Notable Cast: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Bai Baihe, Jessica Hsuan, Sonija Kwok Sin-Nae, Joyce Tang Lai-Ming, Michael Miu Kiu-Wai, Louis Cheung, Kevin Chu, Wu Yue, Timmy Hung Tin-Ming, Chris Collins, Liu Kai-Chi, John Tang Yat-Kwan, Michelle Saram
I suppose, deep down in my lizard brain, I knew this was coming, but the ‘legacy sequel’ trend that has exploded in Hollywood over the last decade or so is creeping over to Hong Kong and China. Not that they haven’t dabbled in it before, I certainly remember From Vegas to Macau, but I certainly didn’t expect there to be a movie sequel to the early 00s TV drama, A Step into the Past. Yet, here we are with Back to the Past, a strange combination of big-scale silver screen spectacle and made-for-TV movie melodrama that moves at breakneck speed and manages to entertain despite relying so heavily on its audience's memory of the original show. It’s the kind of love letter sequel that will have some viewers clamoring and others scratching their heads.
It’s been 20 years since Hong Siu-lung, played by the always reliable Louis Koo, was left stranded in the era of the Qin Dynasty. He’s raised a family, but he lives knowing that his protege, Chiu Poon, played by a very intensely scowly Ramond Lam, has become the Emperor and may come after him and his family at any time. When other future travelers come back in time to steal antiques to bring back to the future (time pirates?) Hong is forced to face off against Chiu once again - and possibly find a new path back to his time.
To be fair, there’s a large part of me that has mad respect for Back to the Past and its directors, Ng Yuen-Fai and Jack Lai, and its writer Lily He, who are dedicated to making this a sequel to a show from over 20 years prior. As someone who has not seen that show, I found the film a bit perplexing, and it has obvious, unashamedly fan-service nods, but this feels mostly for the fans anyway. Characters pop up with little to no explanation, and the film requires two sets of significant “flashbacks” (i.e., clips from the TV show) for audiences to understand the dramatic weight or the on-screen interactions. Sometimes it works well, I won’t lie and say that it’s ending - more on that shortly - didn’t have me in tears a bit in how they work the flashbacks around some surprisingly heartfelt performances from Louis Koo and Raymond Lam, but sometimes it feels like they didn’t know how to get the information across without those as shorthand. So, respect to them for sticking to their guns in making this a true sequel, even if it alienates some of its broader audiences in doing so.
However, with that aside, Back to the Past is a fun and silly little film if you just strap into the chair for the ride. Louis Koo holds most of the film upright when it gets weighed down by its plottiness or the plethora of characters that pop up and fade out throughout its runtime. There are also plenty of fun moments to keep the pacing moving. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I gave the rating a half-star boost solely based on the fact that it has a mid-air battle between hover boards. Although the action carries a bit of that made-for-TV editing that isn’t my favorite, despite the fact that it has Sammo Hung listed as an action director, it’s still plentiful and keeps up the pacing when it starts to get sluggish with too much bland exposition.
While I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings about Back to the Past in so much of its execution, I will admit that perhaps the most perplexing choice it makes is the fact that it has two endings. No, not the kind of faux endings that so many films use as a way to pull its audience in one direction or another, but it literally has two endings. Not to spoil either, but the film ends one way - then as the credits start it essentially pumps the breaks and goes “...but what if it happened this WAY?!” and proceeds to play a completely different ending. This choice feels as though they weren’t confident that the fans of the show would like the ending they put on the film (which is superior in my opinion) so they didn’t want to alienate anyone. It’s a choice and perhaps fans will appreciate that they threw on both, but it does leave an odd taste as the film ends.
Back to the Past needs to cover a lot of gaps to even exist. It’s a property that’s over 20 years old now, it’s shifting media from TV to film, and it has to deal with multiple generations of audience expectation. Truthfully, it’s an almost impossible task to execute flawlessly, so for that I have to give Back to the Past some credit. It’s entertaining enough, silly enough, and the main cast is seemingly giving it their all - particularly from Louis Koo and Raymond Lam - who are carrying a lot of weight for a fairly mundane script. Many viewers may find Back to the Past to be too melodramatic, too cheesy, or too predictable (sans that double ending, I suppose) so go into this film knowing that it's trying to thread a lot of needles and the results end up mixed.
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