Smart and well-designed, but almost boring, espionage and politics (read corruption) are not to my liking, but we have a fine example of institutional and governmental corruption, we'll move on to the second, much less enthusiastic...
14% - Audience
5.4Plot summary
This is a story about the biggest financial fraud attempted in Hong Kong, directed at the Government of Hong Kong and involved all 7 million Hong Kong citizens... no one is free from the scheme. Within the four decades of guarding Hong Kong's financial integrity, the ICAC has never come across an opponent so huge and so well organized as in the Z Torrent file... shadowy figures from the underworld of South America, Italy and Europe all ready to plot against the estimated 150 million dollars of Hong Kong citizens' tax money which was pooled in a fund called the WELFARE FUND. High profile chartered accountants, high ranking law enforcers, power lawyers, the super entrepreneurs; they all have their shares of play but none can really grasp the big picture; they are there only for what they desire most. When the wife of an up-rising star Superintendent of police force reported his corruption simply out of bitterness for being ill-treated, little did she know she is about to pull the head string from a very well weaved web of deceive, greed, sex, power, and last but not least, fear. The ICAC agent LOK who took charge of the simple complaint felt otherwise... it's his passion for justice that has been driving him all these years in the battle against bribery and corruption, even after losing his beloved wife. Further investigation soon revealed many unanswered questions and loose ends...the death of an ex-godfather status accountant of Hong Kong, the threats to even the seemingly harmless witnesses and informers, and the surfacing of a mysterious lady that has all connection with LOK's wanted list but with a background as simple and as tragic as a girl next door with terminal illness... As Lok dug deeper into the web, he is being hunted by trained foreign mercenaries; a tactic very seldom or never heard of in the history of Hong Kong's underworld! With the support of his superior the old but streetwise Deputy Chief of ICAC, Lok eventually unlocked the door to the plan, but only after a bloodbath gun battle that almost cost him his life and that of the attractive mysterious woman, Angel.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 831.16 MB
1280*534
Chinese 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
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Much less enthusiastic...
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Oddly lacklustre
Z STORM is an oddly lacklustre cop thriller starring the one and only Louis Koo, who sometimes feels like an extra in his own movie. This one's a story of financial corruption and mismanagement, in some ways a throwback to the 1980s with the presence of the ever-slick (and seemingly ageless) Michael Wong as the villain of the hour. Sadly, as a thriller it doesn't really work at all, given that it almost entirely lacks thrills. There's barely any action, apart from a couple of minor bits at the end, and instead the whole production is bogged down in small talk and melodrama between extraneous female and interchangeable male characters. In many ways this feels like a mainland China movie rather than one from Hong Kong, so I wonder how much influence there was there. It's one of the rare cases in which the sequel, S STORM, is (slightly, at least) better than the original.
Reviewed by
The best among the series
My sequence in seeing this anti corruption series is proved to be correct. This first one is the most entertaining. The fast moving pace of the story makes the movie exciting. Acting of leads are above standard. I have virtually no complaint on the movie, except that Chan, as a suspected bribed senior police officer, could be so powerful.
My feeling on commentary of the series is intensely underrated. Especially this first one is actually very entertaining. But I just cannot figure out why the rate of IMDB and professional critics is so low. To me, I recommend especially to the Mainland watchers to boost their sense of anti corruption.