The White Storm Review Hong Kong 2013 掃毒

The White Storm

For fans of the long gone Heroic Bloodshed films that were rampant in Hong Kong cinema's heyday, this film is a must.

A devastating dilemma changes the fate of three cops when an undercover operation against a notorious Thai drug lord goes horribly wrong.

The story is so full of twists and turns that it's hard to give a more detailed synopsis without ruining plot points. That being said, The White Storm has a running time of 140 minutes which is just too long and the story ends up feeling bloated before the big pay off. If 20 minutes or so we're trimmed off of this film I believe it would have received much more positive reviews.

Directed by Benny Chan who has become a top Action movie director after a string of hits including Divergence, Invisible Target, Connected and Shaolin. And he certainly delivers first class action again in The White Storm. Featuring many great shoot outs and set pieces. One over the top Action scene involving helicopters. And the finale shootout in a casino in Macau, think of a John Woo gun fight but with Johnny To's style and this finale is what you get. One of my favourite shoot outs of recent years.

Guns galore!

An all star cast lead this movie and have great chemistry together with a somewhat touching bromance. Nick Cheung, Louis Koo and Sean Lau are all excellent lead actors and do a fine job here. But it's Nick Cheung who steals the show. Arguably given the most to work with, but Nick puts in a stunning performance and ends up coming across really cool. Definitely one of my favourite Hong Kong actors of the modern era.

The best scene of this crazy action flick is actually a simple scene with the 3 characters having a conversation with one of their mums, This simple scenes has the characters show true emotion and their friendship for each other, its actually pretty moving and plays to all their strengths while developing the characters and story in a classy and intelligent way.

This film has potential to be excellent but ends up settling for good. Some of the absurd plot contrivances and the long running time take a way from the film. But, there is still more good than bad in The White Storm and if you long for a good old fashioned Hong Kong shoot 'em up this could be exactly what you need.

7/10

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