Chi yue fung bou

Not being a fan of hyper action films, I was pleasantly surprised at the movie Purple Storm. It was not the usual shoot them that has a paper thin story line and tons of action used as fillers.

The main part that interested me was the much of the way the style of the movie was made. Not so much the action sequences, but the overall feel of the film, with the dark, anxious feeling it conveyed.

The storyline was somewhat interesting also, with the dilemma that the main character Todd, played by Daniel Wu, who just had amnesia, had to make on his past life as his memory slowly comes back, and his relationship with wife and the paths and sacrifices everyone makes in their quest for their goals.

I thought there might have been too many scenes left on the cutting floor, as many parts of the film felt choppy and incoherent. Scenes like the attempted rescue of Todd by his father, who was invading whom? Who's these guys carrying coffins? Why are commandos sent into the building? Who is that guy with the crew cut and flak jack doing all the shooting during the same invasion? isn't that our man Todd, who looked and dressed same and was being lead away only a couple of scenes earlier? Only on subsequent viewings would things clear up. Other parts are vague, left hanging and should have been better explored more in depth. Such scenes includes death of Todd's child, why Soong, played by Kwok-Leung Gan was so after the head of the ATF. Some of the scenarios seemed incredible or with plot holes so obvious that you ask yourself `how did that happen.' This might be typical of action movie genres in general though.

The action sequences are OK, with some special effects that looks like it was done with film overlays as opposed to CGI, giving it a low budget feel (by American standard.)

The acting by Daniel Wu seems to be a little dramatized, especially when he is confused and torn between his two realities. Otherwise, he gave a good performance as the reluctant terrorist. Kwok-Leung Gan might not have played it right. He did not do the demigod character usually found in global villains, but he still had a bit of that attitude. Figuring him being a revolutionary, you would think he is only working for the bigger goal of reviving the Khmer Rouge again.

To sum up, moodish movie that had an interesting storyline, something not usually found in films of this genre.

This review is for the HK Legend DVD Region 2 Version for Purple Storm.

Teddy Chan directs this relatively large budget HK movie with emphasis on Human emotions and action thriller. Mixing and matching, audiences are given a roller coaster ride of emotions, which works very well with Western Audiences such as heightening sadness immediately after an adrenaline pumping action sequence. This trick has always been a trademark amongst Hong Kong movies and has only been recently introduced to the West by the likes of John Woo and Hark Sui.

Daniel Wu, an American born actor, is the main focus of the film as he juggles his emotions between loyalty and righteousness. Like with the rest of the cast, Daniel does not try to overplay his role with typical HK theatrical acting techniques. This is refreshing and also adds a little realism to the film. My only disappointment was with Joan Chen, who I admire as a first rate actress, but cannot speak Cantonese (Mandarin speaker), so throughout the film she has been horribly dubbed over with very noticeable speech non-synchronisation.

The plot itself is interesting but was not clearly explained throughout the film (toward the end there were moments that I did not know what was happening and what to watch out for, namely the airport sequence). Furthermore, I would have rather preferred if the film eliminated some of its plot holes (e.g. Motivation from Todd and what happened to his son?) as character building was such an integral part of the film. Instead, the movie chooses to be driven by action sequences rendering the audiences of any plot anticipation. The action sequences is divided into 2 categories, gun shooting and hand to hand combat. The gun shooting sequences are not as good as what the big budget Hollywood offers which I thought was disappointing, however the highly praised hand to hand combat compensates the action sequences with realistic and very hard hitting moves. At this point, I would like to emphasise that this film is very violent (not for HK standard though) even for an UK 15 rating and some Western Viewers will be shocked when viewing this film.

This film was clearly made with more effort and thought than the usual HK production. It has been highly praised by viewers in the Far East and rightly so. Western viewers will enjoy it very much as this style of filmmaking and plot is still relatively novel in the West. I would highly recommend this film to anyone in the world that loves thriller and action in its movie.

The DVD is presented with a good selection of special features from a 20mins making featurette to an interview with the co-star Josie Ho. There is even a terrific film commentary with the writer of the script and Danny Wu, the lead actor. This DVD will not disappoint fans of the film.

"Purple Storm" is actually a great action movie, well worthy a watch if you like high octane action movies that have a good plot as well.

The story is about Todd Nguyen who is a terrorist but having suffered head trauma has lost his memory and is now being played as an undercover agent by the ATF (Anti Terrorist Force) in Hong Kong, trying to unravel a terrorist cell and hinder their action to set off a cataclysmic event known as "Purple Storm" (though referred to a Purple Rain in the movie). Todd gradually recovers his lost memories but finds himself torn between the righteousness and good of humanity and between his ties to family and the terrorist organization.

The people cast for "Purple Storm" were doing great jobs with their roles, and I must admit that even though I don't like Daniel Wu one bit, then his performance in this movie was actually quite good and convincing. But he didn't carry the movie alone, there was another crucial performance by the guy who played the leader of the terrorist cell, he really put on a great performance.

"Purple Storm" has a lot of action, in form of gunfights, fight scenes and chase scenes, and it was all nicely executed and choreographed, coming together for a great entertainment experience.

I liked the storyline in the movie, despite it not being innovative or introducing anything new to this particular genre of action movies. But also my love for Asian cinema helped to enjoy this movie for what it was. Great action. Great fun. Great performances. Great story.

If you enjoy Hong Kong cinema and like an adrenaline-filled action thriller, then you should treat yourself to "Purple Storm".

This movie was recently released on dvd in England by Hong Kong Legends. I had seen the movie before on VCD but I can say without reservation that HKL have done a great job with it's debut on DVD.

For fans of Hong Kong action cinema or viewers bored by the usual brainless Hollywood shoot-em-ups this film should make for a good evenings entertainment.

This film is a must for people who like action. The story is very American, especially for Hong Kong type audiences. Eastern audiences like a lot of straight up action in their action films, what they got here was both intelligent and kinetic.

What I thought was cool is that Joan Chen came back in a Hong Kong Chinese speaking role. I don't think I have seen her there for a while.