Firestorm

风暴

Hong Kong/China/Malaysia, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 3-D (China, Hong Kong), 109 mins.

Director: Yuan Jinlin 袁锦麟 [Alan Yuen].

Rating: 8/10.

One of the best Hong Kong shoot-’em-ups in recent memory, with top playing and action.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. Tao Chengbang (Lin Jiadong) is released from prison and met by his girlfriend Luo Yanbing (Yao Chen). Watching him leave is Cao Nan (Hu Jun), an art dealer from the Mainland, who is planning another in a series of immaculately planned armed robberies that his police nemesis, Lv Mingzhe (Liu Dehua), an inspector, has never been able to pin on him due to lack of hard evidence. A week later, Cao Nan and his gang hold up a security van; Lv Mingzhe is waiting for him but in a violent street battle Cao Nan escapes when Lv Mingzhe’s car is rammed by Tao Chengbang. Lv Mingzhe later questions Tao Chengbang, whom he’s known since school days, but doesn’t arrest him. Luo Yanbing, who wants Tao Chengbang to go straight, gets him a job as a cook in a restaurant. Subsequently the police raid an apartment block where the robbers are meeting but Cao Nan and Tao Chengbang escape. Lv Mingzhe approaches Tao Chengbang to become a mole for him. In fact, he already has a spy in Cao Nan’s gang, but things start to go horribly wrong when Lv Mingzhe gets a tip-off about Cao Nan’s next robbery. Lv Mingzhe’s by-the-book approach to policing starts to crack as he realises he has to compromise his ideals if he is ever to bring Cao Nan and his gang to book.

REVIEW

The Chinese title of Firestorm 风暴 literally means “storm” or “tempest”, and by extension any kind of major crisis – which is what Hong Kong gets in spades in this first solo directing stint by scriptwriter Yuan Jinlin 袁锦麟 [Alan Yuen], 40. Yuan previously handled the techie segments of Princess-D 想飞 (2002) by Zhang Aijia 张艾嘉 [Sylvia Chang] but is better known as a writer of action movies for Chen Musheng 陈木胜 [Benny Chan] (New Police Story 新警察故事, 2004; Rob-B-Hood 宝贝计划, 2006; Connected 保持通话, 2008; Shaolin 新少林寺, 2011). Written with directing in mind, Firestorm is a tightly packaged, strongly played cops-and-robbers outing that’s one of the best Hong Kong shoot-’em-ups in recent memory, with explosive action by stunt ace Qian Jiale 钱嘉乐 (The Stool Pigeon 线人, 2010; Cold War 寒战, 2012) that’s topped by a 30-minute finale staged in Central that literally blows the downtown district apart.

It’s all over-the-top, noisy nonsense but Yuan shows he can also handle quieter scenes with equal precision and maintain character development during the action sequences – not least in the lengthy but gripping finale. On its surface, the movie has a little in common with the groundbreaking Long Arm of the Law 省港旗兵 (1984), by Mai Dangxiong 麦当雄 [Johnny Mak], which centred on a Mainland gang on a violent robbery spree in Hong Kong; in Firestorm, the gang is only led by a Mainlander (charismatically played by China’s Hu Jun 胡军, Lan Yu 蓝宇, 2001, Curiosity Kills the Cat 好奇害死猫, 2006) but the character’s unflappable arrogance and the ruthlessness of his team in the very heart of the city plays on the same Hong Kong fears as Long Arm did 30 years ago. Firestorm‘s violence isn’t self-contained in a world of gangsters: ordinary people, like bystanders and children, get killed here as well. At one point during the finale, a police loud-hailer urges, “Lay down your arms and surrender! We don’t have the death penalty here [i.e. unlike in China]!” but you just know these baddies are on a one-way ticket to hell.

The plot hook in Firestorm is a senior policeman’s eventual decision that to catch the criminals he must fight fire with fire and compromise his moralistic, by-the-book career. In his best crime-movie role for years, Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau], who also co-produced through his company Focus Films, gives an intensely studied performance, even down to the controlled way in which his character walks, holds himself and even dresses down. Yuan’s original script reportedly had much more backstory, but Liu’s playing pretty much says it all without any family or home-life scenes. He’s excellent opposite both Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] – finally getting a leading role he deserves, as an old schoolmate-gone-wrong – and Hu as the master criminal. Perhaps because of too much script compression, the cop’s switch to the dark side does seem too sudden; but Liu makes up for it in the finale on both acting and physical levels, with the 52-year-old superstar also doing his own stunts.

As the only other Mainlander in the cast, and pretty much the only female character, actress Yao Chen 姚晨 makes her own what could have ended up as just a token girlfriend role in weaker hands. The large cast of local character players are well cast down the line, with notable playing from Jiang Haowen 姜皓文 [Philip Keung] as a stoolie and Huang Debin 黄德斌 as Liu’s sidekick, and even a suitably breezy cameo from Wang Minde 王敏德 [Michael Wong] as Liu’s superior. Only the overdone performance by Liang Liewei 梁烈唯 as an asthmatic druggie seems out of kilter.

Yuan’s ability to create strong characters and keep them on the boil even during action sequences considerably enhances the power of the latter. It’s especially noticeable during the long finale, which is as much about character interplay as it is about gunplay and exploding cars; but individual chemistry is also visibly at work during the opening robbery, a tense police assault on an apartment block, and a bungled operation halfway through the film. By the time the finale starts at the 75-minute point, the audience is primed and ready for it.

Despite that, Firestorm isn’t perfect on a script level. The sudden disappearance of Hu’s villain two-thirds of the way through – after all his build-up as a ruthless mastermind – leaves a gaping hole to be filled and does throw the movie off-balance; a couple of scenes of Yao’s character conveniently turning up (at police HQ and in the street) jar; and whatever happened to the typhoon that was to background the finale and had been trailed since the start of the picture?

On the technical side, the orchestral/choral score by Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam] is as big as the movie and does a suitably grandiose job. Editing by veteran Kuang Zhiliang 邝志良 brings the whole thing in at a tightly wound 109 minutes but, given the quality of the performances, could have made space for another 10 minutes of material.

For the record, this Yuan Jinlin is not the same person as the identically named director of basketball movie Let’s Slam Dunk 男儿当入樽 (1994), starring Zheng Yijian 郑伊健 [Ekin Cheng], and the drama Touches of Love 爱情加油站 (1994), with Shao Meiqi 邵美琪 [Maggie Shiu].

CREDITS

Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), Edko Films (HK), Focus Films (HK), Good Friends Entertainment (MY), China Dream Film Culture Industry (CN), Ample Ideas International (HK), He Xin Zhongshan Jin Investment Management (CN), Elegance Media Guangdong (CN), Youku Tudou (CN). Produced by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), Edko Films (HK), Focus Films (HK), Good Friends Entertainment (MY), China Dream Film Culture Industry (CN), Ample Ideas International (HK), He Xin Zhongshan Jin Investment Management (CN), Elegance Media Guangdong (CN), Youku Tudou (CN).

Script: Yuan Jinlin [Alan Yuen]. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Kuang Zhiliang, Chen Zhongming. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Art direction: Wang Huiyin. Costume design: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung] (for Liu Dehua, Lin Jiadong), Wang Baoyi. Sound: Chen Zhijian, Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tang], Li Yaoqiang. Action: Qian Jiale. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Yu Guoliang, Li Wenjun, He Junyang, Lin Jiale (Free-D Workshop). 3-D supervision: Li Zhaohua (TWR Entertainment).

Cast: Liu Dehua [Andy Lau] (Lv Mingzhe, inspector), Yao Chen (Luo Yanbing), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Tao Chengbang), Hu Jun (Cao Nan), Lv Liangwei [Ray Lui] (Pa/Paco), Jiang Haowen [Philip Keung] (Tang Qiang), Huang Debin (Zhao, sergeant), Liang Liewei (Jie, Luo Yanbing’s younger brother), Tang Wenlong (Jackal), Shi Zunan (Situ, sergeant), Yin Ziwei [Terence Yin] (Gao Fei/Goofy), Hong Tianzhao (Diwei/Dicky), Wang Minde [Michael Wong] (Cai, chief superintendant), Wang Zulan (correctional services superintendant), Xu Jiajie (police negotiator), Zhang Zhaohui [Eddie Cheung] (lorry driver), Li Kaixian [Brian Suwojo] (Ouyang), Chen Fei (Fei), Li Min (Q), Chen Baoyuan (Zhou Long, aka Blind Dragon/Lone), Hayama Hiro (Da Fei/Daffy), Cai Lixiong (Bluto), Chen Peiyan (Yaoyao, Tang Qiang’s daughter), Zhang Guoqiang (Zhou, CID sergeant), Huang Zhixian (SDU team leader), Lin Shengbin (lawyer), Lu Haipeng (restaurant owner), Huang Zhiwen (Luo Yanbing’s office colleague), Xian Seli (hostage), Wang Junxin (female victim), Lavinia Smith (Nipple), Wang Weijie [Norman Wang] (gynaecologist), Zhou Ziyang (David), Yang Shangbin (Fu), Zhang Wenjie (Jean-Paul), Ye Huaqiang (correctional services officer).

Premiere: ScreenSingapore (Opening Film), 4 Dec 2013.

Release: China, 12 Dec 2013; Malaysia, 12 Dec 2013; Hong Kong, 19 Dec 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 24 Jan 2014.)