So duk

I saw this for the first time few days back. It is directed by Benny Chan n some fellas like me may remember his Who Am I n New Police Story. It has some known n familiar faces but I dont know too many names of actors from China n Hong Kong.

Three childhood friends as adults r working for the Narcotics Bureau. One among em has been undercover for a long time in a gang. His wife is pregnant n he wants to finish off the gang n start a normal life. His dream of a normal life gets more delayed when he is informed that the trio has to catch a much bigger fish with a very weird hairstyle. The entire time while viewing this film I was laughing at the villain's hairstyle n i was wondering what hairdresser on earth wud do that n finally when one of the character ridicules him for that, I couldn't stop laughing loudly. The film has some good action sequences. Bullet shells hitting on the face is unique, the sole of a foot gets shot, a bullet gets pierced in the cheek n some over the top, slo mo gun totting scenes. It also has a hand fight leading to a brutal smashing of the chin. A man gets shot n thrown in a water quarry infested with crocodiles. Ther is a very bad scene of a man not bleeding to death aft a hand chopping scene. The location of the water quarry is amazing. Characters r wearing nice watches n one of the watch is Fiyta.

When John Woo's, The Killer, was all the rage, when Ringo Lam's, Full Contact, was the best film I'd ever seen and long, long before Korea took the crown of best action films made in Asia, Hong Kong was the go to place to get your kicks.

Thankfully, people like Benny Chan are still in town, so not only did we get the rare instance of a superior remake with his, Connected (orig. Cellular, USA), back in 2008, but now I've discovered this gem from 2013, which is simply made for fans of Hong Kong's golden era, right before Britain's hand-over.

When three buddy cops go on a mission to bust a drug lord in Thailand, common sense gets ignored (or they wouldn't have even been there in the first place) and they soon suffer for it. Fast forward five years and an unexpected event leads to a chance of revenge...

Yes, I'd definitely recommend this one! Sure, it has its faults, but if you're a red blooded man into heroic deeds, men bonding without the implied subconscious homo-erotica crap that Hollywank inflicts upon its viewers, and you like your action in abundance, then give this film a chance.

And if you're unfamiliar with Hong Kong's glory days of action cinema, you might even rate this higher than I did.

How often do you get the chance to see three of Hong Kong's most charismatic male actors - Sean Lau, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung - on the big screen together? And just for that very reason, you're probably entitled to go into Benny Chan's crime thriller with high expectations. Yet even though the triumvirate does not disappoint one bit, everything else about the movie set against the backdrop of the fight against illegal narcotics simply comes off underwhelming, so much so that you can't quite help but feel that their combined star wattage is somehow wasted.

No less than five writers have been credited for the sprawling narrative, which casts Lau, Koo and Cheung as childhood best friends who have since graduated into police officers of the narcotics bureau. Lau plays the de facto leader of the group, the most ambitious and headstrong of the lot, who in his role as Chief Inspector Tin also wields authority over his friends. On the other hand, Koo's Chow has been deep undercover amongst the drug dealing triads for some time now, and since risen amongst the ranks to be Hak Tsai's (Ben Lam) right hand man. But he's also disillusioned, especially with his wife expecting a baby, and wants out immediately.

Co-written by Chan himself, the script pits Tin against Chow when a sting operation supposed to be Chow's last mission is aborted at the last minute. The higher-ups want Chow to continue undercover so they can bait a larger fish - the infamous kingpin named Eight Faced Buddha (Lo Hoi Pang) of the Golden Triangle – and Tin reminds Chow of his obligation as a police officer to obey orders. Compared to Tin and Chow, Cheung's role as the soft-spoken Wai only becomes clearer at this point - he's the pacifist among the lot, the one urging calm and reason as Tin and Chow butt heads with each other.

Despite some strong initial reservations, Chow reluctantly accepts his orders to follow Hak Tsai into Bangkok to make contact with the Eight- Faced Buddha via a local dealer (Ken Lo). Needless to say, that operation set in the middle of a dense forested region ends badly - not only does Tin lose one of his men (Ng Ting Yip), he is also eventually forced to make a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. That impossible moral dilemma at the halfway mark also marks the high point of the movie – not only is it the single most emotionally intense moment, it also marks the culmination of what is easily the most thrilling action sequence of the film.

Structured as two acts, the close of this chapter with a literal bang also represents the point at which the movie quickly goes downhill. A fundamental twist two-thirds into the film that sees the return of a key character from the dead is clichéd to say the least, not to mention the resolution that plots the trio's final showdown with Buddha at a nightclub in Macau. The character beats hardly make up for the plotting - in particular, every moment meant to be poignant seems to proceed on the mistaken notion that it must be a high strung one, meaning that the characters are consistently forced to confront each other by shouting and jostling.

Chan's direction here is also to blame. There is absolutely no subtlety to be found here, with Chan finding it necessary at every turn to crank the volume and the intensity of every scene to maximum. Not only does that make for plenty of cringe-worthy melodrama, it also creates too many moments of unnecessary histrionics. The lack of restraint applies as well to the overindulgent plot, which comes off unintentionally amusing at turns for being pure cliché. And nowhere is the excessiveness more apparent than in the final shootout, which aims for the kind of operatic grandeur associated with Johnnie To gangster movies (think 'Exiled') but falls far short by being simply too ridiculous; indeed, the sheer absurdity of that bullet-riddled showdown undermines what credibility the brotherhood-in-peril narrative had left, which ultimately rings hollow.

Just about the only element - or rather elements - holding the film together are the solid performances of the lead actors. Lau and Cheung prove yet again why they are the best actors of their generation, and despite the film's tendencies, both know absolutely better than to overplay their characters, displaying both nuance and depth in their acting. Koo has, despite his best efforts, never quite been in the same league as his two other male co-stars. His deficiencies as an actor are even more stark - especially in certain scenes where he is called upon to emote, there is a genuine sense that he is trying and perhaps trying too hard.

It's a thorough pity therefore, that despite gathering some of the best acting talents from Hong Kong, this bombastic narco-thriller fails to be as compelling as it should be. Part of the fault lies with the messy script, lacking in the discipline and focus necessary to distil a gripping story of three friends whose bond of brotherhood is put to the test; while another part of the fault also lies with Chan's distinct lack of awareness for excess, and whether in terms of drama or action, the tone is obstinately over-the-top. It isn't Chan's finest moment that's for sure, and seeing as how there is no shortage of similar thrillers like 'Drug War' or 'Protégé', this latest addition is worthwhile only for being the rare opportunity to watch three of Hong Kong's finest actors share the screen together.

"The White Storm" is a totally unreal movie about three Hong Kong narcotics cops trying to bring down a big time drug dealer. Director and co-writer Benny Chan should stick to directing. Chan's previous movie, 2011's "Shaolin," was a very well made movie that held your interest throughout. "The White Storm" is mainly a series of gunfights, very well choreographed but totally unreal. More a video game shoot-em up than a movie. In the middle of the movie, the HK cops are in Thailand to trap the drug lord. During an ensuing gun battle, the bad guys bring in a helicopter fitted with a mini-gun that blasts away at everything. For me, that was the high point of the movie, just mindless destruction with no shallow dialog from the three buddy cops. Benny Chan does a much better job as director when he works with Jackie Chan. For his next movie, Benny Chan should team up again with Jack Chan and leave the writing to others.

THE WHITE STORM is another big Hong Kong action blockbuster, directed by Benny Chan of WHO AM I? Fame. This one stars three big beasts in the form of Louis Koo, Sean Lau and Nick Cheung, and all three are on good form. The film itself seems to have been made as a homage to John Woo's BULLET IN THE HEAD, featuring as it does a trio of cops who head off to Thailand to bring down a massive drug lord known as the Eight-Headed Buddha. What follows is a story is a story of betrayal and heroism, focusing on the usual bromance found in this genre. Sadly, the running time is far too long which means that some of this is pure melodrama and goes on and on at the expense of the action. I still enjoyed it, but I can't say it's one I'd revisit. Let's hope the sequels pick things up...