From acclaimed director Andrew Lau ("Infernal Affairs", "Initial D", "The Duel") and based on the best-selling, long-running martial arts comic book series "Fung Wan: Wind And Cloud" be celebrated artist Ma Wing-Shing. "The Storm Riders" is a high octane visual feast starring Hong Kong superstars Ekin Cheng as the saintly Wind and Aaron Kwok as the brooding Cloud, orphans raised by the powerful Lord Conquer (Sonny Chiba) who taught them extreme levels of martial arts to help him dominate the world. Soon his plans for the two are threatened as their paths collide, and Wind and Cloud are pitted against one another for love and glory.

The Storm Riders proved to be an enormous domestic hit, making nearly three times as much as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did in Hong Kong. Starring the previously mentioned Ekin Cheng and another pop star turned actor Aaron Kwok (2000 AD, China Strike Force) in the duel lead roles, it also featured cult favourite Sonny Chiba as the villain, and the likes of Anthony Wong (Beast Cops) and Yu Wong Guang (had the lead role in Iron Monkey) in small roles. What made this film, and the others in a similar vein that were to come later, so controversial was the much greater use of computer graphics and other such visual gimmickry in the creation of action sequences. While in times past Hong Kong martial arts movies would be full of action created by mostly by their extremely talented stars such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, films like Iron Monkey and Once Upon a Time in China saw a far greater use of wires, used to give the films' historical Chinese characters legendary powers beyond those of normal men. As had been the case in Hollywood as special effects had become all the more developed and advanced, CGI was the next obvious step. As you can imagine, this sacrifice of genuine martial artistry for flashy computer generated effects has had its fair share of criticism, but one cannot argue with the results - The Storm Riders made 42 million Hong Kong dollars upon its theatrical release, compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's 15. That's not to say Lau's film was better than Ang Lee's masterpiece.

Set in a mythical feudal time, Lord Conquer (Sonny Chiba!) is a ruthless warlord, not only commander of a great and ever-expanding kingdom, he is also one of the world's greatest martial artists, having spent many years perfecting his Trinity Strength – fists, palms, and kicks. Not only does he wish to crush all opposing rulers, he also wishes to defeat the world's greatest martial artists and collect their legendary weapons. His next major martial arts duel is to be against the mysterious yet extremely powerful Sword Saint. Wishing to know about his future, he summons the prophet Mud Buddha to advise him on what his prosperous life has in store. Mud Buddha tells Conquer that he is in his ascendancy, and that his great power would only increase during the first half of his life. But he will also have to wait ten years for his duel with Sword Saint, and the second half of his life cannot yet be revealed to him and for this he must also wait ten years. Mud Buddha gives Conquer the birth charts of two children and urges him to seek them out and make them his students, they are named Wind and Cloud. He gives him an ancient Persian puzzle, which when completed will give Conquer the key to his future. Mud Buddha promises to return in ten years and leaves him with the cryptic words – “The fish with the golden scales will become a dragon when wind and cloud unite”.

In search of the Ten Greatest Weapons on Earth, Conquer faces Whispering Price who possesses the Blizzard Blade, however before Conquer can defeat his foe, Whispering Price is dragged into a cave by a great flaming beast and is never seen again, taking the blade with him and leaving his son orphaned. His son, curiously named Whispering Wind, is adopted by Conquer as a promise to his fallen father. Meanwhile Conquer's men storm the fort of a group of sword makers, the head of which had made Man's Best Sword - another of the Ten Greatest Weapons, and has a son called Striding Cloud. Cloud watches as his father is killed when the sword cannot be found, and is also taken to Conquer, where he and Whispering Wind are named as his heirs along with his own children – a boy named Frost and a girl named Charity. It must also be mentioned that despite Mud Buddha's clues to wind and cloud uniting, and instructing to adopt two children named Wind and Cloud as his pupils, Conquer seems totally oblivious to the relationship between the cryptic message and the two children. Duh.

We travel to ten years later, and both Whispering Wind (Ekin Cheng) and Striding Cloud (Aaron Kwok) have grown into strong young men, who along with Frost taught powerful techniques by their sifu and ruler Conquer. Wind has grown to become a gentle and thoughtful man, while Cloud has grown to become arrogant and brooding, nearly always wearing a black cloak (must have seen Batman a bunch of times). They help Conquer take more land, crushing many other warlords and greatly spreading the influence of the Conqueror Clan. It also becomes very clear that both of them have feelings for Charity, who has grown into the rather lovely form of Kristy Yang. The two male characters and their relationships to Charity are handily illustrated, as first we see Wind take Charity into Conquer's secret room, the Sword Graveyard. Wind flies around the room with Charity, and they play with fireflies while soppy music plays in the background its the most sickly-sweet scenes in the whole movie and makes Wind out to be the sort of lovely non-threatening guy that a gal could bring home to meet her parents. However Cloud is quite the opposite, he's the quiet, brooding loner who is just a little on the dangerous side, just the sort of guy the girls end up liking. When Conquer sends Wind and Cloud out on special missions, the night before they leave Cloud comes to Charity's room and, well, there's only one sword involved and its not made of steel.

Cloud's mission is a relatively simple one, he is to go to Unchallenged City, a neighbouring clan that wishes to join forces with Conqueror Clan. As a token, Conquer wishes Cloud to return with Unchallenged Sword, another of the Ten Greatest Weapons on Earth which is in the possession of their leader. Oh, and he also wants Cloud to bring back the leader's head too. Wind's mission is somewhat less unpleasant, to go with Frost to find a Shaolin monk (Roy Cheung) who has in his possession the ‘Fire Monkey', which they need in order to locate Mud Buddha, as Conquer has grown tired of waiting for the answers to the questions about his future. Cloud's mission is successful, the people of Unchallenged City are poisoned and their leader slaughtered at Cloud's hand, on his birthday of all days. There is a small hitch however, as the leader's son and a group of his men were not there – they had also gone in search of Fire Monkey, so that Mud Buddha might come bless his father on his birthday. They capture Fire Monkey despite Wind and Frost's attempts to stop them, but lucky for them, they find Mud Buddha anyway, he happens to be a great shape shifter. Mud Buddha has with him his granddaughter who he asks Wind and Frost to find foster parents for, as poor Mud Buddha has been cursed for giving away so much of the future, cursed with horrible boils all over his body. Things take another twist however when a mysterious figure flies in from out of nowhere and snatches Mud Buddha away, even though it is obviously Conquer neither Frost nor Wind realise. Meanwhile the son of Unchallenged City's leader return to their fort to find everybody dead, so he asks the monk to help them seek revenge.

Conquer has Mud Buddha in his clutches, and forces him to open the Persian puzzle box and reveal to him the key to his future: “The Dragon is powerful, but will be stranded when wind and cloud become a storm.” Conquer finally realises what the prophecies mean, and that his two best pupils must never become united against him. He also realises that Cloud has feelings for his daughter and so hatches a scheme to divide the two men, by decreeing that Wind, who has the purest heart, is to marry Charity. Charity seems to like both Wind and Cloud, so seems fairly happy to settle for Wind, but Cloud is understandably furious, though in a very quiet, brooding way. The day of the wedding comes, amongst the guests being the doctor Summit Yu and his daughter Muse, who were sent by their local villagers to appeal for better treatment from Conquer. Some more uninvited guests come in the form of the survivors of Unchallenged City who have come swearing revenge against Conquer, but arrive just in time to see the wedding start. However the wedding never takes place, as Cloud crashes the party, using his powers to quell the guards, and takes Charity who seems to have no problem going with him. Cloud confronts Conquer and Wind outside Conquer's palace, Wind being forced into fighting Cloud to retain his honour. Conquer waits until a moment presents itself, and prepares a powerful energy blast to kill Cloud, until Charity sees it coming and takes the blast herself, dying in Cloud's arms. Cloud takes Charity's body and flees, leaving Wind and Conquer devastated from their loss. Though deeply upset by the death of his daughter, Cloud and Wind have been divided, and now Conquer can complete his plans of becoming the world's most powerful martial artist by defeating Sword Saint and retrieving the last of the Ten Weapons – Blizzard Blade and Man's Best Sword.

A massive commercial success in Hong Kong, it cannot be denied that what Andrew Lau has created here, with a lot of help from CGI specialists Centro, is definitely a spectacular, visually rich film. While films like Young and Dangerous had a modern urban setting and lacked much in the way of visual flair, The Storm Riders provides Lau with a backdrop where he seems to be a lot more comfortable, and provides a lot more freedom. Rather like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Storm Riders is chock full of beautiful scenery - mountains, waterfalls, rivers, great expanses of grassy plains, these provide a stunningly attractive background to the film's proceedings. Lau's sweeping cinematography really brings out how beautiful the settings are, and give the film a suitably epic feel. The high production values also enabled the production of those excellent sets, especially those of the castle of the Conqueror Clan, they're solid and convincing, truly looking the part and fitting in well with their beautiful surroundings. A lot of credit has to go to the make-up and costume designers for the film too, near every character looks absolutely immaculate, our two male leads rarely have a hair out of place, and never look anything other than very cool and heroic in their period garb. Sonny Chiba looks like they brought him to life directly from the source comic book, looking so perfectly the part of the incredibly powerful warlord, his great screen presence highlighted by the great clothes he has to wear. As for the CGI, and the blending of it into the fight sequences through the use of wires, it is largely a success. While a couple of the pure CGI effects don't quite gel and look a tad unconvincing, where the filmed action has been just been heavily augmented with computer technology the results are suitably impressive. Conquer's battle with Sword Saint is one of the strangest and most innovative I've ever seen, and the final climactic battle does not disappoint, some of the visual effects used were excellent. They are still by no means perfect, but one has to remember that this is still a very new technique in Hong Kong, and this film still didn't have a budget to match the likes of The Matrix. Ultimately this is a visually stunning film, so much time and imagination has gone into creating this world, made all the more impressive when you consider that this sort of film had never been produced in Hong Kong before.

For all the imagination that went into the visual side of the film, its sad to report that it is sadly lacking when it comes to the writing and acting departments. Sonny Chiba is the only character given any sort of depth, any opportunity to do anything other than look like a stoic cardboard cut-out. Our two male leads are possibly the two biggest perpetrators, Aaron Kwok really does nothing except look moody and/or angry for the entire film. His acting range is so limited it's a wonder they didn't just use computer animation to create Cloud, a virtual actor could probably emote better than Mr. Kwok could. Ekin Cheng does not do much better, spending most of the film looking noble, he at least manages to portray the smallest amount of character depth, but he's still more one-dimensional that Ally McBeal's figure. Kristy Yang's Charity, too, spends her scenes looking pretty and being totally, utterly devoid of independent thought. She happily wanders through every scene without the least bit of genuine emotion, looking lovely, but she's nothing more than a convenient plot device and Yang's performance reflects this. All she does in this movie is stack pebbles and walk around with rags over her head, she's not exactly a good female role model. To be fair to these young ‘talents', its not really their fault, it's the script that is almost entirely devoid of emotion and development that is to blame. This is a film where the only character that gets any development, that creates any sympathy at all, is the lead villain. In the only scene that has any characterisation at all, Conquer bares his heart and soul to his daughter Charity on her wedding day, telling her how much he loved her mother, and how the one thing in the whole world he wanted most was for her to be happy and to be married to a good man. The tragedy of Charity's death is best portrayed by Conquer, as he loses the one person in the world he truly cared about, and she died by his own hand. At the same time, our so-called ‘heroes' really don't create much sympathy at all.

As YTSL astutely points out in the review of this movie over at Hong Kong Cinema - They happily help their teacher in slaughtering thousands of people as the Conqueror Clan expands, never once questioning what happened to their parents, nor realising what an evil tyrant Conquer is. So basically, they're fine with the mass murder, but when he kills the chick they both like, NOW he's a big villain! Cloud is little more than a self-serving bastard for the entire film, and Wind is little more than a big wimp completely lacking in conviction until the last 25 minutes. It also becomes infuriating when the lead characters cannot work out the simplest of supposed plot twists, such as Conquer never realising that Mud Buddha's cryptic references to “wind and cloud” related to his two students, surely proof that his enemies must have been complete and utter idiots to be so easily vanquished by such a buffoon. The writing caused the plot to become over-complicated, introducing characters and ideas they had seemingly no desire to develop any further, it almost felt like this was meant to be the first of a franchise or the pilot to a TV show – they'd get to the other characters eventually. Also infuriating is the waste of talent, the likes of Anthony Wong, Roy Cheung, and Yu Wong Guang, all of which are more talented than our main stars, are thrown away in minuscule roles. Its really no surprise that so many long-term fans of Hong Kong film came away from this feeling so very frustrated.

Many believed that The Storm Riders was an attempt by some of the bigwigs in Hong Kong movies to create a film that could compete with the latest Hollywood blockbusters. The money, time (this film took 2 years to complete) and effort that went into producing the visual aspects of the film has resulted in a very attractive film, from the various protagonists to the sets and the natural scenery, it really is very pretty. As mentioned, by and large the CGI is effective too, managing to avoid being used too frequently, and bringing a real sense of destructive power to the fight scenes, though some will criticise them for a lack of any real martial arts. However, must like the Hollywood blockbusters it wishes to emulate, The Storm Riders is sorely lacking in depth. The plot, though overly convoluted thanks to the uneven writing, is a very simply affair, almost entirely lacking in emotional development or believability. When the lead villain is given the most emotional depth, something is wrong – Cloud and Wind are like bad video game characters, you're not really sure what's supposed to be motivating them to do these things, they're just doing them. There isn't that much sympathy created because beyond looking young, hip, and very cool, they're really not all that much different than their evil sifu. In the end, there's just no soul there, no believability, no emotional connection with the characters, and so for all the visual style and flair that goes some way to saving this movie, it's an entertaining but hollow experience.

The plot focuses around the evil ruler Conquer and his two chosen disciples, Wind and Cloud. The first half hour or so focuses on the events 10 years prior to the film's main plot. It introduces us to Conquer and Mud Buddha, a being (I hesitate to call him either a man or a god) that is known for prophesying the future, and Conquer’s Jester, an annoying and very feminine man that, surprisingly enough, fits in to the story without detracting, or distracting, from it at all. Mud Buddha tells Conquer to get two disciples with the birth charts of our Wind and Cloud and that, with them, Conquer will prosper for ten years. Conquer’s warriors brutally massacre Cloud’s entire village, including his father, except for the boy. Then, fulfilling a duel set years earlier, Conquer sends Wind’s father to his doom. He also indirectly causes the suicide of Wind’s mother. Then, after bringing both boys to his palace, he names them as his disciples and Frost as his successor. Ten years later, Cloud is a “moody loner”. Wind is wise and powerful, but not as mighty a warrior as either Cloud or Frost. Conquer’s daughter, Charity, has become a beautiful woman and has won the hearts of both Cloud and Wind. The two men’s love for Charity tears them apart, and everyone and thing within Conquer’s kingdom suffers as old challenges and prophesies come to pass.

Before beginning his career as a director, Andrew Lau was a cinematographer. This fact is evident in all of his films, as their visuals are nothing less than amazing. The Storm Riders is no exception and, though it is known for its (not always so believable) special effects, for me the greatest visual treats are Andrew Lau’s natural photography. The scene between Conquer and Wind’s father in a bamboo forest, where they fight before the outcome is chosen to be death for one or the other, is simply beautiful. Conquer’s palace is full of eye candy, and as I said before, I enjoy that setting for better when it is devoid of special effects. Lau also appears to have instructed all of his characters to be larger than life, similar to the comic book that the film is based on, and while this causes some near-cringe moments (particularly on Conquer’s part... Sonny Chiba overdoes overacting) you get used to it, particularly when you keep in mind the implausibly grand nature of the setting.

The writing is, well, satisfactory. It is really only on the part of Conquer that I have any complaints about the script. The character is fully evil, with no real redeeming qualities. The film seems to try to make him a ‘good father’ figure, to give him some depth, but it really doesn’t allow that idea to develop. When things happen that I won’t mention for fear of spoiling some plot twists, any sign of humanity that Conquer showed to his daughter (or rather, said exactly how he felt leaving no room for misinterpretation) is gone. He is always big—weeping to such an extent that it is almost laughable, being only evil, and being completely insane, not just slightly off-balance. Subtlety is what could have made the character of Conquer a great one, but there is nothing subtle about its final execution.

Ekin Cheung is a good actor, in my opinion. He’s not great, but he’s far better than most name actors here in America. He again plays his role well, no extreme range, but it isn’t necessary. You never question him in his role. Aaron Kwok does a very believable job as Cloud; he handles the emotional u-turns very well. He also uses far more subtlety than any other actor in the film, making his character the only one that seems to have true depth. Ekin Cheung’s Wind is not completely devoid of depth, but he injects enough into it that you are longing for more. Both actors do fine jobs as the leads, and Kristy Yung is excellent as the woman pulled between the two men. The way she is written, she feels almost like a slut, and had any other actress played the part that feeling would be overwhelming. Yung brings a sense of youth, confusion, and passion to the role that saves Charity and makes her more human.

I don’t really need to mention the special effects. If you’ve heard anything about this film, you know how amazing they are for a $10 million dollar film from ’98. While some graphics, particularly the dragon, are less than invisible, they do make the world seem even more magical and detached from our own. My only wish for the combat scenes is, apart from the team having had more money and modern technology to create effects, that Lau would have relied more on choreography than fancy SFX light beams, bursts and distortions. But, in this world that is more like a Japanese RPG than anything else, it works.

You need to see this. And you need to watch the whole thing. There will be times, I promise you, where you will think to yourself “What am I watching? How much worse of a choice could they have made for this scene?” When you do, just remember that you only think that because the film shows you what brilliant choices can be made. So when Conquer’s wickedness makes you want to burst out laughing, or when techno or pop music are randomly entered into the score, just try to block it out. The film should have been twenty minutes shorter, but force yourself to watch every minute of it. Don’t miss one shot, one detail, or one seemingly unimportant character, because this film is extraordinarily complicated for a film just a few minutes over two hours long. It has a plot, and a good one at that, but you have to be willing to observe and make assumptions and connections for it to make sense to you. And come to it as open-minded as you can.

It's quite interesting that one of the most successful of the new wave directors, Andrew Lau, is behind The Storm Riders. Lau and screenwriter Manfred Wong were behind the Young and Dangerous series, some of the most popular films in recent HK history. Coupled with the fact that Y&D star Ekin Cheng -- along with other Y&D alumni such as Anthony Wong and Roy Cheung -- are featured in the movie, I was a bit skeptical, thinking perhaps The Storm Riders was going to be like Young and Dangerous with swords.

Boy, was I wrong. The Storm Riders is far apart from Y&D and similar fare. It's definitely a much-needed shot in the arm for the martial arts movie and HK cinema as a whole.

The story centers around an evil warlord known as Conquer (played by the great Sonny Chiba), who learns from a mystic that two children known as Wind (Cheng) and Cloud (Kwok) will determine his fate. To keep the children (and his destiny) under his control, Conquer kills their parents and adopts the boys as his own. Ten years later as Conquer controls most of China, save for a small province under the mysterious Saint Sword's (Wong) control, Wind and Cloud begin to learn the truth about their past and set their sights on destroying Conquer.

Okay, so the plot isn't revolutionary -- it's basically the tried-and-true revenge scheme played out in countless other movies. The script isn't that good either. Many characters are poorly developed and come and go on a whim. Whole plot lines (such as the one dealing with Saint Sword) are weakly resolved within a minute or two. The actors (other than Chiba, making a great return to quality movies instead of the B-movie crap like Immortal Combat he's been doing the past few years in the States) range from wooden (Kwok) to just plain dull (Cheng, who must still think he's Ho Nam from Young and Dangerous, because he's still acting exactly like the character, right down to that annoying sh*t-eating grin). Even the good character actors (like Wong) are given painfully little to work with.

All that being said, I still had a great time with The Storm Riders. It's the ultimate "style over substance" movie. It just looks awesome. No other movie has come closer to capturing the look and feel of an anime (Japanese animation). This is wire-fu at is craziest. Characters can freeze their opponents, turn water into spears or shoot giant fireballs from their hands. These kinds of things have been shown in a lot of movies before, but, quite honestly, the effects looked like crap and were unconvincing. Not here. Besides a cheesy-looking fire beast, the special effects are really well done -- which is quite a compliment for the filmmakers, since CGI technology in HK is probably a year or two behind that of the US. Coupled with Lau's brisk visual style and the inventive editing techniques, the fight scenes are some of the most incredible ever put to celluoid.

Don't expect a great story or Oscar-caliber performances and you'll enjoy The Storm Riders a lot.

REVIEW:
This is definitely a new breed of Hong Kong action film with digital effects to match or even outdo most Hollywood productions. Of course we all know eye candy does not make a film entertaining by itself if we use "Dungeons & Dragons" (2000) for example. Both films use a fantasy environment with plenty of fantastic imagery but where D&D fails, "The Storm Riders" manages to sustain the viewers' interest in the characters and their exploits. Unfortunately, they share the mistake of overwhelming the viewer with effects that actually steal intensity from the film. There are a number of well played moments and the effects certainly are well done but some of the flair is missing. Its a certain element where human emotions and skill simply give way to overwhelming otherworldly power. Perhaps I pine for the days when Dr. Frankenstein screamed in triumph as his face lit up from the glow of pulsating electric gizmos in glorious black and white.

The addition of several great genre actors like Yu Rong-guang ("Shanghai Affairs") and Sonny Chiba ("The Street Fighter") is a real treat. Even Anthony Wong Chau-sang, a terrific and prolific actor best known for his award winning performance as the cannibalistic serial killer in "Bunman: The Untold Story" shows up, portraying an aging master swordsman.

The sheer creativity involved and visual splendor is enough to highly recommend this film. Despite misgivings about too much reliance on visual effects, "The Storm Riders" delivers when it comes to providing an entertaining and enjoyable modern fantasy.

You know you're in trouble when people are desperate enough to adopt Donnie Yen -- the Mario Van Peebles of the Hong Kong film industry -- as the most promising young talent. Look, Donnie Yen has "been showing a lot of potential to be good" for something like twenty years now. If he hasn't done anything yet, then maybe it's time to admit the guy is, in fact, a worthless hack.

Hong Kong is a polluted sea churning with slap-dash nonsense, undercranked and ridiculous looking wire-fu debacles, and films whose scripts seem to have been assembled at random by a small inbred family of chimps with wild Charles Manson hair. There was a time when Hong Kong filmmakers actually put some small degree of effort into the script, but round about the mid 1990s they realized they could squeeze out any incoherent piece of tripe and people would eat it up no matter how poorly made and vile it was. They were, of course, wrong, and the total disregard for quality that blossomed in the mid-90s helped destroy the once mighty Hong Kong film industry.

Even once-great directors like Tsui Hark seem incapable these days of making anything that might rank higher than, say, being stricken with a sudden and intense case of diarrhea when you are miles away from the nearest toilet. His latest big idea after cranking out some truly worthless Jean-Claude Van Damme films is to remake the John Woo classic A Better Tomorrow, only with an all-female main cast. This guy used to have great ideas, or at least managed to have two great ideas for every three bad ones (like that notion he had to make the musical live-action version of Mai, the Psychic Girl starring Winona Ryder. Probably just a rumor, but it still makes me laugh).

The entire situation is made all the more tragic by how great Hong Kong movies once were. Starting with the Shaw Brothers swordsman epics of the 1960s, continuing on through the golden age of kungfu films in the 1970s, the kungfu revolution of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung in the 1980s, and the invention of the Hong Kong new wave by guys like Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, and John Woo, for three decades Hong Kong film making was a dynasty.

Then, in the 1990s, round about the time American fans started greedily devouring anything at all from Hong Kong and celebrating it as high art despite the "make a quick buck" mentality that dominated the industry, something started to go terribly wrong. The films were becoming increasingly cheap and haphazard looking, as if the men and women behind them were so high on their own success that they felt they could shit out a film and people would love it. Scripts looked like they were thrown together by mental patients, and due to injury, retirement, or immigration to other countries, much of the old talent disappeared and was replaced by the new school who lacked any real skill in anything at all, be it acting, directing, or doing kungfu.

Criminal triads bled the industry dry, milking it for every last penny they could steal and then leaving a shriveled, dried-up corpse not unlike that space vampire woman in Lifeforce, only unlike Mathilda May, these gangsters were not stunningly beautiful and naked throughout the entire film. And given that most gangsters, despite the glamorous images of themselves they helped put on screen, are out-of-shape thugs with dripping, oily jeury curl haircuts, you probably wouldn't want them strutting about in the nude anyway.

Persistent injuries to big-name stars like Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Jet Li meant they were relying increasingly on stunt doubles, camera tricks, and wires to do what they used to do on their own. Old age, frustration, the lure of Hollywood, and the desire to get out from under the thumbs of the gangsters who controlled the industry lead many actors and directors to America, Japan, and The Philippines. Uncertainty over what would happen after the 1997 hand-over of the island to Communist China chased away a lot of other people, or at least started them thinking about things other than movies.

Lump on top of all this the truly monumental pirate VCD market in Asia. Movies started coming out on VCD before they were in theaters, and people were much happier picking up these ultra-cheap discs than going to the theater, especially since the movies were starting to suck. It's a catch-22 there, or a chicken and egg conundrum trying to figure out whether people bought VCDs because they didn't want to pay to see a shitty movie, or whether the movies started getting shitty because so much money was being lost to the pirate market. Either way, it's one of the few markets where video piracy actually did help destroy the industry, though frankly, it had become so big and bloated that it was bound to pop at some point.

As if all this wasn't enough, the Asian economic recession of the 1990s put the final nail in the coffin of Hong Kong's domestic product. Where Hong Kong was once fiercely loyal to its own industry, the flood has slowed to a trickle, and people turn out to see big budget American films while eschewing the local stuff. Which is odd, because as bad as Hong Kong cinema may be, it's no worse than, say Battlefield Earth or Wild Wild West. Hong Kong is an easy target because of the trendiness, albeit waning, of the films, but you can't really help but notice that we're in a global recession when it comes to quality movies, and Hong Kong films are no worse than the crap coming out of America and Japan these days. Weirdly enough, India seems to have picked up the ball in terms of making amazing, complex, and elegant action films, but a lack of distribution and translations keep Hindi films, however great and action-packed they may be, relatively inaccessible to the greater American cult film audience. And the musical numbers simply scare a lot of people away.

But it's not like Hong Kong didn't earn the break from making good films. They've given us thirty years of great material to work with. And as bad as things may be these days, we can enjoy the past while we search the drech for a glimmer of hope in the future.

And in this environment, when a glimmer does appear, however faint, it is blinding in its brilliance, simply because that which surrounds it so dim. The most promising film to come out of Hong Kong in the past several years is Andrew Lau's (Lau Wai-keung, not the famous bad actor and worse singer Andy Lau Tak-wah) special effects fantasy extravaganza Storm Riders. Ahh, you were wondering if I was ever going to get to the movie review, weren't you?

Touted by many as sort of a next generation Zu, this film actually holds up pretty well to the comparison by being a rather inventive, action-packed, highly stylized spectacle of no-holds-barred film making. What makes it different from most all other Hong Kong films these days is that it's actually fun, and they put a ton of time, money, and effort into it. In fact, it became the most expensive Hong Kong film ever made, a title previously held by films like Jackie Chan's globe-hopping adventure film Armor of God II: Operation Condor. As a quick aside, since Armor of God II was released in America as Operation Condor before the first film, when they finally released the first film, they called it Operation Condor II: Armor of God. Not quite as silly as the infamous mistitling of Bruce Lee films, but still amusing.

Back to Storm Riders, since that's the film I'm reviewing and I generally like to stay on topic. Fading teen heart-throb Aaron Kwok, who has not aged a day in fifteen years, stars with current teen heart-throb Ekin Cheng, who rose to fame with his role in those annoying Young and Dangerous films. Aaron's film career always seemed to show promise, as he is good looking and physically talented. But every time it seemed to be getting on track, it would falter, probably because he's a pretty lame actor. Luckily that doesn't matter anymore, and what's important is that he has good hair and is willing to wear a cape. You know, I seem to recall an unusually high number of films in which Aaron dons a cape. Both he and Ekin Cheng have amazing hair talent that allows them to have the sort of hair usually only found on an anime cartoon character. As Storm Riders is an adaptation of a comic book, this ability to have flowing cartoon hair that is perpetually waving in the breeze is important, and let it never be said that the hairdos of Ekin and Aaron don't rise to the occasion.

Anyway, not to be undone in the wooden acting department, Ekin Cheng excels at bad acting and is every bit Aaron Kwok's equal in this department. Unlike a lot of Ekin bashers, and they are legion, I actually admit that there is quite a bit of talent somewhere inside Ekin that goes beyond his amazing hair. He has a glimmer of talent and charisma, and with the right director, he could probably become a decent actor. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone is interested in good acting anymore, and unless he develops a massive "I'm an artist" ego like Tom Cruise, it's unlikely Ekin will feel driven to hone his craft. But there's some hope. After all, Leslie Cheung was a pretty worthless actor at first, but over the years has become better and better.

None of this really matters, though, as both guys are here to play one-dimensional comic book characters, and they certainly have the talent to pull that off. They star as orphans named Wind and Cloud who are being raised by a bad-ass warlord who happens to be the guy who orphaned them in the first place by killing their respective parents. The warlord, who doesn't fuck around and simply names himself Conqueror, is played by none other than the mainstay of 1970s action and sci-fi programming in Japan, Sonny "The Streetfighter" Chiba, who seems to be turning into Toshiro Mifune in his old age. That's not bad. You can do a lot worse than start to look like Toshiro Mifune, one of the grand masters of bad-assness. For instance, you could start looking like Don Rickels or Phyllis Diller, or even worse, like a combination of Don Rickels and Phyllis Diller. Then you'd have no friends, and you'd die a lonely, bitter old mutant.

Despite the fact that the greater portion of Sonny's work sucks, I love him. Or maybe I love him because of the fact that a lot of his films suck. But still, there's no denying the man's importance in action cinema. His Street Fighter movies revolutionized karate films by turning low budget into stylized art and teaching us that as violent and brutal as you thought films already were, he could make them meaner. Plus, the formation of Chiba's Japan Action Club helped train some of the best and brightest action, martial arts, and sci-fi stars of the 70s and 80s.

The movie begins with a sleepy monk throwing out your typical esoteric Yoda prophecies. The subtitles on my copy were flea-sized, so it looked at times like the guy was named either Mad Buddha or Mud Buddha. Whatever the case, his name wasn't Larry. The monk makes a prediction that Conqueror will rise to rule the martial world. Yep, it's the martial world again. This isn't really that great a prediction. I mean, the guy can fly and he's named Conqueror. If you are named Conqueror it pretty much guarantees that you will kick some serious ass, sort of like how if you are named Tiny you will be really huge. But a warlord named Tiny isn't very imposing, so he went with Lord Conqueror.

Unfortunately, the prophecy isn't all wine and roses. Mud Buddha also predicts that Lord Conqueror will be toppled "when wind and cloud combine." Down south, we used to call those tornadoes, and rest assured that they can indeed do some real property damage, even if you are named Lord Conqueror. Upset by this prophecy, Conqueror goes out to collect all the kids born under a certain star and named Cloud or Wind. One of them is the son of one of those dirty ol' beggar looking swordsmen who has a beef against Conqueror anyway. Seems Conqueror is a big fan of collecting rare and powerful swords, and this guy has one. See, this was back before eBay, so back then if you wanted some weird little antique, you had to search for it at flea markets or challenge people to duels. Years ago, the two dueled in one of the film's most beautiful sequences, a fight amid a lush green forest of bamboo. This entire sequence, though by no means a display of any real martial arts, is positively stunning.

The swordsman loses the duel, and Conqueror makes off with the guy's sexy wife, vowing that they will meet again to fight for ownership of the magic sword. It was cool because something like that happened to me a couple months ago. When the two warriors meet again, they duel on, above, and all around a giant cliff carved into the shape of a towering stone Buddha. This fight is pretty cool as well, with the guys zipping all over the sky much like the fighters in the superb old Ching Siu-tung fantasy film Duel to Death. Only this time, instead of wires, it's cgi. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of cgi and other computer animation effects, mainly because I think they look awful. Even supposedly good ones look awful to me, but then, who the hell am I to judge? I still think Ray Harryhausen stop-motion looks cool.

Storm Riders manages to use cgi the way it should be used, however, which is to create a very vivid fantasy world that is only slightly related to reality. It looks great, on par with and quite possibly better than anything done even in big budget American films. There are only a few instances where it looks awkward. For the most part, I thought it was pretty spectacular, and they actually seem to have put a lot of thought into making the effects lush and interesting. Plus, they don't have cgi characters, only backgrounds, landscapes, and of course flying stuff.

The second boy Conqueror goes after is the son of a swordsmith. The fight here isn't nearly as slick, but it's still good, and reminded a lot of the fights in Tsui Hark's last good film, The Blade, but that may only be because those guys were all shirtless swordsmiths as well.

Conqueror raises Cloud and Wind as his own sons, with the basic plan being keep your friends close and your enemies closer, I guess. Both of them grow up to be bad-ass super fighters in sexy leather outfits. Aaron, whose character Cloud is the angrier, brooding member of the duo, also adds some flare with the aforementioned cape and blue highlights to his anime hair. Both of them fall in love with Conqueror's daughter, and hey, you would too. She's cute, but there's nothing quite as unnerving as having your girlfriend say, "I want you to come home to meet my father, Lord Conqueror, ruler of the martial world."

Each of the boys is given a task. Wind (Ekin Cheng) is sent out with his other adopted brother, Frost, to capture the legendary Fire Monkey, which you have to find if you want to earn an audience with ol' Mud Buddha. Cloud, who as we said, is a lot more pissed off, is sent on a secret mission to slaughter the members of another powerful martial arts family. Lord Conqueror is on a real slaughter kick these days. But I guess if you are named Conqueror you really do have to get out and, you know, conquer and stuff. It's sort of in the name. You can't be named Lord Conqueror and work a desk job.

Conqueror wants to talk to Mud Buddha about a puzzle box he got many years ago that supposedly contains the last portion of Mud Buddha's prophecy. As he gets older and Wind and Cloud become stronger, Conqueror is starting to go a bit insane with paranoia and wants to make sure he can alter his own Destiny by either controlling or destroying his two star disciples. Plus he's got the survivors of the recently slaughtered clan out for revenge and enlisting the help of an ancient super sword hero played by Anthony Wong in a Gandalf outfit. Everyone figures if anyone can beat Conqueror, it's this guy. So you see, being ruler of the martial world isn't all fun and games. It's sort of like being the mayor of New York, and when you see how much you have to deal with, you kinda have to wonder why you'd want the job. In fact, now that I think about it, I'd like to see an American version of this movie, with Rudy Guiliani starring as Lord Conqueror.

As if all that wasn't enough, you have this whole thing where Wind and Conqueror's daughter, Charity, are engaged, which pisses off Cloud, who was all moody anyway and walking around like some weird blend of Henry Rollins and Morrissey. I guess you could say he has a dark cloud hanging over him, but if you did say that, I'd kick you in the shins. While Charity likes Wind well enough, she's just as attracted to the dark and mysterious Cloud. This whole love thing sort of drives Cloud batty, and during the wedding he causes a ruckus that eventually leads to Conqueror accidentally killing his own daughter. It's sort of like those America's Funniest Home Video things where the groom's pants fall down of the bride slips and lands on her ass, only this time it's the bride's well nigh all-powerful supernatural father accidentally exploding her with magic energy bolts shot from his hands.

All jokes aside, the emotion of this whole sequence is actually pretty moving, and Aaron rises above his usual limitations as an actor and creates a very memorable, sad scene. The woman's death drives both he and Conqueror even more insane than they already are. Wind goes to reclaim his dead father's magic sword and get some sacred fruit, which is hidden inside the giant stone Buddha cave and guarded by a cool fire monster thing. When both Wind and Cloud learn that Conqueror himself murdered their families, it's time to bring the prophecy to fruition in a jaw-dropping special effects battle that reminded me a lot of the final fight between the duo of Yuen Biao and Meng Hoi against the insanely evil Adam Cheng in Zu.

And much like Zu, I've managed to account for about 30% of the action that takes place in this wild madcap ride. The rest is left for you, yes you, to discover on your own, because action and adventure and seeking thrills is what this websit4e is all about. Those things, and Hot Pockets.

Storm Riders is not a kungfu film. It's a fantasy film, and as such, it works wonderfully. It is full of action, drama, and insanely wild, cool looking special effects. Most special effects movies tend to forget the human aspect of their story, but Storm Riders remembers to make the humans the central players amid the onslaught of slick special effects. The result is delirious, breathtaking, and the most fun film to come out of Hong Kong in a very long time. It's a shame that in the wake of the film's monumental success, rather than follow it up with an equally well-crafted film, the director chose to go for a series of quickie look-alike films of varying quality.

But none of that matters here, and what we're left with is the fact that Storm Riders is a tremendously enjoyable, energetic film with an amazing look to it. People who are fond of praising derivative junk like The Matrix for it's supposed visual style should check this film out to really have their tiny minds blown. It manages to be beautiful, colorful, alien, and sweeping while remaining recognizable. I guess it's what the martial world looks like. But the aspect of the film that really shines is Sonny Chiba, bellowing and laughing in all his evil glory in what is a truly epic comeback film. He looks better than he has in decades, but since he spent much of the last decade making direct-to-video films with Rowdy Roddy Piper, he doesn't have much competition from himself. I was overjoyed to see Sonny in action, even if it's all special effects, and kicking ass for a whole new generation.

I have never read the comic, so I can't comment on how it compares to that, but as a film, Storm Riders is totally satisfying to me. In the years to come, as it betters with age, Storm Riders will become one of my all time favorite fantasy/mythology films.

Based on a popular Hong Kong comic series the plot is actually quite complicated (for me anyway). A fortune teller prophesies that the ruthless Lord Conquer (Sonny Chiba), head of the powerful Conquer clan, must find two boys and train them in martial arts. If he does this then the Conquer clan will become the most powerful in the whole world. However the second part to the prophecy states that the two boys will eventually bring about Lord Conquer's downfall.

Conquer decides to ignore the second part of the prophecy and sends his men out to find the two boys, Whispering Wind and Striding Cloud (who grow up to be Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok respectively), killing their real fathers in the process. The story moves on ten years and the Conquer clan does indeed become the most powerful in the world however Conquer conspires against the two young men in a bid to stop the second half of the prophecy from coming true. To have any chance of defeating their master Cloud and Wind must join together but unfortunately they have become rivals over their love for Charity, Conquer's daughter.

There are many more elements to the plot than detailed in the brief synopsis above and one of the main problems with 'Storm Riders' is that the film makers have tried to do too much with the effect that the story meanders all over the place and never seems focussed. The film is almost overpopulated with a multitude of characters and, despite being over 2 hours long, there is never time to properly develop the central roles of Wind, Cloud, Conquer and Charity.

There's no doubt that there is plenty of eye candy here for the viewer in the form of extremely impressive special effects (this film obviously cost a ton of cash), which effectively create a comic book style, but for the action film fan this is also one of the movie's biggest problems. The inclusion of special effects in the fight scenes seems to have been to the total exclusion of any real martial arts choreography. Its actually quite strange to see a film about martial arts without any real martial arts in it at all. Ultimately this left me quite dissatisfied with the action in this film and no amount of fire dragons and thunderbolts can change this. On the plus side 'Storm Riders' is beautiful to watch with its contemporary style and gorgeous sets and locations. The acting is all acceptable, if nothing special, and Sonny Chiba certainly makes a great screen villain.

While 'Storm Riders' is indeed a groundbreaking movie, for once Hong Kong film makers have managed to take on Hollywood at their own game, it sadly fails to include any of those elements that have made Hong Kong films so special in the past. In fact it does seem that the main aim of the director was to dazzle the audience and the overall impression is of little more than an effects showcase. Luckily 'Storm Riders' seems to have been a blip as the follow up film, 'A Man Called Hero', was a vast improvement in both the plot and action.

A very stylistic film with fantastic art direction, wonderful costumes, state of the art digital effects, berzerk editing and cinematography, and kinetic (albeit sometimes annoying) action sequences. This may be the first Hong Kong film I've seen that incorporates digital wire removal, and most of the flying stunts look great. Overall, the effects range from very good to downright cheezy. Some of the composites just look bad, and several scenes suffer horribly from the 24 fps to 30 fps video transferring process. But I think that the film's biggest fault is the fact that it never emotionally engages the viewer. It's all very pretty and very intense to watch, but I never cared for any of the characters. Handsome pop star Aaron Kwok is the worst of the bunch, and his brooding tough guy act is unconvincing at best (but it grows on you after a while). Sonny Chiba's intensity and charisma steals the show and adds clout to the production, but even so, his character is shallow and two dimensional. But apart from these few minor technical flaws, I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys serious minded fantasy films and/or Asian cinema. It's quite a treat, and is just the kick in the pants that the industry needs.

The film opens with the arrival of the prophet Mud Buddha (Al SHING) to the mountain top palace of the Tin Ha Sect. It is there that Lord Conquer Hung Ba (Sonny Chiba) receives the prophecy and the means with which to ensure his mastery of the martial world. Using birth charts, Lord Conquer raids the villages in an effort to locate the two children whose names are Wind and Cloud. After killing their families, Lord Conquer makes apostles of the children making them part of his inner circle along with his own son Frost. As the children grow up into men, the Tin Ha Sect has decimated most of China, plundering its riches and people. Lord Conquer proves to be an unholy and evil man, interested only in his fame and wealth. Having collected the swords from all of his enemies except for the famed Ultimate Sword created by master sword maker, Nip Yan-wong (Yu Wong-Guang), Cloud's father. Now conflict comes as the two adopted boys both fall in love with Lord Conquer's Daughter, Charity. After ten years of success, Lord Conquer grows anxious. Wanting to know what his future holds, he orders his three warriors to find Mud Buddha, to force the seer to reveal the final part of his prophecy. When he learns that Wind and Cloud will bring about the downfall his empire, the evil Lord conspires to turn the two men against one another, by forcing his daughter, Charity to marry one of them.

Director Andrew Lau has constructed a marvelously striking fantasy in 'THE STORM RIDERS' (Cantonese Title: 'Feng yun' ). What makes the film perplexing is simply that some of the Chinese inter-titles are not translated, making the relationship between some of the characters difficult to identify. This problem aside, the film is remarkably entertaining and engrossing. Lau, serving as his own Cinematographer, frames every scene for maximum emotional impact. There are scenes here of extraordinary composition and beauty. Add to that the spectacularly vivid computer generated effects, and the film takes on the epic quality of a biblical drama.

The framing of the scenes are based on the panels of a comic or graphic novel. Camera angles are rarely straight ahead. The film, while violent and action packed is never grotesque. Scenes of violence have a joyous roller coaster ride vitality to them, incorporating some marvelously inventive effects, both visual and physical. There are scenes here of jaw dropping inventiveness and beauty. The Wow! Factor is in great abundance. While the choreography of the martial arts on display are in the traditional method of Hong Kong film making, the addition of the fantasy element and the visual effects, display a marvelous joy and verve. The only western comparison that comes to mind is Director John Carpenter's unfairly maligned "Big Trouble in little China" (1986). This is just possibly the most invigorating Chinese fantasy since Tsui Hark's classic "Zu: Warriors of Magic Mountain" (1983)

The plotting of the film is troublesome. The story, being base on a series of popular comics in Hong Kong is understandably episodic. While it is certain that most Hong Kong viewers will understand and recognize all of these characters, Westerners may have a hard time pulling all of these intricacies together. Nevertheless, "The Storm Riders" still entertains simply on its own verve and sense of wonder.

The performances are all two dimensional, which is to be expected in such a fairy tale. The sole false note comes from lead Aaron Kwok as Cloud who is much too brooding, coming off as a petulant child rather than a man bent on revenge. Nevertheless, the performance does give the film a needed center and focus, as it is Cloud's determination to one day take revenge against his master for the death of his father.

The standout performance of the film is without a doubt the re-doubtable Sonny Chiba. His turn as Lord Conquer is a fine, scene stealing tip of the hat to Toshiro Mifune. His performance is full of mad posturing and grand gestures, truly fitting a Wuxia Pian performance. Best known for his 'Streetfighter' series of films (when released in the U.S. in 1974, the film was summarily given an X rating by the Motion Picture Ratings Board). Mr. Chiba pulls out all of the classic stops in giving Lord Conquer a full degree of madness and ego.

The sound design of the film is equally stunning. Recorded in sync sound (recorded live) in the native Hong Kong dialect of Cantonese, 'The Storm Riders' has one of the most luscious soundtracks recorded. The sound effects are stunning and deafening. If you get a chance to see this film on the big screen, do so.

The second best option is the vibrant DVD released earlier this year by Universe Laser & Video (a Hong Kong video company). The DVD is filled with extras. The soundtrack is available in both Mandarin (dubbed) and Cantonese (the original sync sound version). Viewing the disc on a Sony S500D, the mix was properly detailed. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is extraordinarily vibrant, with very active and directional rear channel sound, and enough bass that your neighbors will be complaining immediately after you start the disc. The transfer is NTSC based (U.S. standard) and is letterboxed at approximately 2.30:1 with very mild cropping on the extreme edges of the frame, but not so much as to be detrimental to the presentation.

The extras on the disc are equally impressive on their own, but they have no English translations so for that reason they may only be enjoyable for the completest. Included are three different trailers for the film (including an English narrated international version), and two making of documentaries, one dealing with the whole production with interviews of the cast and crew, and a second documentary covering the creation of the films CGI effects. All in all the DVD is one of the best Hong Kong discs I have seen, and I would heartily recommend it to any serious fan or collector.

To sum up, with Hong Kong's film industry in danger of being devoured by the video pirates, it's a shame that films such as 'The Storm Riders' may never be made again. I can only hope that this does not happen. Made on a meager budget of $10 million dollars (U.S. equivalent), the film looks and feels like it cost six times that much. "THE STORM RIDERS" is grand entertainment for those adventurous enough to seek it out.