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Magic Crystal

Year of release: 1986

Genre: action

Director: Wong Jing

Writer: Wong Jing

Action director: Tony Leung Siu-Hung

Stars: Andy Lau, Wong Jing, Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Max Mok, Cheung Man, Philip Ko, Natalis Chan, Shek Kin, Siu Ban-Ban, Chung Fat

Not rated; contains II-level violence

Version reviewed: Mei Ah DVD


This is a classic Wong Jing joint. It's dopey as hell for the most part, but I will grant that it does bring on the brawls that most of us action-craving Hong Kong movie viewers crave. The plot here, as you might expect, is pretty silly. Andy Lau plays a cop named (in a nod to the Tony Danza school of acting) Andy Lau who travels to Greece along with his chubby sidekick (Wong Jing) and annoying nephew (Siu Ban-Ban, who gives that little brat from Rumble in the Bronx a run for his money in the category of "kid you'd most like to smack right in the mush") to meet up with his buddy (Philip Ko). It turns out that Phil is a shady character who has pissed off both the Russian mafia (led by gweilo villian mainstay Richard Norton) and some Interpol agents (Cynthia Rothrock and Max Mok) because he's holding a special piece of jade.

What's special about it, you might ask? Well, it's actually a piece of alien technology that gives people superpowers. And who gets these powers? That's right, the dumb-ass kid. What could have been a full-on wire-fu extravaganza is almost ruined by Wong Jing's shameless attempts to rip-off E.T., right down to the "finger touching" scene. Oh yeah, there's also scenes where the equally annoying Natalis Chan tries to use the jade's power to get into Cheung Man's pants with "hilarious" results, and Shek Kin ruins any sense of toughness you might have had of him from Enter the Dragon by playing a idiotic and horny cop. Oh, and we also have the privledge of seeing Wong Jing taking a dump.

Okay, so there's a lot of bad stuff in here. But if you like action, Magic Crystal delivers the goods. The exposition scenes are painful to watch at times, but the brawls (under the direction of the under-rated Tony Leung Siu-Hung) are exciting enough that it's easy to forgive the negativity which surrounds them. Even though there is some fairly obvious doubling of the stars, this movie delivers Hong Kong action the ways die-hard fans like it -- fast and hard-hitting. Max Mok, Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton all look great, but of particular note is Andy Lau. Of course, he's not doing the more acrobatic moves, but for an actor who was known in his career at this point for his golden pipes and not his fists of fury, he looks pretty damn good.

Frankly, I came really close to giving Magic Crystal the "magic" rating of 8 out of 10 -- the action is just that good on its' own. However, I just can't overcome some of this film's shortcomings, most notably that damn kid. Still, if you've got the craving for some "golden age" style whoop-ass, you could do a lot worse than Magic Crystal. It is awfully cheesy in parts, but the overall Wong Jing blitzkrieg tone elevates it above the usual HK action fare, and makes this a movie well worth a viewing.

RATING: 7.5


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