Z Storm

Z风暴

Hong Kong, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 91 mins.

Director: Lin Delu 林德禄.

Rating: 5/10.

Anti-corruption crime thriller falls victim to Hong Kong cliches after a good start.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day, January. Officers from the Hong Kong police’s Commercial Crime Bureau, led by Huang Wenbin (Lin Jiadong), raid the offices of accountants Luo & Chen over suspicions of money-laundering, but the corrupt Huang Wenbin secretly lets company head Luo Deyong (Lu Haipeng) off the hook. Disgusted, the CCB’s informant (Zhang Tongzu) sends the same information to the ICAC, at the same time as Huang Wenbin’s vengeful ex-wife (Wang Lanfei) also accuses him of accepting HK$10 million in bribes. ICAC principal investigator Lu Zhilian (Gu Tianle) has to let Huang Wenbin – a rising star of the police force – go because of the lack of clinching evidence, especially when Huang Wenbin’s ex-wife drops her charges after being intimidated and the ICAC’s informant mysteriously dies. Continuing the investigation, Lu Zhilian comes to suspect that everything is somehow connected with the Z Hedge Fund, an over-leveraged US operation that is about to seek a public listing in Hong Kong and into which the government is investing HK$15 billion from its Community Care Fund. Arranging the IPO is Chinese American lawyer Hu Zhiyong (Wang Minde), who has already bribed former senior civil servant Xu Huaijing (Luo Yingjun) to manage the fund and Luo Deyong to audit it. Lu Zhilian is told by nervous superiors (Luo Guanlan, Zhang Jianting) that he has six days to complete his investigations; if he finishes his investigations after the IPO, the fund’s share price will crash and the government will lose its CCF investment. Lu Zhilian codenames his investigation “Z Storm”. He unsuccessfully tries to get Luo Deyong to turn state’s witness, and then finds he himself is being investigated by an old friend (He Huachao) from L Group, which monitors ICAC staff. As the clock ticks away and Lu Zhilian finds himself fenced in by Hu Zhiyong, everything comes to depend on the co-operation of Liang Anying (Chen Jing), a pet groomer whom Hu Zhiyong uses as a prostitute.

REVIEW

Hong Kong has been making films and TV drama series featuring the Independent Commission Against Corruption 廉政公署 pretty much as soon as it was set up in 1974, so there’s nothing new about the propagandist aspects of Z Storm Z风暴, which has the spotless men and women of the territory’s government clean-up body battling to nail a bent cop in the Commercial Crime Bureau to preserve Hong Kong’s spotless reputation. But there’s a rather desperate tone behind the way in which the ICAC is repeatedly glorified in the movie – from the slogan “Wherever there’s corruption, ICAC is there too” to the investigator of Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] declaring with a totally straight face, “The rule of law is Hong Kong’s most precious core value. If anything goes wrong in any law enforcement agency, Hong Kong is finished.”

All that aside, Z Storm is a zippy, professional-looking crime procedural that starts promisingly but fails to rise to the level it should. Early scenes, as Gu faces off against the bent cop of Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] touch on the long hostility between the police force and the ICAC, as well as generating some impressive personal tension that, though never on the same starry level, recalls the animosity between the characters played by Guo Fucheng 郭富城 [Aaron Kwok] and Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai] in the early stages of Cold War 寒战 (2012). But like that movie, Z Storm also suffers from the old Hong Kong problem of falling back on cliches during the second half. From the sleazy lawyer of Wang Minde 王敏德 [Michael Wong] to the way in which the plot is resolved simply via a single character, the film has an old-fashioned feel that’s at odds with its determinedly contemporary look.

That seems partly due to the direction by Lin Delu 林德禄, a journeyman director-producer of the 1990s here making his first film in 13 years, and the script by Huang Haohua 黄浩华, also from the 1990s (Red to Kill 弱杀, 1994; Lawyer Lawyer 算死草, 1997; Casino 濠江风云, 1998), whose last movie was the Liang Cheng 梁琤 [Jade Leung] female action thriller Black Cat in Jail 我在监狱的日子 (2000). Lin and Huang both worked together 20 years ago on First Shot 廉政第一击 (1993), a thriller about the formation of the ICAC, and beneath its cool, sleek look by veteran d.p. Zhang Dongliang 张东亮 [Tony Cheung] and the driving score by Chu Zhendong 褚镇东 [Anthony Chue] – both of which recall Cold War – Z Storm has a very 1990s core.

As the only star name to carry the movie, Gu looks cool and contained in a neat suit and carves a good screen presence as the investigator, holding his own against Lin’s impressively cocky cop and a large cast of character actors including Zhang Zhaohui 张兆辉 [Eddie Cheung] as the ICAC boss, Ou Jintang 欧锦棠 as a sidekick to Gu’s investigator and Liao Qizhi 廖启智 [Liu Kai-chi] as a private detective. However, with Lin subsequently disappearing for large chunks of time, the film starts losing its character tension, with Wang recycling his familar Chinese American sleazeball, the plot fanning out into some nonsense about a corrupt hedge fund run by a western villain called Zoro (sic), and a weak action finale.

As the putative female lead, Shanghai-born ex-model Chen Jing 陈静 (Vulgaria 低俗喜剧, 2012; Aberdeen 香港仔, 2014) only properly surfaces late on, in a highly manufactured role, leaving 24-year-old Mainland newcomer Sheng Jun 盛君 (the wife in 3-D horror Baby Blues 诡婴, 2013) to make the most impression as a quietly efficient ICAC operative. The film’s ending leaves room for a possible sequel featuring the same team of anti-corruption musketeers.

CREDITS

Presented by Pegasus Motion Pictures (Hong Kong) (HK), Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK).

Script: Huang Haohua. Original story: Lin Delu. Photography: Zhang Dongliang [Tony Cheung]. Editing: Guang Zhiliang, Pan Xiongyao. Music: Chu Zhendong [Anthony Chue]. Art direction: Chen Jinhe [Raymond Chan]. Costume design: Huang Jiabao [Stephanie Wong]. Sound: Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng], Ye Zhaoji. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Visual effects: Lin Jiale, He Junyang (Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Lu Zhilian/William, ICAC principal investigator), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Huang Wenbin, Commercial Crime Bureau superintendent), Chen Jing (Liang Anying/Angel), Wang Minde [Michael Wong] (Hu Zhiyong/Malcolm), Sheng Jun (Tan Meili/Tammy, ICAC officer), Lu Haipeng (Luo Deyong, accountant), Ou Jintang (An Da, middle-aged ICAC officer), Zeng Guoxiang [Derek Tsang] (Zu/Joe, young ICAC officer), Zhang Zhaohui [Eddie Cheung] (Yu Hongsheng, Lu Zhilian’s ICAC boss), Luo Yingjun [Felix Lok] (Xu Huaijing, hedge-fund manager), Liao Qizhi [Liu Kai-chi] (Zhang Qiang, private investigator), Jiang Haowen [Philip Keung] (He Deyong, Huang Wenbin’s sidekick), He Huachao (Shen Jiquan/Stephen, L Group officer), Zhang Songzhi (Xiaoliang, ICAC officer), Tian Xuewei (Ba, ICAC officer), Xu Jingwen (Lu Zhilian’s late wife), Wang Lanfei (Jiang Huiling, Huang Wenbin’s ex-wife), Lv Shan (Jiang Huiling’s mother), Zhang Jianting [Alfred Cheung] (Wei Yaoting/Edmond, Central Policy Unit head), Luo Guanlan [May Law] (Fan Luo Peifang, ICAC commissioner), Fang Ping [Henry Fong] (Zeng Yuming, Commercial Crime Bureau head), Zhang Tongzu [Joe Cheung] (Chen Jicai, informant), Luo Haoming (Cai Zibin, safe-house ICAC officer), He Junxuan, Huang Yaohuang, Li Shanheng, Wang Bei’er, Huang Peizhi, Zhou Wenhao, Luo Haojin (Commercial Crime Bureau officers), He Jingwei (TV reporter), Luo Qi, Su Weinan, Zhang Qicheng, Wang Junlin, Huang Zhihong (gangsters), Colin Michael Phillips (CEO), Liang Zhuomei (Luo Deyong’s wife/Mary), Liao Guoxiong (killer), Barry O’Rourke (Zoro), Li Yejian (Hu Zhiyong’s security guard), He Haofeng (CID officer), Huang Xingguo (restaurateur).

Release: Hong Kong, 19 Jun 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 21 Oct 2014.)