City on Fire, 1987.
Directed by Ringo Lam.
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Yueh Sun, Carrie Ng, Kong Lau, and Roy Cheung.
SYNOPSIS:
An undercover cop infiltrates a gang of jewellery thieves whilst also trying to save his relationship with his fiancé and avoid getting arrested by other cops who don’t know he is undercover.
City on Fire is often stated to be not only a major influence on but THE major influence on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs – which it is – but that comparison is only really apt during the final act, when characters come together, realise there are liars and rats in their group, guns get pointed and loyalties are challenged.
Up to that point, though, City on Fire is a slick, tense and exciting cop thriller that screams 1980s cool, with its neon lights, sharp suits and sexy sax soundtrack, but yet it doesn’t feel like a movie that quite belongs in that very fashion-conscious era, which means it doesn’t feel as dated as, say, Miami Vice or Black Rain. Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-Fat plays Ko Chow, an undercover cop given an assignment to infiltrate a gang of thieves about to pull off a huge jewellery heist. Fortunately, Ko Chow is getting rather friendly with laid-back gangster Fu (Danny Lee) so his cover is good, but unfortunately for him, it is so good that a squad of police officers led by an ambitious young police inspector have been assigned to take the criminal gang down, unaware that Ko Chow is one of them. Add to that Ko Chow’s relationship with his fiancé is up in the air as he tries to balance his cop duties with his criminal behaviour and his home life, and something will have to give somewhere.
Inspired by a real-life case that director Ringo Lam sat in on the trial for, City on Fire was a huge success when released back in 1987, a period when style-over-substance was very much in vogue. This movie does have plenty of style, but the added grittiness gives it a flavour that very much set up what was to come in the following decade. The energy here is also a bit more manic than mainstream audiences were probably used to at the time, with the usually cool, calm and collected Chow Yun-Fat playing up the cop-on-the-edge role and adding a huge dose of character-based adrenaline to match the flying bullets.
Presented in Dolby Vision and HDR10, the 4K UHD is a noticeably tidied up print from any previous releases, with neon popping out the screen when in the city streets and the darker, shadowy scenes still maintaining a lot of detail, but City on Fire is a moody crime thriller that is nearly 40 years old and never looked particularly sparkly in the first place, so don’t go expecting the crisp and rich visuals of Heat or The Dark Knight. The disc comes with an audio commentary by Hong Kong cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, and interviews with various crew members and several academics giving various perspectives that give you a bigger picture of the movie and its influence.
So, if you have seen Reservoir Dogs, have heard of City on Fire and want to know more then here it is, presented in as clean and loaded a package as you are likely to get. We all know about how influential this movie is – and not just to Quentin Tarantino – and it still holds up as an exhilarating thrill-ride, but is it as good as the movies it influenced? Yes, it is and it certainly deserves to be in the conversation when discussing Hong Kong’s greatest crime/action movies, and not just because of the final act as the whole movie is very entertaining, if a little generic in getting to that crucial point.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
