Firestorm

If there is one Hong Kong action thriller to watch this year, it is without any doubt the exhilarating 'Firestorm'. Emboldened by the success of last year's 'Cold War', co-producer Bill Kong has set veteran screenwriter Alan Yuen to stage an all-out, no-holds-barred cops-versus- criminals action film set in and around downtown Hong Kong. The result is simply jaw-dropping to say the least, choreographed and executed on a scale we believe has never before been seen in any Hong Kong movie, and better still, complemented by a tight engaging script that draws you into its character-driven plot.

There is a hitch though - it does start off rather bumpily. The opening minutes try to pack too many details at one go. A prologue tries to establish Andy Lau and Gordon Lam's respective characters as rivals on the judo mat when they were still kids. Flash forward quickly to present day and Lau's Inspector Lui is the godfather to his informant's (Patrick Keung) autistic daughter. Meanwhile, Lam's ex-con To has just been released from prison, and despite promising his girlfriend, Bing (Chen Yao), that he has turned over a new leaf, quickly falls back on the wrong side of the law. All that backstory makes for a pretty confusing start we must say, but you'll start putting things together once the first major action sequence rolls along.

Led by Hu Jun's Nam, a crew of hardened criminals pulls off a daring midday heist on an armoured car. Flawlessly executed and backed with better firepower than the Hong Kong police force, they not only make off with the loot, but also in the process expose the ineptness of Inspector Lui and his partner's (Kenny Wong) team. To rub salt onto their wounds, Nam turns up right after the crime at the police station to taunt Lui by claiming to be a good and responsible citizen returning the badge of one of the police officers who had dropped it during the melee. The cops' only lead lies in To, apprehended at the scene of the crime for ramming his car into that of Lui's but claiming that it was no more than an accident.

The trailer would have you know that To eventually becomes Lui's informant, but it isn't quite so straightforward. Indeed, Yuen saves what you might expect would be another 'Infernal Affairs' variant for something much more unpredictable; instead, he focuses his attention in the first half of the movie building up the rivalry between Lui and Nam, the former a strict and rigorous officer of the law who firmly believes that his work is his mission and the latter a smart and cunning criminal mastermind with little restraint and even less mercy. Emphasising Lui's convictions as a police officer, the battle of wits between Lui and Nam is meant also as a test of Lui's own tenacity and, by extension, just where his breaking point lies.

To reveal anything more will not do any justice to Yuen's surprisingly twisty and compelling narrative, which plots a gripping trajectory on the way to the formation of a shaky alliance between Lui and To. Except for a deus ex machina that effectively substitutes Nam for another equally vicious criminal named Pak (Ray Lui), the storytelling is pretty much top-notch, deftly using a whole host of characters and their respective motivations to drive the many twists and turns along the way. Chief among that is of course just what will force a law-abiding police officer to his knees such as to abandon his deeply held morals, but aside from that, the more poignant question is in fact what would make a seasoned criminal 'surrender' his personal allegiance to the police.

Especially inspired is Yuen's decision to save Lui and To's alliance till the very end, by which time it isn't so much whether To will ultimately betray Lui but whether the latter will do so the former, seeing as how Lui is no longer the rational minded policeman he used to be at the start. It's a pretty nifty twist, made even more exciting by how it plays out right in the middle of an intense gunfight between Pak and his crew with the full force of the Hong Kong police in the middle of a busy street in the Central district. That extended climax is well worth the price of admission alone, not least for the exceptionally coherent choreography by veteran Chin Kar-Lok but also the sheer effort the filmmakers had taken to film what must have been a logistically mind-boggling sequence.

But it isn't just by the sheer scale and intensity of this last showdown that you'll be blown away; without any doubt, Chin has outdone himself yet again with quite possibly some of the most daring action scenes performed on the busy bustling streets of Hong Kong. From the opening heist to a confrontation between Lui and Nam's men within a public housing apartment building to a stakeout at a public square in between the Sheung Wan and Central area to the final all-out bullets ballad in the heart of Central, the stunts are never less than thrilling every step of the way - and breathtaking even - for the boldness in imagining and then the dedication to execute them.

And for Yuen's ambition of filming a true-blue Hong Kong police thriller, we must say that he has not only accomplished that with 'Firestorm', he has done so exceedingly. This is by far one of the most thrilling Hong Kong action thrillers you'll ever see, not just for its heartstopping action sequences but also for its captivating story of choices, consequences and ultimately principles. It is Hong Kong cinema at its most electrifying, living thoroughly up to its name of being a lightning rod for future such police thrillers to come.

First of all, don't get fooled by the title or the description of the press release. There is no storm in this movie. I was expecting action sequences in the key of Korean movies like the drama-thriller ''Tidal Wave'' which takes place during a mega tsunami or the spy thriller ''Typhoon'' but ''Firestorm'' turns out to be a more conventional thriller. This movie may not be very unique but it's a quite entertaining two hours for fans of the action-thriller genre.

The story where a veteran police officer and his assistants face a notorious thief and his cruel gang is nothing new either but the movie includes a couple of side stories. Some people may say that these side stories are only hiding the weak main plot and rather distracting but I thought they were what made this movie a little bit better than just average. The relationship between a naive criminal who wants to leave his past behind and start all over again with his proud but sad girlfriend is really touching. This side story adds some emotional depth to the movie. The story of an undercover agent and his autistic daughter is also quite intense as it turns from a passionate story to the grisliest element of the entire movie which I found hard to digest but absolutely intriguing. The acting from the secondary actors is very good while the main actors Andy Lau and Hu Jun are not as outstanding.

An important element of this movie is obviously the fast-paced action sequences. Some of them are well filmed and really breathtaking. One can really see that these scenes were filmed by experts and that there is a solid budget behind the movie. I'm not a fan of CGI effects but the special and visual effects are bearable to well done in this movie. On the other side, some of these sequences are overused, repetitive and feel artificially stretched towards the end of the movie. Some of them are simply over the top even though these scenes are at least never becoming ridiculous slapstick elements as it's the case in several contemporary Hollywood blockbusters like ''A Good Day To Die Hard'' or ''Fast & Furious 6''. One really gets the impression that the action sequences and side stories try to hide the ordinary main plot which fails to come around with true surprises.

If you are feeling for a fast-paced and professionally shot action- thriller, you can't go wrong with this movie. Anybody who's expecting something more like a great plot, outstanding acting or revolutionary effects should watch another movie.

I saw this last fall, 2014, when it was first released on DVD and I revisited it again, now, in the fall of 2015. I rarely do that. Basically a classical crime action flick with really smart bad guys against somewhat smart cops. Yes, it's just another armored car heist (well, a couple of them) with lots of firepower. Normally I would say it was all a bit excessive, over-the-top firepower, destruction and killing, but the pace, cinematography, exceptional CGI scenes of downtown Hong Kong with unexpected and creative twists made me stay involved and, always a good sign, not much dead time (ha) so it went quickly.

What makes it a little more special than other films in this genre is that the good people may not make it in the end. But, then too, neither do the not-so-good people.

Firestorm, the latest action thriller starring Andy Lau, is a character study trying to burst out of its commercial contraptions. The commercial aspects is a cops and robbers film with the volume turned up to eleven. Every moment is crucial. One can almost take the last frame of every shot, matte it and make a comic book out of the whole movie. The hidden art-house aspects are the character study of its two leads and the morality play of right and wrong, which emanates later in the story. Director Alan Yuen keeps things moving along, artfully combining these two components in such a way that there's never time for the audience to stop and think. For most of it, Firestorm is a fun ride.

Andy Lau leads the film sufficiently as the film's righteous hero, but the heavy lifting comes with a cost. Senior Inspector Lui is mostly an action-oriented role. And he only gets interesting till the later portion when the Infernal Affairs-like morality play begins. It's only then Lau holsters his gun and gets to chew some scenery.

It is great to see Gordon Lam, Hong Kong's most versatile working character actor, finally play a lead role in a feature film. Out of the two leads, Lam has the more complex character. Andy Lau is billed as the lead on the poster, but the story is arguably more about Gordon Lam. He's never given a bad performance and here he is the heart of the story. Yao Chen, who I thought would be a love interest for Andy Lau's character (as it usually would), is the romantic love interest for Gordon Lam. I doubt a modern working woman in this day and age will tolerate a convict boyfriend to the level that she does, but Yao Chen brings a much-needed believability to the situation by reacting.

For what the film does for Gordon Lam, it falls short with veteran actors Hu Jun and Ray Lui, who are oddly undeveloped villains. This is not the way to use actors of their caliber; they deserve better. Michael Wong also has a cameo as Andy Lau's boss. Does Wong treat every Chinese film producer to dinner every week or has comprising photos of them? He tries to be subtle, which for him means trying to whisper his lines in a high-pitched voice as if he breathed vials of helium before each take. He is god awful as usual, but fortunately there is very little of him.

The action sequences are all entertaining and it is impressive how they are all set in in busy Hong Kong locales. There's a sufficient amount of design going into the 3D for its action scenes; everybody uses tracer ammunition (which highlights the bullet trajectory) and there's a noteworthy portion with birds. One particular high wire action set piece got too ridiculous. Let's just say if I was dangling at a high altitude, I wouldn't purposely slam the scaffolding that's hoisting me. The finale shootout in Central's Queen Street is the price of admission. Suffice to say, mayhem ensues. For any Airsoft fans out there, with all the Hong Kong police uniforms, SWAT gear, guns and muzzle flash that appears on screen, this will be Disneyland for you.

To match its drama with an epic operatic grandeur, Firestorm's story is built around the metaphor of an oncoming typhoon blowing towards Hong Kong. As my creative writing teacher once said about one of my short stories, "Your pathetic fallacy is pathetic." Sorry, it is too over- the-top at times. For example, Peter Kam's bombastic operatic score is akin to a Final Fantasy game. It sounded like a choir of angels were chanting for Andy Lau's survival through the gunfire. The work Peter Kam done on Isabella and Throwdown has shown subtlety and used music as a way to bring the audience into its world. I noticed that the quiet contemplative score sounded one octave away from the Infernal Affairs score. This is not Kam's fault. I imagine this is the product of financiers citing references based on past box office success. Let's face it, current Chinese and Hong Kong cinema is becoming a producer's medium.

I was aware of how much commercial box ticking was going on throughout the film, but they were never overtly blatant enough to bother my enjoyment. Whenever Firestorm was being too loud and bashing my head, it was the hidden artsy choices, like Gordon Lam in a lead role, the undercover story arc with its morality play, that lifted it back up for me. It's a fun time at the movies and if you're going to see it, the 3D version will not disappoint.

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Potential is the one word that comes to mind after watching this.

This is one of those films that really has some gems in it, but is sadly buried by issues. It's a film that is plagued by the issues that most cheesy Hong Kong action films have. Melodrama to the max, CGI all over the place, unbelievable turns of events and convoluted plot. The only thing that makes this movie different from other poorly made action films is... it's not that poorly made at all. In fact, lot's of moments are superb.

Starting with the plot, it's certainly something thats been done before. Cops VS Bank Robbers. The good side of it is that it has some interesting elements towards the end in regards to the morality of the main cop. The bad side... there's too much going on. We side plots all over the place. An overly dramatic plot with one of the criminal and his wife, who is of course friends with the main cop who has a friend who is undercover and has a young daughter and... you get the point, there's just too much. It's not that I don't think these elements could have worked... but they needed to choose only a few and make them way less dramatic. They try to make you feel for these characters by putting them in terrible or dramatic situations, but you end up laughing because it all seems so forced. It will sometimes leave you scratching your head in that way that a lot of Hong Kong films do. I often find myself confused by certain plot elements in these films, and I don't really know why. It seems exclusive to these Hong Kong films. And let me just say, the way they end this is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. I don't want to spoil it, but lets just say the "magically appearing truck" that kills a character got a massive "WHAT THE F***!?" from me and is a cheap and terrible deus ex machina.

One of the best elements is the action sequences, which can be gritty and hard hitting... until the GCI and ridiculousness kicks in. You find yourself really getting into it, only to be taken out when the obviously fake explosions send Andy Lau flying up and down and left and right and into cars and out of cars and on cars and blah blah blah. It's cheesy to the max and it blows my mind that they expect us to believe that he could survive all these explosions. It's frustrating beyond belief when you take into account just how gritty the gunfights would have been without this element. I'm pretty sure this was released in 3D in Hong Kong, which explains this element, but doesn't excuse it. Thanks for ruining some good stuff with a gimmick, guys.

There's also some nice directing and cinematography going on here as well. Certain shots are really gorgeous and nice to look at. Even the action scenes are directed well, minus the crappy explosions and stuff. It shows there is some talent going on here.

At the end of the day, I certainly didn't hate this movie. But it frustrates me more than anything, because I see the MASSIVE potential this movie had to be a classic Hong Kong film, but it misses the mark. I'm sure it won't be forgotten, as there are much blander films like this out there, but still.