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Released by: Discotek Media/Eastern Star
Released on: 9/29/2009
Director: Andrew Lau
Cast: Ekin Cheng, Aaron Kwok, Sonny Chiba, Anthony Wong, Roy Cheung, Michael Tse, Shu Qi
Year: 1998
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The Movie:
Based on the popular comic book of the same name, Andrew Lau's adaptation of The Storm Riders has got a whole lot of flash but not so much substance. That said, as a comic book come to life, this incredibly CG heavy piece can be a lot of fun. It doesn't require a whole lot of thought, but it's got some great action set pieces and a fun performance from Sonny Chiba as the villain.
The movie tells the story of one Lord Conquer (Sonny Chiba), an evil master of the martial arts who lusts for power the way most men lust for women. When Conquer heads of a pair of young boys with super human abilities, he decides he needs to essentially kidnap them and bring them into his fold in hoesp that they'll provide him with the invincibility he craves. Conquer locates and captures the two kids and immediately begins to train them in the martial arts. Named Wind (Ekin Cheng) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok), the two boys prove very adept at using their powers even at an early age.
As times goes on, the pair become stronger and more talented but so too does Conquer's grasp. Wind and Cloud have thought all their lives that they were orphaned and raised in good faith by Conquer and as such, they care for him, respect him, and see him as a father figure. This all starts to change when Conquer decides that his flesh and blood daughter Charity (Kristy Yang) will join in an arranged marriage with Wind. As Wind and Charity grow closer, he begins to grow further apart from Cloud. Soon, though, the pair discovers Conquer's true nature and with his power lust fully exposed, the two brothers must put their differences aside from work together to stop the man who has raised them since childhood.
Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng may not have the skill and agility of better martial artists but they do excel at standing around and looking cool, which they're given ample opportunity to do here. Chiba has more to do, at least in terms of acting, as he gets to play the heavy here and he does a fine job of it. While most are accustomed to seeing him play the hero, or at least the anti-hero, he fits into the 'bad guy' role pretty much seamlessly and brings his considerable screen presence to the picture which helps it a lot.
The action scenes, while very CG heavy, are nicely shot and well choreographed and the wire work used throughout the movie integrates with the effects work nicely. The fantasy world created here always looks pretty neat and there's some pretty impressive design work on display throughout the picture.
When The Storm Riders was released in North American in 1998, it was trimmed of approximately thirty-eight minutes of material, much of which fleshes out Wind and Cloud's early childhood years but a fair bit of which is also related to the fight scenes. There's also a scene between Conquer and Wind's actual father that is completely missing from the cut version that goes a long way towards fleshing out the back story of the characters. The international version is pretty choppy, and it's obvious as you watch it that a lot of the story has just been completely taken out. Getting to see the uncut version of the film makes it considerably easier to appreciate and while the film is still an exercise in style over substance, at least in this version it makes considerably more sense.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both versions of the film are presented in 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen though unfortunately the unrated uncut version is interlaced. That issue aside, Discotek's transfers are decent, though not perfect. Color reproduction looks nice but there are some noticeable compression artifacts throughout, especially in the darker scenes. There isn't much print damage save for some minor specks here and there though a fair bit of the picture looks soft (likely a problem with the source material and CG work rather than the transfer but it's hard not to notice it).
The international version is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track while the uncut version gets 5.1 Surround mixes in both Dolby Digital and DTS flavors, in Cantonese with optional English subtitles. The uncut version obviously has the more interesting sound design of the two versions and it's much more active and aggressive than the goofy dubbed stereo mix on the international cut.
There are a few decent extras here starting with an Interview With Director Andrew Lau (12:18) that is conducted in English. Here Lau talks about the effects used in the film and how they tried to create something new in Hong Kong Cinema with this release. He discusses working with the cast and crew on the film, the comic book origins of the film, and how he feels about the picture in hindsight. Lau's English is pretty good and he's got a good relaxed atmosphere here as he talks about the picture's reception and gives us his take on how this all came together.
Up next is a Special; Effects Featurette (20:51) that starts off with the Golden Harvest logo before launching into some interviews with some of the producers who praise the pictures effects work. From there we learn about the influence of the comic from some interview clips with Ma-Wing Sing before getting a look at how the CGI was created for the picture and then checking out how blue-screen technology was employed to put the human actors in the various environments created digitally for the picture.
There's also a Making Of Storm Riders Featurette (22:34), again starting off with that instantly recognizable Golden Harvest logo before showing off some statues of the characters from the comics and letting various people from the pre-production side of things, Ma-Wing Sing included again, talk about casting and locations. We get some on set footage, some character analysis, and some clips from the film in addition to some discussion about the legacy of martial arts films in Hong Kong cinema and how Storm Riders tries to move past that. Ma-Wing Sing
Rounding out the extras are some character profiles, some cast and crew text bios, a production stills gallery, trailers for both versions of The Storm Riders, and trailers for a few other Discotek releases.
The Final Word:
The video quality isn't as strong as maybe it could have been but otherwise there's little to complain about here and it's great to have both (very different) cuts of the movie included here along with some decent extra features. The picture itself plays so much better in its uncut form and while a lot of the CGI work used hasn't aged so well, The Storm Riders is still a fun comic book picture that holds up fairly well.