S Storm is a 2016 crime action thriller film directed by David Lam and starring Louis Koo, Julian Cheung and Vic Chou. It is a sequel to Z Storm, and revolves around illegal football betting and match fixing.
ICAC Inspector William Luk, portrayed by Koo, is investigating the Jockey Club, a club for rich individuals that dabbles in illegal sports betting. While pursuing a suspect member, he is assassinated by a motorcyclist assassin, played by Chou. A story soon unfolds, filled with surprising twists and turns.
Was followed by a sequel, L Storm, in 2018.
S Storm contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: With Lily Li, since this movie has way too many plot lines. She does later report the evil old Teacher, before disappearing from the story entirely.
- Action Duo: Lau and Luk, particularly during the final battle.
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene:
- At the bar, Lau has a rather heated confrontation with his sister during which she delivers character backstory, causing Lau to feel immensely guilty.
- Later, after the killer slips away, grief catches up to Lau, and he blames his team for being lazy. They turn on him and accuse him of being useless and thus they cannot promote.
- Lau later has a heart to heart talk with Luk, as he voices his fears and uncertainties.
- Action Hero: Both Luk and Lau.
- Affably Evil: The killer played by Chou is an example, as he is pretty nice to Lau's sister, and even tries to get her to leave while he is trying to kill someone.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Arguably so with the killer, who despite having murdered a handful of people including Luk's friend, seems to get this treatment even from Luk when he shows up to save Ebby.
- Ambiguously Trained: The killer, who we can tell does have bike and gun skills, which may or may not have come from his experiences in Vietnam.
- Same goes for Luk and Lau who are badass, but we can infer that from more of their police training, though they are pretty strong.
- And Starring: Special Appearance by Shek Shau and Guest Appearance by Philip Keung, among others.
- Animated Credits Opening: For a Hong Kong movie, this film does feature an exciting one of animated football players committing really obvious fixed match actions, such as deliberately missing an open goal, getting a red card from a tackle and a bad save.
- Assassins Are Always Betrayed: After helping the crime syndicate with so many murders, Song the killer is shot by the Big Bad's henchman. He survives, at least until the final battle.
- Back for the Dead: An in-show example. Song the killer survives getting shot by the Big Bad's henchmen and returns for the finale only to get sadly shot in the head by a sniper.
- Badass Biker: The assassin who can ride his bike over cars and kill people in said cars.
- Bad Boss: Benjamin Boss, who has Shen the Teacher killed after he arrives in Hong Kong.
- Bar Brawl: The killer, Song, saves Ebby from malicious thugs during one after she accidentally spills a drink on someone.
- Big Bad: The aptly named Benjamin Boss, who is the true head of the illegal betting syndicate, is this, and he controls everything from behind the scenes.
- Book Ends:
- The first scene shows a killer make preparations to kill someone, the final scene shows Luk and his men prepare to make an arrest.
- The killer's first kill is made via headshot, and he himself is later killed this way.
- Boom, Headshot!: The killer kills his first victim this way, and later himself goes out this way.
- Cane Fu: The evil teacher demonstrates how evil he is with a barrage of strokes of the cane aimed at Lily Li.
- Contrived Coincidence: The handsome young guy Ebby meets at the bar just happens to be the dangerous killer the ICAC and the cops have been looking for.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr Xia of the Jockey Club, who uses his power to run illegal sports betting and gambling sites.
- Covert Emergency Call: A variant. When Lau goes over to rescue Ebby, he tells Luk he is on his way to meet his first love, which calls-back to how he told Luk in a dream he was in the shipyward with his first love. Similarly, he asks if men if they have forgotten their office location. The number turns out to be the code needed to track his car via GPS.
- Damsel in Distress: As luck would have had it in a cop movie, the bad guys kidnap Ebby, Lau's daughter and lady the killer just happens to fancy.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The killer is mentioned to have participated in the Vietnam War as a child.
- Lau himself has one, as he was a gambling addict that brought nothing but trouble for his family.
- Dying Declaration of Love: A rare silent and inferred one. The killer seems to evoke this as he dies trying to protect Abby from the criminals.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Teacher, Shen, is this, being one of the major players in the match-fixing game in Hong Kong.
- Gory Discretion Shot: When Terry is killed, we don't see the killer make the fatal stab, though we later see the body and find out his throat was slashed.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sort of with the killer, but this is more unbuilt since he dies before he can complete the turn.
- Professional Killer: Song, played by Vic Chou, acts as one for the crime syndicate.
- Redemption Equals Death: The motorcyclist killer returns to save Lau's sister, but in the process ends up getting shot in the head by a sniper.
- Slashed Throat: How Terry meets his end at the hands of the killer after a long scuffle.
- Take a Third Option: This case will either allow ICAC or the cops to gain credit, since both are independently working on a case. Lau decides to instead make this the first joint operation between both.
- Villain Opening Scene: The first scene shows the killer getting ready to kill someone.
