Its been a while since I last caught a chinese movie, and I had the opportunity to catch one recently. The nice part about chinese or actually Hong Kong movies in general is that they love to do action flicks involving gangsters and policemen and they generally do it pretty well. In fact one popular game called "Sleeping Dogs" uses Hong Kong as the backdrop of the game itself and its like GTA with Kungfu and Asians.
| Sorry this its the game! not the movie. |
| Look at the KungFu GTA right there! |
With the usage of these 3 actors whom seem to always work together, will we have a combination that would be a hit in the box office? Take note that the title totally does not make any sense. Its not a racist movie dealing with white supremacy, neither is there a hurricane or storm involved in the movie. Nope, its not a hurricane that came from some western country either... GEDDIT!??! WHITE STORM?!?!?!
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| Now this is the movie! |
| Plenty of guns here.. pretty useless against... (WOOPS nearly spoilered! ^_^ ) |
Ok enough of that. Lets see how the movie fared!
Storyline 4/5
Whoa whoa whoa really? That high a score? Yep.. to be honest this show could deserve even a 4.5 if Hong Kong didn't keep doing cop shows that has explored almost every possible angle and way of doing the cop genre, this movie would be pretty high on the creativity chart.
What this means is that basically, from the start all the way to the end, you will be drawn in by the evolving storyline, confused (positively) in certain areas and then it all gets clear again. The way the show is shot and its focus on 3 different cops plays a very important role in keeping the audience interested. Whats more, this show allows a long time budget, which means they do have sufficient time to do every scene properly and flesh out the movie appropriately. Little screen time is considered redundant.
The movie also changes from Hong Kong, to Thailand for a fair bit of the show which prevents monotony of seeing the same scenes and people.
In fact, given the amount of plot twists in this show, and how it managed to keep me interested all the way, I shall go ahead and score it as 4.5 for overall scoring and you will agree with this point especially if you havent seen a Hong Kong cop show for a while.
Storyline 4.5/5
Character 4.5/5
The character development in this movie is pretty astounding considering that they had to focus on 3 main characters throughout the movie and yet all three are distinct people with varying backgrounds and yet good and fair screen time. It is their chemistry that greatly adds to the enjoyment of the movie and during one of the movie's quiet time you will appreciate the relationship that these 3 actors have actually built in their acting careers and see how the movie directors have put this into great effect. All in all, you will be concerned and realise how different people think and relate, but the end of the movie sums out everything very nicely and you should be pretty well pleased.
The supporting cast in this movie is also very entertaining although in some way they are slightly a bit more bland due to lack of screen time. Nonetheless, during the little moments that they appear, they do make a very good impact and the actors chosen from the role do perform very convincingly.
Do look out for the famous actor/ess from Thailand that really spices up the show because of the person's background. Its a good way to make use of or even exploit the person's off screen personality for the benefit of the movie and the person.
I'll just put the person's picture here and let you find out the rest
| Its the one in the middle of course. |
Cinematography 4/5
From the eyes of action, it could be slightly more pronounced but all in all, there are very good shots in this movie, from close up and even from high above. Its well done, adds a lot of value to the movie, they even use black and white shots to highlight and invoke certain emotions. Its done well, but there is room for improvements!
Music 4/5
Its not a musical, but this movie is smart in its utilization of music to bring about and highlight a theme about their friendship throughout the movie. Very smart way to incorporate this in and it is done to great effect on the audience. You will appreciate it when you see it.
Spectacle 4.5/5
In terms of action show, it does it well and even has a good storyline to boot! In terms of thrilling, it has enough twists and turns throughout the movie to really place this movie high up amongst the other movie in its two focus area. In terms of character development, this movie takes its time and highlights everyone, using all of them and showing all their strengths and vulnerabilities. It even throws in a few comic relief here and there in very intelligent manner to keep the show entertaining.
All in all its very smart way of doing a movie by focusing and doing well in as many prominent aspects as possible such as action, character development and storyline.
Overall
Storyline: 4.5 (Intriguing, well done and entertaining all the way)
Character: 4.5 (3 main characters all fleshed out, important supporting characters also fleshed out and well used)
Cinematography: 4 (Action flick could be further improved, but its already above average)
Music: 4 (Good use of musical aspect for the friendship theme of the movie)
Spectacle: 4.5 (Definitely above other movies in the same genre in terms of action, storyline and character development)
Overall : 4.3 (The only possible flaw that is clear in this movie is that it is not in english! Besides that, its an action show, that remains interesting despite its long show time, has sufficient plot twists and turns as well interesting characters all the way in the movie. There is no reason that someone will dislike this show, as it has the best of every possible aspect in the movie. If you are looking for something to do for like 2 hours of your time and you like action movies, this movie will work out fine for you.)
Should be catching another movie that just came out which is "Last Day on Mars" so sit tight and I should get a review up soon!
Cheers! and as usual leave your comments below if any!
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