‘Storm’ Warning
Star Louis Koo and director David Lam re-team for Hong Kong’s own ‘No Time To Die’ and bid farewell to ICAC officer William Luk.
g storm
Director: David Lam Tak-luk • Writers: Wong Ho-wa, Ronald Chan Kin-hung, Philip Lum Koon-nam, Howard Yip Ming-Ho
Starring: Louis Koo Tin-lok, Julian Cheung Chi-lam, Kevin Cheng Ka-wing, Jessica Hsuan, Louis Cheung Kai-chung, Bosco Wong Chun-chak, Rosyam Nor, Michael Tse Tin-wah
Hong Kong • 1hr 34mins
Opens Hong Kong Dec 31 • IIB
Grade: C
David Lam’s Storm series, Z (2014), S (’16), L (’18) and P (’19) is kind of like Hong Kong’s own James Bond series. Or Mission: Impossible. Okay, maybe a tightly budgeted straight-to-video version of those. Whatever the case, Louis Koo, the hardest working man in showbiz, has made the same number of ICAC thrillers — five — in seven years as Daniel Craig made 007 movies in 15 (with a year-long buffer for COVID delays). The series’ final instalment, G Storm | G風暴, was finished in 2020 and had to do some fancy footwork to shoot around scenes that had previously been planned for another location in Southeast Asia. Those constrained spaces trying their best to hide the fact that Lamma is not Phuket (or whatever) is forgivable, but the illogic of the narrative is less so. The Storm movies have never been paragons of screenwriting sophistication but this... This concludes the series on a new high. Or low.
When Z Storm hit in 2014, the audience for the story about digital embezzlement and financial fraud directed at public money was in a very different mood than it is now. The film didn’t reinvent the wheel but it was a passable financial thriller. But faith in the ICAC is slipping and viewers are likely to be more indifferent to movies that glorify it in 2021. G Storm is definitely the last in this series, but it may just be the last cops-n-robbers thriller of its kind too.
Ladies, gentlemen, non-identifying: the Chief Justice for Southeast Asia. What?
Which is just as well, because this is a tired, lazy movie that is contemptuous of its audience and wasteful of its decent cast. This go ’round sees our intrepid corruption buster William Luk (Koo) and his partner Ching Tak-ming (Kevin Cheng) hot on the trail of a crooked customs officer (RIP Liu Kai-chi) who may be linked to a human trafficking ring. The true bad guys are all foreigners: a Thai smuggler, King (Rosyam Nor), who does the dirty work, and a fancy Canadian-Costa Rican business guy, Siu Cheuk-nga (Michael Tse), and his right hand (Sienna Li), whose corporation fronts the ring. Involved in all this somewhere is righteous Justice Emma Pong (Jessica Hsuan, a doctor in L Storm), who travels to Hong Kong (portrayed here as a hotbed of terrorism) to deliver some kind of anti-trafficking speech and freeze the bad guys’ bank accounts. It should be noted she is “chief justice for South East Asia.” What? What is that? SEA is one thing now? When did that happen?
Anyway, she’s a high profile target, so one of Hong Kong’s finest, Lau Po-keung (Julian Cheung), is assigned to her security detail. Pong nonetheless winds up with a bullseye on her back, because reasons.
At the same time, Ching has issues with his bratty little brother, Fei-hung (Bosco Wong), a customs worker who gets himself mixed up with the traffickers, prompting Ching to cover up all sorts of shit and help him evade arrest, which seems like the right move because family. Oh, and Luk’s old prison buddy-turned-informant Wong Luk-lam (Louis Cheung) has information to give him? From a Thai hostess bar? In TST? But he’s actually more concerned with setting widower William up with a new girlfriend and finding the same domestic bliss he has.
“Let me hide you from the ICAC, which is me, because you’re a dumb ass.” “Thanks, bro.”
Okay, look. It’s hard to remember exactly what happened, when, because the whole thing is a jumble of clichés and lame rehashes of other be-lettered films (the series may have peaked at P Storm). It goes in your eyeballs and right out the back of your head. There are a few sequences that pierce the lethargy otherwise on display, chief among them a short tête-à-tête between Luk and Siu in the latter’s office. Both know who the other is and what game they’re playing and that flash of creativity juices the film for a few minutes. It’s not Heat, but more stretches like it would have helped immensely. And action choreographer Nicky Li Chung-chi’s shootout where Luk, Lau and King duck and weave around the Cultural Centre’s slanting exterior is a genuine highlight. Why has no one thought of this before? Did they? Did I miss it?
So what do we have? Muddled messaging, sloppy storytelling, lackadaisical narrative construction. That’s not much in the way of legacy. Craig may have worked slower, but the send-off the filmmakers gave his James Bond was fitting and respectful, none of which has anything to do with budget. Koo deserves better, and as it stands the best that can be said about William Luk’s adventures is that they’re over.
This is the face of a man who knows he’s out of a job