Wind and Cloud: The Storm Riders
(aka Wind and Cloud 2)
2004; directed by Ching Siu-Tung

Based on the second season of the Taiwanese Wind and Cloud television series, Tai Seng's DVD somewhat valiantly attempts to re-edit fifty forty-five minute episodes into a singular 108 minute long movie. As you might expect, the end results fall very far from displaying any real sense of coherency or cinematic flair.

This season of the series used the Heaven's Gate story arc of Ma Wing-Shing's comic, with Wind (Zhao Wen-Zhou) and Cloud (Peter Ho) teaming up to try and stop the villain Di Shitian (Wei Yicheng) before he obtains the mystical Dragon Orb, which will grant the user immortality and control of the martial arts world. There are several other subplots present here, such as one involving Wind's wife, Muse (Tammy Chen), but most of these literally come up for one scene only and then are discarded, leaving the audience feeling bewildered.

Tai Seng's edit clearly favors showcasing the action scenes at the expense of the story as a whole. If the action was anything extraordinary, or even the north side of average, then this might be forgivable. However, even with the legendary Ching Siu-Tung at the helm, the action is nothing to write home about. Since this was made for television, it was shot on video and looks extremely cheap, a facet that is not helped by the not-so special effects. Even keeping in mind that this is comprised of low-budget footage shot seven years ago, the overall look comes off like a glorified Youtube audition video, rather than any sort of prestigious production.

Tai Seng obviously released this DVD to capitalize on the success of the 1998 movie adaptation, The Storm Riders. But even if you (like this reviewer) are a big fan of that film, there's really no compelling reason to watch Tai Seng's version of Wind and Cloud. Their heavy-handed editing ends up adding nothing to the mythos of the characters or story as a whole, while the action is sub-par at best, leaving a viewing of this DVD ending up as more of a waste of time than anything else.

RATING: 3.5