Tempestade branca 2: Senhores do tráfico

All the leading actors in this movie did a great job. Unlike "The Invincible Dragon (2019)" that turned out to be a nothing-is-right big laughable joke, this movie about the Hong Kong drug cartel on the contrary, turned out to be everything-is-right serious and decent enough to be tagged as a "Pretty Good Movie" in 2019. The screenplay, the scenarios, the plots and the dialog are all quite mature, the casting, the acting, the directing, the stunt as well as the special effect, the editing, and the subtle soundtrack....all of them, one word: GOOD.

Six years ago, The White Storm was a surprise hit that I remember very positively with its profound characters, exotic locations and gripping plot. I didn't expect a sequel to ever come around and the similarities between the movies are indeed rather shallow. In terms of quality, the first movie is largely superior while The White Storm 2 - Drug Lords is only just good for genre fans.

Fifteen years ago, reckless Jizo got his fingers cut off by his colleague Tin after he betrayed the Ching Hing Gang by running a secret drug business in his club. Jizo left the gang and swore to have his revenge as he eventually became the biggest regional drug dealer. Tin on the other side became a philanthropist and tycoon who supported numerous projects fighting drug abuse. In present day, Tin loses his estranged son to drug addiction which further fuels his hatred for drug abuse. Jizo on the other side wants to see hin former gang vanish and former colleague suffer and attempts to expand his drug business even further. After the two enemies clash at the funeral of their former boss, their conflict escalates frantically. Jizo tries to go after Tin's wife while Tin publicly offers a bounty to assassinate Jizo. Police chief inspector Lam gets caught between both sides and tries to prevent that Hong Kong becomes the bloody battlefield of the two men's bitter rivalry.

The White Storm 2 - Drug Lords convinces on a few levels. The breathtaking and brutal action scenes should be enjoyed at your local cinema. The body count is particularly elevated and the film is quite graphic even by genre standards. The sound and special effects are captivating and intense. The two lead characters and their backgrounds are interesting enough to keep the audience watching until the end.

The movie however also has several flaws. The plot is an extremely thin tale of revenge that justifies massive violence. The film entirely focuses on extremely negative emotions which makes it hard to emphasize with any character. The morally debatable movie at times feels like a Rodrigo Duterte propaganda flick as the protagonist openly idolizes the pitiless anti-drug campaign of the president of the Philippines.

In the end, this sequel was rather unnecessary as it never equals the creativity, depth and emotion of the first film at all. You may like this movie if you are looking for a particularly brutal action-thriller but its message is too bland and debatable to make it artistically relevant or even recommendable beyond faithful genre fans. Give the first movie a try and ignore the sequel.

Sao Du 2: Tian Di Dui Jue aka The White Storm 2: Drug Lords is a Hong Kong film produced in this year 2019. As much as I've watched Hong Kong films, I find that Hong Kong films are basically for entertainment only. It doesn't have special purpose. But this one is quite different.

What I love of this film is the objective. Drugs are very dangerous and bad. Drugs destroy people and even kill people. So, everyone should stay away from drugs and also authorities should take care of drug lords. I feel like they are the biggest enemies to us like this film shows.

The film is basically fine. As the one who expected to see some action, well, I was a little bit disappointed. All they did was shoot the gun. No fighting. Moreover, it is clearly said the film is in "Action" genre right here on IMDB, but in the film, there wasn't that much action. Thus, if they made it more action, yeah, it'd be better.

I kind of don't like how it ended. It's so sad. I kind of wanted to see some happy ending. And also I feel like they are deliberately stretching the plot to make the film longer and longer. Some of the scenes are so boring and unnecessary. So, yeah, I'd say it wasn't my taste that much.

The only one thing I can't think of is the English title. Why did they give such a title? Because the English title and the contents are not the same. In the other words, it's not the right title. As for Chinese title, I feel like it's quite OK.

Overall is that this film is kind of simple but it really has great objectives. So, I'd say authorities should watch it, so that they could eliminate drug lords (and drugs) to save more people. Hence, it's a fine film.

The plot is thin, the characters are facial, and the emotions are pale. All the backgrounds are clearly explained by a few lines, and even a one-second picture is not willing to be shaped. Except for violence, all the supporting roles are redundant. This script is estimated to be over and over again, and it has not been polished.

I saw this for the first time today after freshly remembering the first one. The plot gets tedious n the film is not at all engrossing like its predecessor. There is no likeable or memorable character. The shoot outs n the car chase sequence is badly edited. The film starts like Deathwish 4 but goes downhill. While the first one has good suspense n tension, this one gets boring. The ending is also a meh.