La Guerre des Cartels

There is no shortage of Hong Kong films dealing with undercover cops deep in the mire of drug-trafficking gangs. And there also isn't a shortage of these films that focus more on the aspect of brotherhood rather than on the actual task of bringing the drug lords to justice. So what - if anything - makes 'The White Storm' stand out from the pack? To be honest, not a great deal - but that doesn't mean you won't be entertained and have some fun along the way.

In the finest tradition of 80s HK crime cinema, 'The White Storm' drips sentimentality and brotherhood right from the get go: undercover cop Kin-chow (Louis Koo) has been on the inside of a powerful drug-running gang for years and, with a baby on the way, is keen to get out. His fellow team members and childhood friends Ho-tin (Ching Wan Lau) and Tsz-wai (Nick Cheung) know they are close to getting their man and need Kin-chow to stay put. But when the opportunity comes up for the Hong Kong Police to fry an even bigger fish, the three friends find themselves in an explosive situation that will push their loyalties and friendship to the limit.

So a fairly standard plot as far as these things go but the three leads do a good job of wringing the most out of it. Despite some overly melodramatic moments - which seems to come with the territory in these kind of films - each of the leads gets enough of an opportunity to shine as their story arcs are padded out (and speaking of melodrama, a quick mention for the performance of Hoi-Pang Lo as the bad guy. It's as cliché and hammy as anything but somehow appropriate). Whilst the narrative feels a bit over long and gets dangerously close to being overly convoluted, you do feel enough of an attachment for each of the characters to follow them through on their journey. Some tightening up of the script would have paid wonders here.

But the story provides an adequate vehicle for some entertaining action set pieces. It's predominantly guns instead of fisticuffs here and whilst there's nothing that hasn't been seen before, each set piece is choreographed and shot with such gusto that you can't help but sit back and enjoy - even when things get (waaaay) over-the-top. But hey, that's part of the reason we watch these kind of films, right? I usually find Benny Chan's films a bit hit-and-miss because of either some ham-fisted bit of direction, an unnecessary amount of exposition and/or an out-of-place set piece - but here it works as a kind of pastiche of old school HK crime films. Whilst 'The White Storm' doesn't reach the heights of classic 80s HK cinema, there is definitely some fun to be had if you're in the mood for a good old brotherly shoot out.

"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, the latest film from Hong Kong director Benny Chan is a undercover drug story, but it's not interested in crime genre elements or in exploring the social issue of drug production in Thailand, but the on screen chemistry between its three stars: Sean Lau, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung. The story reminded me most of John Woo's Bullet in the Head in that it was about the disintegration of a brotherhood. The dramatic conflict between the three actors are the price of admission. It has a very interesting A story that could have made a great film, but The White Storm spends a lot of the 134-minute running time telling instead of showing its story. And also like Bullet in the Head, it executes it in the hammiest way possible under the guise of Hong Kong 80′s action nostalgia.

For example, in the story Koo, Lau and Cheung are lifelong friends. The film chooses to exposit this by having the trio reminisce about singing the theme song "Pledge to Join the War" by Adam Cheng from the classic TV show "Luk Siu Feng", a classic song about brotherhood. And later on in the movie, Benny Chan plays the goddamn song. This is just about the oldest, hokiest joke in the book; they may as well have tied red headbands around their heads. People in my theater, including myself, laughed, not because it's a funny clever reference but more in surrender of how shamelessly cheesy the writers were willing to go to highlight their bromance. Yes, they are very good friends, we get it!

Sean Lau is the subtle glue that holds all this cheese together. Something I observed about Lau was that he had all the best lines and was the only one out of the three protagonists who was not given a backstory. The lines of dialogue aren't good in a cool quotable way, but it was exactly what the character would say in a given moment, no more no less. I suspect Lau rewrote a lot of his own lines. He gives a pronounced performance that's as low volume and non-showy as this production will allow, but yet he comes out as the most engaging character. It's really a testament to how underrated an actor Lau is.

Louis Koo and Nick Cheung, as good as they are and as much effort as they put in, overact compared to Lau. They are fine actors but are bogged down delivering a lot of expositional monologues stating how they feel. The romantic subplots Koo and Cheung are given almost dangerously dominate the A story. It's not their fault though, Benny Chan directs with a heavy hand. It's as if Chan and the writers constantly worry that the audience won't be able to follow what's going on, so they overcompensate.

Speaking of overcompensation, Lo Hoi-Peng shows up with crazy acting hair to chew up scenery, and boy, does he ever chew! It's entertaining watching an old man act bananas but the hair does most of the acting. It's hammy as hell. But despite of all the ham and cheese, Louis Koo, Sean Lau and Nick Cheung make very good company and are the price of admission. And at its core The White Storm is a good story about three friends, I just wished it wasn't screamed at me.

"The White Storm 2013" is the first of a trilogy of crime thrillers (the second and third are pretty mediocre). I would have given it a 6.7/10, but I rounded up and got 7. When I first watched it, I was gonna give it a 6/10, but it somehow upgraded by 0.7 points.

Anyway, summary. The movie is about three cops who have known each other since childhood, and are basically brothers. These three cops are Chow (Louis Koo), Tin (Sean Lau), and Wai (Nick Cheung). Chow is undercover, and ends up getting ditched by his wife (Yuan Quan) because of it. He's incredibly mad at his fellow brothers-in-arms, but is forced into a mission in the Golden Triangle to take down a notorious Thai-Cantonese drug lord named Eight Faced Buddha (Loi Ho Pang). The operation goes sour, and when Eight Faced Buddha resurfaces in Hong Kong, the three have to put the botched mission aside and work together to take him down.

The story itself is pretty good. The three stars are also very talented. It's a nice throwback to the heroic bloodshed era of the '80s Hong Kong films. The morals of the characters colliding with each other keeps your attention gripped for long enough, and the three protagonists are pretty fleshed out. But I'm gonna be honest, the direction was a bit...questionable.

Don't get me wrong, Benny Chan is a solid director. His final film, Raging Fire (with the goat Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse), is an incredibly, high-stakes, tense, no-nonsense police thriller with some amazing action sequences, combined with a compelling protagonist and a badass and equally compelling antagonist. However, the White Storm...doesn't tick all the boxes Raging Fire had. Sure, the gunfight scenes were pretty solid, and some of the drama feels legit, but there's a good deal of cheese in it as well. I like the ideas of portraying a friendship right before it dies, but this...this doesn't work. The "Shi Yao Ru Dao Shan," in this movie is pretty campy. There's also the rather comical and unserious presentation of the villain. He's more of a joke. Compare that to Ngo from Raging Fire, who is sympathetic yet also menacing, Hon Sam from Infernal Affairs, who is efficient and calculating, Fung Sei from the Killer, Wong Po from SPL, and so forth. I'm also gonna have to mention the final part of the White Storm was rather confusing. I don't wanna spoil, but you'll find out if you watch the movie.

I'm going to be honest, The White Storm is still a solid crime thriller that is worth your time. The action sequences are well directed for sure. But it would have achieved it's full potential with a director like Wilson Yip, who would have made the movie more somber and dark, or Johnnie To, who would have made the movie even more tense and thrilling. In the end, it's a good movie, and is for sure better than it's mid sequels, but it's not as good as "Infernal Affairs," "Raging Fire," "Drug War," "SPL: Sha Po Lang," or the "The Killer 1989,"

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...