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Ashlyn Chak

Hong Kong time-travel comedy film Back to the Past – the big-screen adaptation of the 2001 TVB drama A Step into the Past – has, since its release on December 31, broken two local box office records and become the talk of the town.
Co-directed by Ng Yuen-fai and Jack Lai Chun-lung and starring the drama’s original lead Louis Koo Tin-lok, the movie grossed HK$10.9 million (US$1.4 million) on its opening day, smashing the city’s first-day performance record for local or Chinese-language films.
At the end of its opening week, it had taken HK$45.4 million in Hong Kong and Macau cinemas, another record-breaking number.
For those who grew up watching Cantonese television shows, Back to the Past strikes a nostalgic chord. To others, its soaring success may have come as a surprise.
Here are seven things you need to know about this blockbuster.
1. The sequel
Back to the Past’s story picks up two decades after the 2001 TVB series, A Step into the Past, left off.
The show followed Hong Siu-lung, a 21st-century Hong Kong police officer recruited into a time-travelling experiment and tasked with using a camera to record the coronation of Qin Shi Huang, who unified China and became the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (221BC-206BC).

An error with the time-travel machine resulted in Hong travelling back in time three years earlier than planned, ending up in the Warring States period (c. 475BC-221BC), where he became involved with the very people he was only meant to be observing.
As his means of returning to the future would only activate in one specific location and time, Hong embarked upon a series of adventures as he fought to stay alive in this unfamiliar time period and return home without altering history. Spoiler alert: Hong did not return to modern Hong Kong, choosing instead to remain in the past.
The beginning of Back to the Past sees Hong enjoying a peaceful life in the countryside with his family. But when a bitter 21st-century man on a mission appears, he is forced into action once more to ensure that history is not rewritten.
2. The seed
While Back to the Past and A Step into the Past have different titles in English, the film and the show share the same Chinese name, which roughly translates to “Journey to the Qin dynasty”.


This is also the name of the novel series by Hong Kong wuxia and science fiction author Wong Cho-Keung, on which the show and the film are based. Wong, better known by his pen name Wong Yik, published the 25-volume series between 1994 and 1996.
The wuxia genre had been well-liked for decades, but it was dominated by famed authors such as Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng. Wong’s story, which added a time-travel element, gained huge popularity among Hong Kong readers.
In 2006, the novel series was adapted into a comic series.
3. The author
Born in Hong Kong in 1952, Wong grew up reading wuxia novels. He bounced between secondary schools and was admitted into the fine arts department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. After graduating in 1977, he worked at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
In the late 1980s, he began his literary career after he submitted a manuscript to Knightly World, a now-defunct wuxia magazine. He also moved to Mui Wo, on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, to focus on his writing.
He was posthumously described as “clever, knowledgeable and humorous” in person, with an oeuvre that was “representative of the novelists who rose to fame after Jin Yong”.
4. The cast

A Step into the Past starred Koo as Hong, alongside actors Kwong Wa, Raymond Lam Fung, Jessica Hester Hsuan (also known as Suen Huen), Sonija Kwok Sin-nei and Joyce Tang Lai-ming.
It was Koo’s farewell project for TVB and Lam’s first major acting role. The former won his second best leading actor title at the TVB Anniversary Awards, while the latter has enjoyed enduring popularity as a television actor.
Most of the original cast returned for Back to the Past, except Kwong Wa, whose character was inspired by Lao Ai, a real historical figure who was an impostor eunuch. Reportedly, Kwong said: “A television series that has become a classic is already impressive enough; there’s no need to remake it, especially since all the actors have aged.”
5. The success
Just as Wong’s novel reinvented the wuxia genre, A Step into the Past topped television ratings in Hong Kong that year. It remains a seminal work in science fiction TV in the Chinese-speaking world.

TVB has rerun the series three times in the decades since its 2001 debut – in 2005, 2011 and 2015 – on its main channel, TVB Pearl. The broadcaster also reran the show on two of its smaller channels in 2016 and 2017.
A Step into the Past was not only popular with local audiences, but it also had a massive impact on Koo, who received the confidence he needed at the time to venture into film acting.
6. The follow-up
In 2017, One Cool Film Production, under One Cool Group, a Hong Kong company co-founded by Koo in 2013, acquired the adaptation rights to the original novel.
After Wong, the novel’s author, died at the age of 65 that same year, Koo took to social media to honour his innovative contribution to the wuxia genre and said that he would “complete the film adaptation as a tribute to Mr Wong Yik”.

One Cool Film Production announced in 2018 that it would begin film production at the end of that year.
Koo is credited as the executive producer of Back to the Past.
7. The result
The filming for Back to the Past reportedly took place between April and July 2019 in Hong Kong and mainland China. Multiple large-scale sets were built to recreate the grandeur of the time period’s ancient palaces and battle sequences.
However, delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and various other post-production factors meant that the film was stuck without a release date for six years.
In the less than two weeks since the film opened in Hong Kong, many cinema-goers have expressed their joy at seeing the faces that they grew up watching on TVB appear on the big screen.
On social media platform Threads, one user pointed out that despite the showtime schedules for Back to the Past being “busier than bus schedules”, they are often marked as orange or red online and on booking apps, meaning they are sold out.


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A board advertises Back to the Past at an MTR station in Hong Kong. Here is what you need to know about the film. Photo: Edmond So

A promotional poster for the 2001 TVB drama A Step into the Past. Photo: TVB/IMDB

Louis Koo (centre) in a still from Back to the Past.

Raymond Lam in a still from Back to the Past. Photo: One Cool Film Production

Louis Koo in a still from Back to the Past. Photo: One Cool Film Production

Back to the Past movie review: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam lead nostalgic sequel to TVB series

Louis Koo in a still from Back to the Past.

Louis Koo (centre) in a still from Back to the Past. The historical sci-fi will inspire waves of nostalgia in fans of the 2001 TVB series A Step into the Past, even if this movie sequel unfolds like a goofy and gratuitous piece of sci-fi pulp.


Michael Miu (left) and Bai Baihe play father and daughter in Back to the Past.

Raymond Lam (centre) in a still from Back to the Past.

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Back to the Past is the talk of Hong Kong after smashing local box office records. Here’s what to know about the movie starring Louis Koo


Back to the Past is the talk of Hong Kong after smashing local box office records. Here’s what to know about the movie starring Louis Koo.


Louis Koo Tin-lok

What to know about Back to the Past, record-breaking new Hong Kong film starring Louis Koo

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Back to the Past is the talk of Hong Kong after smashing local box office records. Here’s what to know about the movie starring Louis Koo

1. The sequel

Back to the Past is the talk of Hong Kong after smashing local box office records. Here’s what to know about the movie starring Louis Koo