The Iceman Cometh (1989)

The Age of Commercialism

Great Film overall

A lot of fun.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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.

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.

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.

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