Review: Lam Ching-ting takes his vampire-slaying skills to the streets of modern Hong Kong in Magic Cop. Though conventional in a number of ways, the film sees Lam in top form as a kung fu-fighting cop with one protective eye on his niece and a nose for sniffing our supernatural evil. Though some comedy is present, the overall tone is serious with Lam coming across as an Eastern Charles Bronson by way of The X-Files. Rest assured, there are no cheesy hopping corpses in Qing Dynasty robes here, just a couple of super-powered undead and one evil sorceress - nothing Hong Kong's number one spookbuster can't handle.

The story opens with police partners Lam (Wilson Lam) and Miu Kiu-wai (whose only referred to by his badge number) cornering a suspected narcotics courier in a restaurant. What looks like a simple bust turns into pandemonium when the female suspect easily brushes the undercover cops aside. Nothing stops her until she blindly steps in front of a truck. A coroner's report indicates the suspect died a week prior to the incident. Enter veteran detective Fung Zee (Lam Ching-ying) who is drawn to the case's peculiar circumstances. A master of the occult, Fung is assigned by the chief (Wu Ma) to investigate with Lam as his partner. The two have a rocky start. Lam is a young ladies man who sets his sights on Fung's pretty niece who has come to Hong Kong with her uncle. He also has no respect for Fung's Taoist abilities. Protective and a little old-fashioned, Fung instinctively distrusts Lam and with his preternatural senses and streets smarts, he easily puts Lam in his place. Through a series of supernatural encounters, their investigation eventually leads them to a powerful sorceress (Michiko Nishiwaki) and her power-kicking bodyguard (Billy Chow).

Magic Cop is a surprisingly tight combination of police drama and vampire flick. The story drags a bit whenever it focuses on anything but the main plot, but when it stays on course which is most of the time, it stays interesting. The lynch pin is Lam Ching-ying, who although paired with younger costars in an obvious attempt to stay relevant, is the main attraction. You can easily brush everyone else aside and still have an engaging film. By this point, Lam has perfected the art of looking like he really is a master at whatever he's doing onscreen, whether performing some arcane Taoist ritual, beating the snot out of super-kicker Billy Chow or deflecting Wilson Lam's hands as they swing towards the lovely, but practically unknown Wong Mei-wa.

The film ends up being a fun, but typical Taoist versus putty-faced creature event with wild magic and mayhem. But most of the scenes leading up to this are more credible as a cat and mouse mix of supernatural detective work. In a way, it translates quite well to a Western perspective. Of course, major differences remain such as the themes of respecting elders and ancestors.

There is a fair amount of slick martial arts action. Lam Ching-ying goes toe-to-toe with a buffed up Frankie Chan (Operation Scorpio) and eventually with Billy Chow (Fist of Legend), a power kicker onscreen and off. Michiko Nishiwaki has become a top-rated stunt actress in Hollywood, but we see little of her action abilities here unless she's actually wearing the ugly mask at the end. For his directorial debut, prolific action director Stephen Tung Wai handles the whole film well. But with Lam producing, starring and co-choreographing, it's pretty obvious who the main creative force behind this picture is.

It's no masterpiece, but Magic Cop is entertaining enough to warrant a look, if for no other reason than to see Lam Ching-ying own the screen once again.