MOVIE REVIEW "THE WHITE STORM". A Potpourri of Brotherhood, Betrayals and Redemption.

“THE WHITE STORM” PRESS REVIEW

 (Chinese Title: 掃毒)

“THE WHITE STORM” has the slick and shine of a John Woo movie, but assuredly it has nothing to do with the doyen of gangster films, Sir Woo.

Instead this one is directed with grandeur by BENNY CHAN, whose body of work includes SHAOLIN which was done two years ago.

Except “THE WHITE STORM” is so much better.

BENNY CHAN helms the stylized production with a taut, no-nonsense script, and international critics hail this as one of the best gangster films to emerge from Hong Kong in the last couple of years.

Kudos to the film director who painstakingly provides all the “reelistic” thrills and spins of what a successful cop-robber-and-undercover feature should be about.

The principal actors are screen veterans such as SEAN LAU, LOUIS KOO and NICK CHEUNG who successfully pitch their efforts to “emo” this gut-wrenching story onto the big screen.

“THE WHITE STORM” is high in entertainment value, and is fast paced as it is brutally shocking, and everything a gritty feature should be.

And what does a white storm mean? In generic term, it refers to any drug cartel, a criminal organization developed with the purpose of selling and controlling  drug trafficking operations.  Get the drift now? It is all about drugs.

“THE WHITE STORM” breezes us through the astonishing careers of  three childhood friends, Tin (Sean Lau), Wai (Nick Cheung) and Chow (Louis Koo) who join the police force.

While Tin and Wai become high-ranking police officers, Chow lands the thankless job of being an undercover cop working closely with  his two pals to infiltrate a drug-dealing syndicate in Hong Kong.

Circumstances get really complicated when Tin, Wai and Chow  are confronted  with the uphill task of apprehending Eight-Faced Buddha (Lo Hoi-Pang), a notorious drug kingpin operating on the Thai-Cambodian border.

 Here’s a brotherhood tale of “all-for-one” and “one-for-all” where their reel bonding gets “tested” layer by layer.

It is also demonstrates what betrayals, forgiveness, bonding and redemption really mean in this  new-age film about the cops, robbers, undercover profilers pooled together.

At 2 hours and 15 minutes, this feature film is a real blast from start to finish.

“THE WHITE STORM” can easily fit in as the most entertaining HONG KONG film of the year, an edge of the seat thriller, non-stop action galore, a mayhem of brutality and violence, notwithstanding a brilliant powerhouse of acting by the three male leads.

Catch this one before it is too late!