Firestorm debuted on Blu-ray and DVD on Sept 23 from Well Go USA.
In my previous review of The Suspect, I commented on how Asian productions are now successfully creating Hollywood-style blockbusters. Firestorm definitely has that slick, expensive sense of polish that we might associate with the latest Jerry Bruckheimer or Ridley Scott production, and is packed with huge stunts, explosions, and high-quality CGI. It would seem the days of playing catch-up to Hollywood are over.
At the core of the story are two former childhood friends. One grew up to become a detective, and the other, a gangster. Their strained relationship is a strange combination of an old friendship and a dangerous rivalry. Andy Lau is Inspector Lui, a mostly-honest cop who does things by the book — except when he doesn’t. Lam Ka Tung plays his old school chum Tou Sing Bong, recently returned from a stint in prison and desperate to please his girlfriend by following the straight and narrow, but unwilling or unable to remove himself from the world of organized crime.
Inspector Lui’s journey isn’t the heroic one as we might expect. As the gang war wears on, he gets increasingly detached and ruthless: planting evidence, shooting surrendered persons, and betraying an old friendship. It’s an interesting trip, but I had trouble identifying his motivation in all of this. I’m all for a flawed protagonist but it seems a perplexingly dark path that’s not warranted by the situation.
Firestorm’s biggest struggle is its desire to be taken seriously. The narrative weaves in drama and melodrama, including a subplot involving Inspector Lui’s mole, an infiltrator who risks his life in order to bring home big paychecks that will provide medical care for his autistic daughter. By contrast, the film’s huge action, full of massive explosions and gory violence, isn’t grounded in reality. The film features a early action sequence in which a crane literally snatches a police van off the highway, setting the tone for the kind of insane but unrealistic action to expect. A later fight in which Lui and Bong wrestle on an makeshift fallen-fence platform several stories high (yeah, it’s as unwieldy as it sounds) highlights this kind of ludicrous spectacle even further. The cops in this film, if we are to take them seriously, are the most brazenly negligent police force this side of Keystone: drinking on the job, sending moles into the lion’s den when it’s clearly too hot, recklessly driving (smashing up several cars with total abandon and speeding blindly in reverse into multiple intersections), and my personal favorite: engaging in massive firefights with automatic weapons in crowded public areas.
If I seem critical, I’m just giving a frank analysis of the film. Despite these criticisms, I actually really enjoyed the movie as a sort of Asian Heat by way of Michael Bay and Christopher Nolan. Trying to judge it like a serious drama simply doesn’t work. As I stated earlier, this is an Asian take on giant blockbuster filmmaking, and by those rules this is an absolute champ in the vein of Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon. It’s over-the-top action, and I live for this stuff. Yes, the melodrama is thick and your suspension of disbelief will get a workout, but it’s a hugely entertaining film with a heart.
The Package
Firestorm arrived on Blu-Ray and DVD last week from my favorite distributor of modern Asian cinema, Well Go USA (this review comes a bit delayed due to our coverage of Fantastic Fest X).
Special Features and Extras
Making Of (21:20)
This feature is split across nine short chapters highlighting different cast members and production areas: Andy Lau (Inspector Lui), Yao Chen (Yin-Bing), Lam Ka Tung (Tau Shing Bong), The Criminals, Action Choreography, Action Scenes, Visual And Special Effects, Crossfire Scene, and “For Theatre”. The format leads me to believe these probably originated as promotional webisodes: each has about 20 seconds of identical intro/outro which gets repetitive (that’s a full 3 minutes altogether).
The film is remarkably well-made, and the Making Of reveals just how much CGI and virtual world-building was involved. Huge scenes that look like simple outdoor urban shots are actually fully green-screened and composited. It looks absolutely real and I had no idea while watching it that it was anything other than the filmed streets of Hong Kong.
Taken as a whole, these vignettes make up a pretty nice Behind-The-Scenes featurette that’s well-produced and informative without overstaying its welcome. Personally, I prefer shorter BTS docs when the language is foreign, and this feels about right.
Trailer (1:45)
Previews
Promotional inclusion of US trailers for Well Go releases Iceman (1:42), Rigor Mortis (2:02), and Special ID (1:35).
A/V Out.