Review | The White Storm 2: Drug Lords film review – Andy Lau, Louis Koo face off in extravagant crime thriller
- Andy Lau plays a reformed criminal who wants to eliminate major drug dealers in Hong Kong
- This sequel copies the high body count of the original and is a thrilling big budget action film
3/5 stars
Under the direction of the reliable Herman Yau Lai-to ( The Leakers , Shock Wave ), however, The White Storm 2: Drug Lords does succeed in replicating the original film’s exhilarating action and outrageous body count, even if it makes a mess of the theme of brotherhood that gave substance to the melodramatic core of Chan’s film. This is a thoroughly thrilling, if also unabashedly superficial popcorn movie.
The White Storm 2 opens with a 2004-set prologue, where triad member Tin (Andy Lau Tak-wah, a co-producer of the film) is ordered by his boss and uncle (Kent Cheng Jak-si) to chop off the fingers of Dizang (Koo), his blood brother for over 20 years, as the latter’s punishment for disobeying the gang and selling drugs on home turf. Meanwhile, the wife of police inspector Lam (Michael Miu Kiu-wai) dies in a related incident.
Fast forward to the present, and Tin has left behind his criminal life, married a lawyer (Karena Lam Ka-yan), and reinvented himself as a business tycoon and philanthropist. Due to multiple drug-related tragedies in his family, Tin is hell-bent on eliminating all the major drug dealers in Hong Kong; this puts him on a collision course with the vengeful Dizang, who has since become the biggest drug lord of them all.