The White Storm (2013)

The White Storm, formerly known as The Cartels War (Chinese: 掃毒) is a 2013 action film directed by Benny Chan. A Hong Kong-Chinese co-production, the film stars Sean Lau, Louis Koo, and Nick Cheung. The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival on 25 October 2013.

A sequel titled The White Storm 2: Drug Lords was released on 16 July 2019, with Koo returning, Andy Lau joining the cast as well as producing and Herman Yau directing.

Plot

Ma Ho-tin, So Kin-chow and Cheung Tsz-wai are good brothers who grew up together. They were stationed in the Narcotics Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force after they grew up. Among the trio, Chow served as an undercover in the drug trafficking group for a long period of time under a constant state of anxiety which made him extremely annoyed. Big brother Tin and his detective brother Wai often persuade him that he can return to the team after catching the tracking down the most notorious drug lord. The high-level police decided to put on a longer investment in view of gaining a greater reward, which resulted in Chow's deep dissatisfaction. The last trio headed to Bangkok, after the biggest and most poisonous eight-faced Buddha and help Chow to escape. However, out of safety concerns, Chow was reluctant to conduct a fake drug transaction with the Eight-faced Buddha. He secretly telephoned the other party and said that the transaction was cancelled, and hence raised the suspicion of Eight-faced Buddha, who brought in free company to set an ambush. The war resulted in great casualties among the police from both Hong Kong and Thailand. During the nick of time, Tin was forced to make a decision between saving Chow and Wai, which resulted in him sacrificing the latter. Deeply saddened by the death of Wai, and out of guilt, Tin and Chow took care of Wai's aged and hospitalized mother, who was suffering from amnesia. Chow and his wife broke up following the birth of their daughter. Since then, the trio went their separate ways.

Five years later, Duen Kwan the rookie gang leader has assassinated Eight-faced Buddha's son. During the investigation, both Tin and Chow were surprised to learn that Wai had survived and even married Mina, the daughter of Eight-faced Buddha. Their brotherhood soon reconciled through trying to rescue Chow's kidnapped daughter. Both Chow and his wife got back together, and Wai revealed that he colluded with Duen to smoke out Eight-faced Buddha and have him eradicated. On the night of Eight-faced Buddha's son funeral, the trio and Eight-faced Buddha engaged in a life-and-death battle. The great showdown that took place in a basement bar resulted in the deaths of Eight-faced Buddha, his family and his free company, as well as Tin and Wai.

Cast

Sean Lau as Ma Ho-tin

Louis Koo as So Kin-chow

Nick Cheung as Cheung Tsz-wai

Yuan Quan as Chloe Yuan

Lo Hoi-pang as Wei Xin-guang / Eight-Faced Buddha

Berg Ng as Wong Shun-yik

Ken Lo as Bobby

Treechada Malayaporn as Mina Wei

Ben Lam as Hak Tsai

Hugo Ng as M.D. Wong

Marc Ma as Dune Kun

Xing Yu as Kanit

Law Lan as Tsz-wai's Mother

Lee Siu-kei as Kei, Informer For Ho-tin

Vithaya Pansringarm as Mr. Choowit

Nut Keasanond as Sanit Wei

Pacharapon Jantieng as Chatchai

Chris Collins as Eight Faced Buddha Lead Mercenary

Critical response

Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia writes, "The White Storm is easily the most entertaining (Hong Kong) film of the year, an edge of the seat thriller, smash buckling action affair and a powerhouse of acting experience".

Awards and nominations

Sequel

On 16 March 2018, Universe Entertainment announced that a sequel of the film, titled The White Storm 2: Drug Lords, would start shooting during the summer and unveiled its teaser film poster. Being a sequel in name only with a similar thematic but a new storyline, Louis Koo returned playing a different role, making him the only returning cast member. Andy Lau joined the cast and also served as the film's producer, while Herman Yau replaced Benny Chan as the director for the sequel. Filming for The White Storm 2: Drug Lords took place in Hong Kong and the Philippines and the budget of the film was over HK$200 million. Production for The White Storm 2 - Drug Lords began on 23 June 2018 and was released on 16 July 2019.

See also

The White Storm (film series)

References

External links

The White Storm at IMDb