'L' fung bou (2018) Reviews

• ICAC Thriller Genre Makes Hong Kong Film Great Again

  hilaryswank20112018-08-27

  L Storm (2018) is part of Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) trilogy. There are prequels of this film, Z Storm (2014) and S Storm (2016) which created by the director David Lam. ICAC anti corruption movie genre is firmly made in Hong Kong via this trilogy. David Lam actually had worked for ICAC from 1980 to 1986. And his descriptions of ICAC operations are so real in detail. There is no one in Hong Kong can exceed or replace him on this ICAC topic. The story is simple and clear enough for any one that is a Fugitive type of story. However its topic is money laundering by Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese mafias. And the protagonist is set up by them, and countering the false accusation of being a corrupted officer by caching up the mafias with secret support from police and Chinese Anti-Corruption Bureau Director Hong Liang. The protagonist, chief investigator of ICAC, William Luk which played by the most talented actor of Hong Kong of today, Louis Koo. He looks like Japanese actor Ken Matsudaira and best fit the positive image of an investigator bureaucrat. Hong Kong actors are trained as kong fu star to the certain extent. Luis Koo is also able to conduct kung fu and gun action sequences. Its true quality is something US and Japanese actors can not achieve. This film is clearly made for creating and reflecting an ideal image of cooperation among ICAC, Hong Kong police and Chinese Anti-Corruption Bureau. And We can see the mafia bank logo is similar to Public Bank Berhad which is suspected to have a certain connection with mafias in reality. There is nothing negative without one point in the entire story structure. The con is that when Ching Tak-ming which played by Kevin Cheng and its ICAC's L Team (Internal Disciplinary Investigation Team) come to save trapped and tortured William Lok, it is seemed to be jumped between deleted or missed scenes. There is no visual scene shows that how William Lok survives the electric shock torture conducted by mafias on the cruiser. However, some exciting montage is car chase sequence when William Luk and Eva Ng (Stephy Tang) escape from ICAC's L Team. Some cutaways were shot under the driving car in high speed motion. It is unusual, and its de-familiarization is quite effective to create a tight mood in minimal shots due to its specialities of shooting method. In general, its artistically high quality of film construction makes this film a classical one. It is hard to find any con in the entire film. This is one of successful Hong Kong-Mainland China film cooperations, and it is actually a quality work which should be complemented by audiences. A good genre film like this makes Hong Kong film great again!

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• backwardness and anti-intelligence

  yoggwork2019-02-18

  The plot of backwardness and anti-intelligence has been 8102 years, and all kinds of digital currencies are almost out of date. Laundry still uses such primitive means. The seemingly tense plot is actually complicated and lack of combing, throwing a paragraph of the plot to the audience to finish.

• My first anti-corruption series movie

  madbird-612432019-02-05

  There are 3 movies in the series. I like very much the 3 male leads. They are all cool, smart and with excellent acting skill. The plot is the biggest weakness. Not logical and reasonable at all. I give 7 simply for the sake of the great performance of male leads and exciting action shots. But in the Mainland China the anti-corruption series is well-received. China is only on the startpoint in anti-corruption work. Hong kong is a good model for her to follow.

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• Adequate movie but offering nothing new to the ICAC genre...

  paul_haakonsen2018-12-01

  When I found "L Feng bao" (aka "L Storm") I hadn't even heard about it. I picked it up knowing that it was a Hong Kong movie and it had Louis Koo in it, I didn't even read the synopsis. Yeah, I am that much of a fan of Asian cinema that I need little encouragement to sit down and indulge myself into a movie. I must say that "L Storm" wasn't a particularly outstanding movie in the Hong Kong cinema history. Sure, it was entertaining, but it offered nothing new that previous movies in the same genre haven't already brought to the enjoyment of the audience. In fact, the storyline was rather generic and predictable, and that was a massive obstacle around the movie, holding it back. The movie is well-paced and there isn't really any slumps in the progression of the storyline, just a shame that it was so generic though. The acting in "L Storm" was good, and Louis Koo definitely carried the movie quite well. I would just have expected a movie such as this to have a bigger ensemble of established actors and actresses performing in it. A shame that it wasn't crammed with stars. All in all, "L Storm" was a mediocre movie. Hardly a movie that I will return to watch a second time around, because the movie offered nothing new to the genre, nothing that hasn't already been exploited and explored by many previous movies. "L Storm" is a suitable movie for newcomers to the Hong Kong cinema, and then embark on a larger journey into a cinema that is grand and majestic. But for seasoned veterans of the Hong Kong cinema, this addition felt like a half-hearted movie with director David Lam running on autopilot.

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