Reviewed by Michael Quartly-Kelly
Over a decade ago a film called Storm Riders (Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha) wowed martial arts fans as the first decent live-action Anime-style movie. While its super-powered heroes and over-the-top action sequences were nothing new to Chinatown aficionados, Storm Riders stood apart from the pack with its state-of-the-art digital effects, the likes of which had not been seen outside of big budget Hollywood Blockbusters.
Although this seemed to herald a new era of martial-artsy goodness, the following years proved to be a little lacklustre (Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon aside) as mainstream Asian imports tended more towards new gritty crime dramas. It seemed John Woo’s two fisted gunplay had won out over the long established Shaw Brothers flying guillotine.
Fast forward ten years and we have Storm Warriors (Storm Riders 2) which reunites the heroic Wind and Cloud, played again by Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok, under new direction from Hong Kong wonder-twins Danny and Oxide Pang. With a blitzkrieg of fireball punches, tsunami kicks and seemingly infinite sword strikes, the likes of which Americanised candy-actioners like Dragonball Z: Evolution can only view in horrific envy, the fighting goes from great to awesome to ballistic to utterly gob-smacking.
The series yet again sets a new benchmark in digital action, incorporating seamless special effects and sumptuous slow motion wizardry into an almost ballet-like kinetic display.
Though not a direct sequel so much as a continuation somewhere along the same mythic arc or an episode in what is obviously a vast and epic canon of work, the film wastes no time in establishing the good guys from the bad and you are immersed in the combat-heavy story in no time at all. Ironclad warlord and aptly named antagonist, Lord Godless, seeks a secret treasure with which he may rule all of China. In his way stand Cloud and Wind and a selection of support characters, all with impossibly cool names like: Lord Wicked; Second Dream and Nameless.
If there is a downside to the film, it is that every character isn’t given enough screen time or back story and that the economy of elements seem weighted towards supplying immediate justification for the epic martial arts sequences. The result is a less than perfect ending and the crying need for a third instalment - we can only hope it will come sooner, rather than a decade later.
Storm Warriors (Fung Wan II)
:: Director: Danny & Oxide Pang
:: Starring: Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Simon Yam, Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi
:: Running Time: 112 mins
:: Rating: M - Fantasy Violence
:: Release Date: December 10, 2009
:: Trailer: Click here
