An Eternal Combat (1991)

People are voting emotionally.

Crappy film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Vampire Buster great Lam Ching Ying stars as the Master who, along with apprentices Tortoise (Gabriel Wong) and Ma Sheung Fung (Fui-On Shing), attempt to defeat an evil Japanese warrior demon (Rico Chu) in ancient times. During the battle, the four fighters' magical spells somehow backfired, sending them through another dimension and into present day Hong Kong.There's some nice action in this movie, including some sword-wielding movies from Lam Ching Ying and Rico Chu. Unfortunately, the overall ghost element is somewhat limited in this movie as much of the plot involves the Master and his apprentices trying to find their way about the modern world, and dealing with modern day humans. And, Fui-On Shing's over-the-top bullying and aggressive portrayal of Ma Sheung Fung was a major turn off and proved to be very annoying to the plot.The beautiful Joey Wang plays the female lead in the film, portraying two roles, and is a very welcome part of the cast. Overall, it's not a terribly bad movie - could have used more scary ghost action, though.Grade C

It opens with Joey looking into a mirror and getting make up applied. She proceeds to some ceremony, stuff is burned, then she leaves. Cut to Tortoise (Gabriel Wong) and his sifu (Lam Ching-Ying) and a troublesome cobra. Cut again to darkness and weird stuff happens. A demon claims Joey and Lam interferes and they fight. Demon flees. Phillip Ko Fei is the government official ordered by the emperor to kill the demon. He asks Lam for help and though refused he is helped in a different plan. Four of them end up fighting then suddenly time travel to contemporary Hong Kong.If you like Mr. Vampire and Chinese Ghost Story and the Iceman Cometh – here you go! The rule in movie making is that if something works – beat it to death. Here we are beating three at once. I also felt beaten to death after watching this stinker.

Based upon the DVD's cover design, perhaps, I expected this to be some kind of routine horror film. Instead, this is a very entertaining film with a lot of humor and, of course, Lam Ching Ying.

I had not heard much about this film when I bought this film on the spur of the moment on DVD. I found it when I was doing a search for Lam Ching YIng movies. If you liked the Mr. Vampire series or Chinese Ghost Story series, you are sure to enjoy this one. Its pure entertainment. The film takes elements of the Mr Vampire series and Chinese Ghost Story and combines them with time traveling aspects of Iceman Cometh. It has comedy, good action scenes with lots of wire work (which I know some people hate, but I love) and it has a good plot that is not confusing. Lam Ching Ying plays the role that he was most familiar, the straight man with mystical powers, while the other cast members provide comic relief. Lam Ching Ying, along with his two assistants (one his bumbling apprentice, the other a reincarnated spirit of a Chinese royal guard who died after placing a magic potion on his penis, don't ask) attempt to dispel an evil Japanese spirit who haunts the woods. The film also has Joey Wang (A Chinese Ghost STory 1,2&3, Painted Skin) as CiCi, a woman who is kidnapped by the evil spirit and forced to marry. As a result she turns evil. The three good guys try to vanquish the evil spirits and end up in modern day Hong Kong. From there, its the proverbial fish out of water as Lam Ching Ying seeks his assistants so he can defeat the evil spirit. Definitley a must for any collector of HK cinema.