Review of Purple Storm

Introduction

Terrorist Todd Chow arrives in Hong Kong for his father’s latest mission to capture a biological weapon, but sustains a head injury that plunges him into a coma. He awakes with complete amnesia, so the anti-terrorist group that’s been tracking him takes advantage and convinces him he is an undercover cop set to infiltrate his father’s group – but as his memory returns, will he choose the path of justice or fall back into a life of terrorism?

Hong Kong legends expand their ever-increasing number of titles with this 1999 actioner that was critically acclaimed all over Hong Kong, playing as Hong Kong’s answer to The Rock.

Video

As expected by HKL, the transfer is superb – a good level of detail, accurate colours and skin tones and no artifacts that I could see. Purple Storm has the added bonus of being made only a couple of years ago, so has not suffered from the rapid deterioration of older Hong Kong prints over time.

Audio

A good 5.1 soundtrack is included here, with both the Cantonese and (ugh!) English dubbed languages. The Dolby track shows off the great action sequences, whilst never producing overpowering bass.

Features

This is one of HKL’s more packed discs, containing both a commentary AND a featurette. In the latter, Hong Kong expert Bey Logan and Daniel Wu (who played Todd Chow) team up to provide an informative commentary. Bey Logan always provides us with some nuggets of info (as he did with his Bruce Lee discs) but the interaction with someone actually in the film makes for even better listening.

The featurette lasts for 20 minutes, and is a pleasure to watch, considering that most Hong Kong films don’t commission any behind-the-scenes stuff. There is also an interview with leading lady Josie Ho, which is again well worth watching. Finally, all the usual trailers, a music video and a photo gallery are included here too. I should also say that their moving menus are great, themed for the film.

Conclusion

This Teddy Chan directed action-thriller is fully deserving of it’s acclaimed status, and is much more than just a gun-fest, dealing with the tormented soul of a killer and the difficult situation he finds himself in - shades of John Woo here. Although there is no Chow Yun Fat to carry the movie, the actors are all very competent and put in some convincing performances. My only complaints are that often the plot is secondary to the action and stunts (perhaps rightly so!) and that the CGI is still rather fake looking. As I saw in my review of “A Man Called Hero”, a relatively big budget (by Hong Kong standards) still can’t create fully-believable effects – but then, evidently not even George Lucas and ILM can do this either!

This HKL disc is one of their best. They are fast becoming one of my favourite labels, along with New Line, Criterion and Anchor Bay – and currently releasing Hong Kong discs in the UK that will not be bettered elsewhere.