Review | P Storm film review: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam in laughably unrealistic prison drama
- ICAC investigator William Luk, played by Koo, goes undercover as a prisoner to snare his latest target, and has to deal with an old adversary
- Not for the first time in this series, the script is thoroughly detached from reality, but P Storm is never boring, and there are worse ways to spend 96 minutes
2/5 stars
Anyone who mocked the title of 2014 film Z Storm as the result of an English alphabet lottery should have realised by now that the joke is on them. Following S Storm (2016) and L Storm (2018), P Storm is now in cinemas and G Storm has just been announced; it’s cold comfort to realise we may only have 22 more frivolous sequels to sit through.
No prior knowledge of the crime thriller series – nor of how Hong Kong’s police and prisons operate – is required to watch director David Lam Tak-luk’s latest crime-busting fantasy. The only character you need to recall is Louis Koo Tin-lok’s unstoppable investigator William Luk, of the city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
After spending three films mingling with police officers, Luk decides to go to prison – not as a visitor, but undercover as a prisoner, through a convenient drink-driving conviction – in order to take on his next big corruption case. His target is inmate Cao Yuenyuen (Raymond Lam Fung), the wealthy, cold-blooded son of a Chinese tycoon who indirectly caused the death of Luk’s former teacher in a land dispute three years earlier.
Cao is due for early release and Luk, believing he must have bribed correctional service officers, launches a one-man mission to secure evidence of that. Also behind bars is Wong Man-bun (Lam Ka-tung), a corrupt policeman Luk arrested back in Z Storm and arch enemy of Cao.
