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.

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.

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.