Back To The Past takes us back in time 2000 years, when Jesus was a lad, along with Hong Siu Lung (Louis Koo, below, in the trailer thumbnail), when Qin ascended to the throne as Emperor.
Firstly, one thing I didn’t know beforehand, is that this film is actually the follow-up to a 2001 TV series, A Step Into The Past; this is set 20 years after that single-run ended – albeit still in 2025, and was filmed in the Spring of 2019, so it’s taken a hell of a long time to come out. It certainly wasn’t for script-editing reasons, and the CGI is pretty shonky. Even aside from the pandemic, it just appears to have been delayed for unknown reasons, so maybe we’re just glad it came out eventually?
In the interim, Hong’s certainly been busy, because now, he has three wives in Wu Ting-fong (Jessica Hsuan), Kam Ching (Sonija Kwok), and Sin-yau (Joyce Tang).
Because reasons, Ken (Michael Kiu Wai Miu), who created the time machine, was jailed for 20 years, and now he’s out of prison and wants to use it to go back and become the first King of China to make up for lost time, along with a bunch of similar mercenaries, including his daughter, Galie (Baihe Bai).
As they head back, they can impress those in ye olden days, with modern tech – albeit futuristic, for this film – since not only do they have a super-motorbike and a hoverboard, but a mobile phone’s charge lasts a whole year!
Ultimately, though, the diaglogue is mostly like a bad soap opera, and there’s just a ton of mindless violence, so ye olde sword-wielding men are often quickly defeated by the shooting of guns.
Back To The Past probably felt like a good idea, but at least it’s brief, with the main film running for 90 minutes, before a caption tells you to stick around for an alternate ending after the initial part of the end credits, and then there’s some outtakes over the rest of them.
Still, it’s been surprisingly popular. When I went to see 2024’s The Lyricist Wannabe, it had 3 showings a day, yet while the others had a few people in each one, for my showing, I was the only one in there! As such, Chinese films have been very few and far between, but Back To The Past has been busy in each one, so while this film was poor, at least it bodes well for more of them!
Back To The Past is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
However, the original 40-episode series – A Step Into The Past is currently streaming on Apple TV.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 107 minutes
Release date: January 1st 2026
Studio: Trinity CineAsia
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW(3.4K))
Rating: 2/10
Directors: Jack Lai, Yuen Fai Ng
Screenplay: Xin He
Producers: Louis Koo, Wai-Bat Tang
Music: Kay Chan, Kwong Wing Chan, Christopher Lai
Cast:
Hong Siu Lung: Louis Koo
Chiu Poon: Raymond Lam
Ken: Michael Kiu Wai Miu
Wu Ting Fong: Jessica Hsuan
Kam Ching: Sonija Kwok
Sin-yau: Joyce Tang
Sin Yau: Lai-Ming Tang
Galie: Baihe Bai
Steward To: Jimmy Au
Chancellor Li: Kwok-Pong Chan
Stone: Louis Cheung
Man Leung: Calvin Choy
Bowie: Kevin Kam-Yin Chu
Dan: Edward Chui
Tim: Chris Collins
Phil: Timmy Hung
Mo Shu: Tin-Chiu Hung
Man Song: Fish Liew
Dr. Wu: Kai-Chi Liu
Maggie: Michelle Saram
General Leung: Wai-Chuen So
Mr. Lee: John Tang
Tang Yik: Man-Piu Wong
Max: Yue Wu
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.