P Storm P風暴 (2019) Review

To date, the seemingly never-ending Storm franchise has so far used up four alphabets including Z, S, L and now P in their titles. This makes me wonder whether the filmmakers behind this ICAC-themed movie series are planning to exhaust the remaining 22 alphabets in the future. In case you are losing count, P Storm marks the fourth instalment of the franchise, which again reunites both lead star Louis Koo and director David Lam.

In a refreshing change of pace from the previous three Storm movies, ICAC principal investigator William Luk (Louis Koo) is sent to prison as an undercover inmate to investigate Cao Yuen Yuen’s (Raymond Lam) bribery of Hong Kong Correctional Services (HKCS) high-ranking officers (among them played by Patrick Tam and Ai Wai). Elsewhere, Luk is also forced to deal with former Superintendent of Police Wong Man-Ban (Lam Ka-Tung), where he was responsible for arresting him five years ago in the first movie Z Storm (2014).

In addition to the central ICAC theme, David Lam and returning screenwriters Wong Ho-Wah and Ho Man-Lung from L Storm spice things up by combining prison movie and undercover drama. The result is a reasonably entertaining genre mashup, with Tong Ling Chi-Wah’s action choreography offers several worthwhile setpieces including the prison fights and the climactic third-act involved a helicopter. And just like the previous Storm movies, the fourth instalment is packed with enough star power and recognisable faces, particularly if you are a fan of past and present TVB series.

The plot is pretty much retained the same surface-level storytelling method as previously seen in three Storm movies, jumping from one story thread to another without actually developing them further. But at least it was briskly paced over the course of its 96-minute running time, even with all the glaring flaws and some of the questionable storylines start to rear its ugly head.