aspects, good humor

[brainfertilizer · 7/10 · 23 January 2005]

Excellent movie, in my opinion. I like Yuan Biao's kung-fu better than Jackie Chan's and the humor in this movie is excellent. Luckily, it seems to transfer into English well, so you can have fun even with just subtitles. The movie has enough dark moments (not child-safe) to remind you what the stakes are, the love interest between Yuan Biao and Maggie Cheung is touching and poignant, and the kung-fu action is excellent.

But it is important to remember that there are certain conventions in Honk Kong action flicks. It's also important to know which kind this is: mainly fist/leg action, with a little wire-work that doesn't detract from the excellent fight choreography. Heck, there's some decent sword-work in this one, too, which is a nice bonus in my opinion.

But "Hero" or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or "Farewell My Concubine" it is not. Don't expect a deep movie that will change your life, and you won't be disappointed. Expect a decent kung-fu movie with humorous touches and serious issues and you'll probably be satisfied.

Well Above Expectations

[bs3dc · 15 March 2006]

Having read many poor reviews of this title I was not expecting much from the film to say the least, but it turned out to be an extremely good Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah vehicle given their chance to shine away from Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. The acting honours though are stolen by Maggie Cheung whose character is also far removed from her appearances in Jackie Chan films.

Yuen Biao plays a Ming Dynasty Imperial bodyguard whose brother (played by Yuen Wah) has used his martial arts skills for evil ends and he is dispatched to hunt him down. In the ensuing fight they fall over a precipice into a chasm of ice and are frozen, only to be defrosted 300 years later. Yuen Biao is taken in by Maggie Cheung - a prostitute - for her own purposes as he finds himself completely lost in a very different world. Meanwhile Yuen Wah quickly adapts to the modern Hong Kong crime scene and Yuen Biao realises his mission is not over...

I can see why people watching this film may be disappointed by the fight scenes as they are certainly not as realistic or as frequent as those to be found in his earlier classics such as Prodigal Son or Knockabout. However there is still much to enjoy and the fight scenes are certainly varied and there are some high quality stunts.

While the storyline has its failings such as large leaps of faith, it at least shows some effort and imagination compared to many action films and has much to recommend it. I certainly do.

A Moment, Frozen in Time...

[Guardia · 7/10 · 25 November 2007]

Opera School colleagues Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah face off in this action/drama film, (oh, and Maggie Cheung tags along for good measure). This film has seems to have slipped off the radar somewhat, but if you manage to see it, you'll find it has some very powerful moments.

The scope of the film is huge. We start off in Imperial China (the Ming Dynasty), where we are introduced to the characters of Fong Sau-Ching (Biao), and Fung San (Wah) - perfect symbols of good and evil respectively. As in real life, the two are 'brothers', in that they have trained and lived together as Royal Guards. However, Fung has become corrupted, and is a known rapist and murderer. Fong must capture him within twenty days, or face execution himself.

Did I mention that they travel into the future Hong Kong, the year 1989? Well they do via a Buddhist Wheel - a kind of primitive Delorian (but built sturdier).

This film is by no means perfect, but it's main draw-cards are the exquisitely choreographed (though all too rare) action sequences, and the overall excellent production values. The performances vary somewhat, (Yuen Wah is maybe a little too comical in his delivery), but the film is ripe with powerful scenes and a surprising amount of subtext, if you're willing to look for it.

The most interesting contrast the film makes is between the past and the (then) present. We find that honour, loyalty, and friendship mean totally different things in the modern age, and Biao's character has the most difficulty adjusting to his surroundings. Wah's character however (rapist, thief, murderer) adjust very quickly, and has even managed to adopt the most cutting-edge in fashion. The subtle distinctions drawn between Hong Kong and the Mainland are also of interest - though how relevant they are today I cannot say.

Clarence Fok has undertaken a very ambitious task here - a film that deals with so much (in my mind) cannot succeed in every area. However, it does succeed in the most important areas for me, and I can only recommend at least one viewing. It does, however, seem to improve with multiple viewings. The rich visuals and and action sequences alone make this a stand-out from it's era.

Thawed out ancient warriors in modern day Hong Kong...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 12 January 2016]

This 1989 movie was actually a nice surprise, and for some reason then I have never actually gotten around to watching it, despite me being a fan of Maggie Cheung.

So after having seen it yesterday, I must say that "The Iceman Cometh" (aka "Ji dong ji xia") was quite a good and entertaining movie. And it was somewhat of a deviant from the typical movies that made it out of the Hong Kong cinema during the late 1980's. And that was, in my opinion, a very good thing.

The story in "The Iceman Cometh" is about Fong Sau-Ching, a Ming Dynasty royal guard (played by Biao Yuen) who is sent out to capture notorious killer and rapist Fung San (played by Wah Yuen). They fight it out and plummet to an icy death from a mountainside. Centuries later two men are found embedded in ice and brought to a Hong Kong museum. Here they are accidentally thawed up and brought back to life, rendering the two residents of the Ming Dynasty to be let loose in modern day Hong Kong.

The story was entertaining, albeit it wasn't original, and it had been seen before in Western cinema. But still, it turned out to be a good story and director Yiu-Leung Fok did manage to put together a nice movie.

It should be said that the movie was really well-carried by the three stars on the cast list; that being Biao Yuen, Wah Yuen and Maggie Cheung.

"The Iceman Cometh" will captivate you from the very beginning and it stays interesting and well-paced throughout the entire course of the movie, which is good, as the audience is kept in an icy grip.

I was genuinely entertained by "The Iceman Cometh" and wish that I had gotten around to watching it earlier, especially since I have had the DVD in my collection for about a decade.

"The Iceman Cometh" is a movie that will have some appeal even to audiences not usually keen on the Hong Kong cinema. And if you are a fan of the Hong Kong cinema, then do yourself a favor and get around to watching "The Iceman Cometh" if you haven't already seen it. You are missing out on a good movie.

Pretty average Hong Kong action/fantasy-adventure

[sarastro7 · 6/10 · 10 May 2005]

I am a big fan of Yuen Biao, and I had heard that Iceman Cometh was supposed to be *the* Yuen Biao movie, with a great leading performance and some spectacular kung fu. I finally found the DVD a couple of days ago - and unfortunately I was quite disappointed. Yuen Biao is certainly not bad - far from it -, but the movie actually doesn't have that much fighting in it, and the story, while moderately entertaining, does lack a good deal of charisma. The comedy is fair but not great, and there are some really nasty scenes of violence. All in all, not a very well-balanced product.

As a Yuen Biao movie, it certainly falls grievously short of classics like Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain and Prodigal Son. Maggie Cheung is not bad here, either, but doesn't manage to make the movie look better than it is.

Iceman Cometh reminds more than a little of the similarly themed 1991 Hong Kong movie Kung Fu Vs. Acrobats (Ma deng ru lai shen zhang), in which Yuen Wah also plays the bad guy, and which I've rated a 6. Iceman Cometh deserves the same grade. But since I had much higher hopes for Iceman Cometh, I can't help being somewhat disappointed.

A crazy mix between Highlander, Demoliton Man and Terminator done in Hong Kong style

[cauwboy · 7/10 · 15 July 2020]

I'm not really sure why Yuen Biao never had the same popularity as Jackie or Sammo, after films like 'Project A' and 'Wheels on Meals', one would think that Yuen would become just as big of a name as those other two. I did watch 'Righting Wrongs' not too long ago and sadly it wasn't a memorable film, but probably most because of the direction and also that they had taken out most of the comedy from that film. This film however is like the good old Hong Kong action comedy you're used with from Jackie and it shows both Yuen's comedic skills as well as his amazing martial art.

The story is a crazy mix between Highlander, Demoliton Man and Terminator with two men from a different time ending up in present time, one good and one really bad. We get to see some silly, cute scenes with Yuen's character trying to accept and learn the customs of today's society and also a bit of romantic comedy with Maggie Cheung, done like they only do it in Hong Kong, mostly portraying the woman as a liar, a cheater or someone with a bad personality and only becomes good when she got to prove her love for her hero. It's a dated view on women, but you just have to accept the film for what it is - I don't think many people would watch this film for the romantic parts.

What everyone should watch this film for, is the great action between Yuen and Wah Yuen (the landlord from Kung Fu Hustle) playing the baddest of the bad, a rapist and a murderer, brutally murdering the people he rape by breaking their arms and legs, it a bit too much sometimes, but also the bigger reasons why Yuen is in such a hurry to stop him.

I was very entertained by the film and even chuckled a couple of times through the film. I can only hope it will get a proper release on bluray someday so it gain some more popularity to show off what Yuen Biao did when he wasn't doing films with Jackie and Sammo. I would warmly recommend this film.

how did this movie get such a low score?

[sicksea11 · 9/10 · 6 May 2007]

i thought this movie was a GREAT one. Its about a hero and a villain from ancient china getting teleported to modern times. Storyline is definitely good for action movies. The acting was great as Maggie Cheung put up a charismatic performance as usual, Yuen Biao was wonderful at acting like a conservative ancient times man, clueless about modern times. Wah Yuen was one of the coolest villains I've ever seen, You just cant help but like him. The fighting scenes were great and kept you glued to your seat unlike a lot of other kung fu movies. Overall this was an amazing movie, i wouldn't even think about giving it less than a 9

A Hong Kong Demolition Man

[The-Sarkologist · 7/10 · 7 December 2012]

The movie had elements of Highlander and Les Visiteurs and some other time travel type movies, like Demolition Man (though this movie precedes Demolition Man). It is about two warriors from the Ming Dynasty. One is a psychotic killer while the other is an honourable royal guard who has to arrest the killer in twenty days or be executed himself. He chases the killer to Buddha's time wheel, originally designed to force Evil to experience a hundred life times, but used now to escape into the future. They meet, fight, and fall of a cliff and are frozen in ice only to be revived in the 20th Century.

This movie goes through all of the stages of culture shock in regards to time travel. Cars being monsters, television, and the old toilet and light switch jokes, which were performed heaps better in Les Visiteurs, but then Les Visiteurs was purely a comedy movie while this movie is more of a typical Hong-Kong action comedy. Then comes the shock of the changes, the Ming Dynasty has collapsed and everything has changed. Women has risen in status to a point where, as Ching is convinced, men are subservient. Then there is the bad guy who fits in with society reasonably well, except that he goes for pearls instead of Rolex watches.

I enjoyed it, as generally I like Hong Kong movies. There is little in the way of in-depth themes, or none that I can draw out of it (unlike John Woo films). There is the struggle of Ching to come to terms with the collapse of his empire, but this is something that we don't face, or not on his level. Yes, we find that at times our life simply collapses to a point where everything has changed, but I don't think The Iceman Cometh is design to provoke such thoughts. I think this movie is purely designed to entertain with martial arts extravaganzas. Woo seems to deal more with interweaving thought into his films, especially with the Killer, but we never really see Woo films on SBS. This is a good movie and would watch it again.

Very entertaining

[Groverdox · 8/10 · 24 August 2019]

"The Iceman Cometh", as it's known in the West, is a 1989 kung fu fantasy flick starring the great Yuen Biao, who was a contemporary of Jackie Chan at the Peking Opera School. Bizarrely, the movie shares its Western title with the famous play by Eugene O'Neill, which was immortalised on screen with a performance by Lee Marvin. Obviously, the two movies couldn't be more different.

This one begins in 16th century China, when our hero Yuen Biao is a Ming guard who is tasked with capturing his "brother", Feng San (Yuen Wah) who is a serial killer and rapist. Feng San explains that like our hero, he was made to study the martial arts for twenty-five years, and is now a master. His martial arts are now unbeatable, and so he figures it's time to enjoy himself - and for him, the best way to do that is with a bit of rape and serial murder of young women, including the Emperor's daughter, who he's already offed!

They have a confrontation on a snow-capped mountain in the middle of a blizzard and end up tumbling down a cliff and frozen together in a glacier.

Indeed, they're frozen so closely together that when they are found by some scientists in the present day, one of them observes that "This is proof homosexuality existed in ancient times"!

Some moronic thieves attempt to rob the warehouse where our frozen kung fu experts are kept, and in doing so, succeed in awakening the hero and villain of this story.

Bet you didn't see that coming.

The newly thawed Yuen Biao is then scene wandering a busy road in Hong Kong, asking himself, "Is this hell?" He narrowly misses being run over by a car, doing a forward flip over it, asking himself "why are there so many monsters?" He immediately ingratiates himself with a group of lazy homeless, who pretend to be starving for the do-gooder types who arrive dressed as Santa Claus and an angel. However, he assaults them when they try to play along with his supposed insanity by pretending to be the emperor. Sacrilege!

The film's female lead is introduced with a scene I didn't really understand. Maggie Cheung, a beautiful HK actress, plays a model who has to... pretend to be raped or abused by some guy to pay off her sister's debt? They get into a car together and he seems to pretend to whip her, while she pretends to be in pain? The movie is at pains to show that they are only pretending, so I didn't really get the point. Anyway, Yuen Biao comes on the scene and Cheung takes him as her bodyguard.

They go back to Cheung's "chaotic" apartment, where there are some genuinely amusing scenes as our recently thawed hero comes to terms with modern technology. He mistakes a toilet for an "electric well", and drinks from it while Cheung looks on and doesn't think to stop him. He also eats a cockroach, remarking that "it tastes far better than at home".

At this point we're wondering if Yuen is going to sleep with Cheung. She strips for the shower - though we don't see anything - and when Yuen touches her, he recoils, saying men shouldn't touch women. But the stage is obviously set for a romance of some sort. She even starts claiming that he's her boyfriend, and a Chinese gangster, to scare off the guys who are apparently after her. When they slap him, he comes to her aid, providing the second fight sequence. This features a strange shot where Yuen seems to catch a bullet with his hands.

At first Cheung is annoyed with Yuen, but predictably they start getting along as she realises he has his uses.

But what about the bad guy? Haven't seen much of him. He apparently has had much less trouble adjusting to modern society than Yuen Biao had. He's in with a group of thieves already, stealing jewellery and getting away by riding on car roofs.

Perhaps the Cheung character really is a prostitute? She's with a guy in an apartment, and pages (on a pager) Yuen Biao to come and kick the door down and beat the guy up. He then gives her thousands of dollars. So Yuen is a criminal now too?

The bad guy is abused by the wife of his criminal associate, so he tries to rape her. His associate comes home and tries to stop him, but finds him indestructible. The guy tries to shoot him, but the villain has already taken the bullets, which he is somehow able to flick back at the guy as though they were fired from a gun?

I thought Yuen and Cheung were headed straight for romance territory, but in fact she seems to be using him more as a slave, bragging to her friends that he's a moron and will do whatever she wants. He also realises that she is, indeed, a hooker, and he has been helping her cheat her customers.

Looking in the papers, Yuen realises that the villain has been thawed out and is back to his old ways, raping and beheading female victims. Cheung tries to get Yuen to come and help her rob her latest john, but he refuses - if only he knew it was his big brother! Yes, it's the Ming dynasty's kung fu ubermensch, Feng San. He ties Cheung up in the bathtub (while she's fully clothed) and breaks her hand by twisting it at the wrist.

Conveniently, Yuen calls Cheung again, and speaks to Feng San this time, realising he has to come and get her. Feng San and Cheung have relocated with suspicious alacrity to a nearby crypt - bye bye hotel room. Is that just a better place for a fight?

For some reason Yuen says he loves Cheung - as if that would make a psychopathic rapist and murderer rethink what he's doing - and to "prove it", Feng San throws him a poison that will make him lose all his skills if he drinks it, which of course he does. He is then apparently able to stop the poison with acupuncture needles, and follows Feng San on a horse while the villain drives. I said he was quick to adjust to modern society, but this is a little ridiculous.

His car ends up suspended by a crane at the pier, with Yuen hanging onto the side. They have a bit of a fight, while it see-saws over the ocean. Yuen falls in.

Then Feng San does a death-defying jump from the suspended car to some tarpaulin several metres below, which doesn't look nearly soft enough for such a landing to be safe, but of course he is uninjured. Yuen is the one who ends up in hospital, where Cheung goes to visit him. He repeats that he loves her, which is a sentiment that really seems to come out of nowhere. Why would he? They haven't had any intimate scenes.

Feng San has now graduated from criminal to terrorist. He is waving guns around with a paramilitary group and threatening to go back to Ming China and kill the emperor and have himself crowned in place. However, when he gets his hands on a sword, he decapitates one of his fellow terrorists - though this is shown without any blood or anything.

At long last we get the training montage as Yuen not only prepares for his final fight with Feng San, but also makes a sword he can use.

The final fight happens in a shopping centre, where Feng San decks himself out like Rambo, with a bullet belt, grenades, and two pistols. Yuen just uses the sword.

This last fight is actually kind of underwhelming. In the end, Yuen pulls a sword out of some kind of ancient sculpture thing and it starts spinning around and colours go everywhere. I didn't really get this part.

"The Iceman Cometh" is a very entertaining movie, but its fight scenes and stunts aren't up there with Yuen Biao's best. It's still a must-see for fans.

A bit plodding, but the action's great

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 4 August 2016]

Yuen Biao's leading role and the promise of yet another titanic ding-dong between him and sparring partner Yuen Wah was enough to sell me THE ICEMAN COMETH, a 1989 Hong Kong film that takes HIGHLANDER's central premise and reinvents it with a Chinese spin. Unfortunately, the film is far from the cult classic that it has been advertised as, although it does have much to recommend it. The film features an unlikely combination of comedy and drama, pathos, and more familiar martial arts stunts and action.

Unfortunately the subject matter is very dark and the film is often depressing. The central villain is a rapist and at least one scene – a rape in a car – is done in incredibly bad taste, souring the experience of the film as a whole. Clocking in at one hour fifty minutes, the film is also very talky, and much of the dialogue centres around Maggie Cheung as the love interest. Cheung plays an obnoxious hooker, far from her sweet character in the POLICE STORY films. Here she's brash and unpleasant, unappealing to the viewer. Unfortunately much of the comedy centres around her instead of letting the male actors enjoy the type of physical hijinks so beloved of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

While Cheung is an immediate detraction every time she's on screen, the film is bolstered by Yuen Biao's typically strong leading performance; he's a far better actor than Christopher Lambert, the man he imitates at times, and he ably handles the dramatic scenes along with the comedic ones – the sequence in which he drinks from a toilet bowl is hilarious, made more so by Biao's acting of the innocent. Biao is matched by Yuen Wah, never more evil than he is here as the villain. I have to say, though, that it's pretty odd to see the skinny Wah stripped to his underwear and showing off his muscles to a hooker. With two top martial artists in the film, you can guarantee some great fights, and the film doesn't disappoint in the action stakes.

Sword duels, a great battle on top of a car suspended in the air by a crane, and the top-notch one-on-one at the film's climax, which is set in a museum, certainly add up to counter the movie's deficiencies. The painful final fight is a particular keeper and the best showdown we've seen between Biao and Wah – their later chandelier ruckus in ONCE UPON A Chinese HERO is short and unspectacular in comparison. The film boasts some really good '80s animation that I'd choose over CGI any day. THE ICEMAN COMETH is a very different style film than we're used to from Hong Kong. With a better director and more action, it would have been a classic to rival DRAGONS FOREVER. As it is, it's an unwieldy movie with some great fights but a plodding storyline and Maggie Cheung's worst ever role.

Maggie Cheung Takes Center Stage in "Iceman Cometh"

[gerrytwo · 28 October 1999]

"Iceman Cometh" starts out as a manhunt by Ming royal guard Yuen Biao after a rapist-killer of thirteen women in the royal palace, including a relative of the emperor. The guard is transported along with the killer to a snow covered area by a Tibetan wheel with time travel properties. After the two are frozen in the snow, a scientific expedition finds them years later and brings their frozen bodies back to modern Hong Kong. The guard and killer are accidentally thawed out, and the guard ends up getting involved with a call girl (Maggie Cheung)

Maggie Cheung steals every scene she is in. Yuen Biao is tops in action scenes with his opponent, the actor who played Panther in "Supercop," but Biao is no match for Maggie. She uses him first as a housekeeper to clean up her messy apartment, then as an enforcer to shake down her clients for additional payoff money. She is the one with most of the problems, from a pimp who threatens to throw acid in her face if she doesn't go out with a client to her later run in with the rapist murderer.

The movie also has some nice technical effects when the Tibetan wheel goes into its time traveling mode at the end of the movie, but the real special effect is Maggie Cheung's acting range. She can project some personality on the screen.

Highlander wishes it was this good

[benturkalj · 8/10 · 10 January 2006]

During the eighties, Hong Kong cinema had some of the most enjoyable action films on the planet, and this was one of them.

Basically the plot revolves around two soldiers, one good and one bad, fighting to the death and being frozen in ancient china. They are then thawed out in the eighties, forced to battle once again but now with greater powers.

Although a great deal of the film is based on how the two soldiers react to there new surroundings, with some interesting results, the film is more about the action sequences, which are all pretty impressive. It has to be said that the final sword battle between the two foes is one of my favourite sequences in history, even though it is clearly a rip off of highlander. Of course, like many Hong Kong flicks, it is done 10 times better then the American version. This is a pretty good way to introduce yourself to Hong Kong cinema.

Excellent leading role vehicle for Yuen Biao

[dworldeater · 8/10 · 21 April 2023]

The Icemen Cometh is a excellent fantasy/action flick with Yuen Biao as the lead. Yuen Biao is a royal guard to The Ming Emperor and he must go after his former friend that has gone mad abusing his martial arts skills to rape women. This leads them forward in time to 80's Hong Kong where they fight at the end in a final duel. Yuen Biao stops what he thought was an attempt rape and ends up befriending pretty lady Maggie Chung who uses Yuen Biao to beat up her clients and cheat them out of money. A mutual love between the two develops and his main adversary Yuen Wah resurfaces to.reek havoc through modern Hong Kong. Maggie Chung humanized this character greatly as she was excellent in this role. Yuen Biao was also no slouch and played this character very well. Finally, Yuen Wah was fantastic as the psychotic villain and is one of my favorite performances as such. Yuen's brother Sammo did the action choreography and there is tons of great action and amazing fights and stunts. The film looks great and for a storyline this crazy still manages to remain cohesive and flows well at an exciting and fast pace courtesy of director Clearance FoK( best known for cult catagory 3 classic Naked Killer). The acting was also as well done as the action. Overall, there is no weak link in The Icemen Cometh and is a very exciting and innovative action picture from Hong Kong.

Fists Of Ice

[cbdunn · 29 October 2003]

WOW!!! This movie is incredible. It has two of the most underrated martial artists. They are Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah. When these two go head to head...everything breaks lose. Do not let the title fool you. This has a bit comedy and alot of martial arts combat. Two opponents (once friends) travel across time from the Ming Dynasty to modern (1987) Hong Kong. Most of the film focuses on Yuen Biao and the ever beautiful Maggie Cheung. When we see how bad guy Yuen Wah has adapted to modern day tools of murder and mayhem...the fists and feet fly. I don't want to give away too much of the plot. However, the time travel device is a Buddhist "wheel" that when a Black Buddah is inserted as the key...time travel is possible. The end fight between Yuen and Yuen is one to see. Check it out.

Back to the ... Future

[kosmasp · 9/10 · 8 March 2023]

Asia style ... also without a car/DeLorean. So no pun intended is what I am trying to say of course. Yuen Biao - if you don't know who that is ... well you have quite the homework to do. Most people do know Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen as of late ... some also have heard of Sammo Hung and some others, but Yuen Biao seems to be the oddity that only certain people know ... or rather knew. Because with all these movies coming out on Blu Ray (maybe even 4k), a lot of new people will discover this amazing human being.

I mean someone who body doubled for his co-stars (like Cynthia Rothrock) ... you got to love this guy. He also has body doubles in some scenes, though does most of his own stunts. The great thing about this movie is, that he knew his co-star for a long time. So the fight scenes are amazing as you can imagine. Then there is the stunts in general ... most done without a legal permission. Like the horse riding thing on the streets.

Then there is the car hopping scene ... so many great scenes. There is of course language that may make you cringe ... but if you can overlook that ... if you can endure that and not be too sensible about it ... there is a lot to enjoy here. A lot of fun and a lot of action ... right no.

Martial Arts fantasy comedy

[faroukmasud · 10/10 · 30 January 2019]

Just watched this film for the first time last night. Loved it. It was so funny. And Yuen Biao was awesome as the hero....and Yuen Wah was great as the villain as well...he plays the villain in a bunch of martial Arts films....he's great at it. Highly recommend to watch this with friends late at night.

Entertaining and often hilarious

[thomvic · 14 October 2011]

This is a cheesy but enjoyable film about two warriors who live in the Ming Dynasty and quite simply - one is good, the other a womanising rapist. They get transported into modern day Hong Kong where the main character ends up meeting a prositute (Maggie Cheung) who hires him as her servant to do some chores around the house as well as being her bodyguard.

This is a film not to be taken seriously and you'll enjoy it the more if you don't. It is a no brainer action comedy flick that has a silly plot that works well in this type of genre. Maggie Cheung is terrific as the self centred prostitute who just doesn't really konw what to do with her life and Biao Yuen as Ching (the protagonist) is pretty good in his role and both of the leads work well together The action scenes are the sort you sort of expect in the Hong Kong action film and they remain believable if slightly outrageous. Essentially what makes the story work is its humour and I wasn't expecting this to be a comedy at all - in fact I think I must have not read the blurb at the back of the DVD cover properly as I didn't realise Ching was going to be transported to another era - and it surprised me the more when I watched it.

Check it out - it's a good film. Sure it's not a masterpiece nor will it be helmed as one of the greatest movies of our time but for what it is worth - it is worth the watch.

A mixture of Kung-Fu, fantasy, drama and comedy in this HK flick!

[OllieSuave-007 · 9/10 · 27 May 2016]

This is a fantasy action film from Hong Kong, starring Yuen Biao as Ming Dynasty royal guard named Fong Sau-Ching, who got frozen in time after a fierce battle with the evil Fung San (Yuen Wah). After many years, both Fong and Fung have been thawed out in modern Hong Kong, where they continue their battle.

This movie is chock full of martial arts action, from Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah duking it out in the Ming Dynasty to modern day Hong Kong. It's really smashing and edge-of-your-seat excitement seeing these two martial arts greats do their amazing stunt work.

Caught in the middle of the centuries-old duel is call girl Polla (Maggie Cheung), who takes in Fong at her home. Seeing Fong try to assimilate and adjust living life in the modern day was pretty hilarious. But, much of the comic relief came from Maggie Cheung, who gave a rather dramatic but sassy performance at the same time. There were some touching chemistry between the two as well.

Yuen Wah as the villain offers up some dark moments in the film as well, being a merciless attacker and all-around bad guy - somebody you would love to root against. I do think, though, that Wah's character was overkill and over dramatic at times.

Rounding up the cast of characters are cameo appearances from a host of Hong Kong actors, from Elvina Kong to Elvis Tsui, and from Stanley Fung to Corey Yuen. Fun stuff here! Grade A-

A timeless tale of revenge, honour and forbidden love

[rehanyousuf15 · 10/10 · 29 May 2001]

Yuen Biao is the most underrated martial artist of his generation. In my opinion his acrobatic skills outdo both Jackie Chan and Jet Lee although for some reason he isn't as highly rated as JC and JL. This film, his finest, is actually a sort of sci fi/fantasy film. He stars as a warrior of the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century. He and his adversary are fighting and they both fall of a cliff and are frozen; only to be found in the 20th century by scientists and accidentally unfrozen. This film with it's fantasy plot could have been his worst but with his acting, the fighting and the outrageous comedy with the lovely femme fetale Maggie Cheung this is a modern and all time classic. The things Yuen Biao does in this film show why I rate his acrobatic skills higher than JC and JL. The comedy interplays with violent action with Yuen Wah's performance as a sadistic villain spot on. The script is pretty intelligent and the jokes come thick and fast making fun of the late 1980s seen through the 16th century eyes of Yuen Biao who discovers television, electricity and... toilets. The jokes however aren't as glaringly obvious as Jackie Chan and some (very few) Jet Lee films (as very few Jet Li films are comedic if any); the humour is like an episode of The Simpsons, you have to recognise them but when you do they are really funny and actually very intelligent and heartwarming jokes. Maggie Cheung is absolutely brilliant in surely an Oscar winning role as the hard hearted hooker with a soft inside, she shows here that only she could have played this role perfectly. However Yuen Biao just steals the show from Maggie Cheung with his portrayal of a serious but innocently funny warrior. Also the chemistry between Yuen Biao and Maggie Cheung is absolutely electric, they really do sizzle when they are both on screen together. Also unlike Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung films the humour is played with a straight face throughout and this film is the better for it. A modern classic with some great humour fused with some violent fights and the best acting I have ever seen. The ending also has a wonderful bitter-sweet denouement. One more thing is the soundtrack. It is absolutely wonderful and the best bits are the xylophone and the violin when Yuen Biao messes up some very simple house tasks. Surely this film defined the words "all time classic".

Below Average Yuen Biao Movie

[randombum2 · 4 October 2004]

Yuen Biao is a highly underrated actor for his time, his acrobatic skill and comic timing are so much better than Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung or Jet Li.

This movie trys to do sci fi kung fu and ends up looking cheap n nasty. Similar to Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain but not as good.

Don't get me wrong all the action scenes are awesome no doubt due to Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah, but the story isn't (Ming dynasty guard teleported into the future to capture a criminal). Comedy is different from his usual methods too, not as good in my opinion.

Well worth a watch for any fan and if your looking for excellent Biao movie watch Prodigal Son or Kickboxer or Dreadnaught or Knockabout (and plenty others). You wont be disappointed if you like quick action and quick laughs :).

promising but never catches fire

[DanStarkey · 10 April 2004]

The guy-from-the-ancient-past-accidentally-brought-to-the-present plot has been used many times, often in quite charming and amusing films - a recent example being Jean Reno's "Just Visiting." Despite the usually charming Maggie Cheung, "Iceman Cometh" takes this promising theme and manages to go nowhere with it. The fault primarily lies with the smaller-than-life Yuen Biao, who, despite prodigious kung fu skill, has near zero screen presence. **Mild spoiler follows** No woman could seriously be expected to fall in love with this sap, certainly not Maggie's tough-as-nails hooker. Her sudden reformation is the least believable conversion since James Bond transformed Pussy Galore into a heterosexual in "Goldfinger." Deservedly rare, the DVD is, to boot, particularly poor quality.