Main Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Sun Yueh, Danny Lee, Carrie Ng, Roy Cheung
Release Year: 1987
Country: HK
Run Time: 98 minutes
Plot
This tense Hong Kong crime thriller is known best as the film upon which Quentin Tarantino borrowed heavily for his 1992 debut, Reservoir Dogs. Those who criticized the American director for lack of originality have perhaps missed the point. In the highly commercialized, formulaic crime genre of Hong Kong, very few thrillers are truly original, and innovation comes in the form of style, action choreography, and dramatic tension. City on Fire, directed by Ringo Lam, is no exception. The story, told in a more traditional narrative form than Reservoir Dogs, follows Chow Yun-Fat as Ko Chow, an undercover cop who infiltrates a ring of jewel thieves. When a heist goes wrong, Chow is wounded, and tension among the robbers escalates as they begin to suspect a traitor among their ranks. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
Review
This early, breakout effort by director Ringo Lam strives to accomplish quite a bit on its low budget and short shooting schedule. Lam should have spent more time and money; the result is a Hong Kong police actioner that barely measures up to standard episodic television fare. Brief car chases that end with fiery crashes, a couple of abbreviated fistfights and one or two shootouts leave one longing for something more kinetic to connect with. Turning to the story, we find resigned and disgraced police detective Chow (Chow Yun-Fat) brought back to the force to infiltrate a jewel-stealing gang headed by Fu (Danny Lee), perhaps the most non-threatening uber-villain imaginable. Chow also has to deal with a disintegrating romantic relationship with Huong (Carrie Ng), but from appearances, he's better off without such a high-maintenance, prone-to-violence, schizoid girlfriend. How this disappointing film, in which character is delineated by how one smokes (and everyone smokes, a lot), won Lam the 1987 HK Film Awards Best Director trophy is beyond imagination. The Mexican standoff near the end, where everyone points a gun at someone else at close range, is the most obvious borrowing by Quentin Tarantino for Reservoir Dogs, but how that standoff ends is as lame as the rest of the film. For undemanding Hong Kong fans only. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Ko Chow (Chow Yun-Fat) is an undercover cop who is under pressure from all sides. His boss, Inspector Lau (Yueh Sun), wants him to infiltrate a gang of ruthless jewel thieves; in order to do this he must obtain some handguns; his girlfriend (Carrie Ng) wants him to commit to marriage or she will leave Hong Kong with another lover; and he is being pursued by other cops who are unaware that he is a colleague.
What is more Chow would rather quit the force. He feels guilty about having to betray people who have become his friends, even if they do happen to be killers, drug dealers, loan sharks and protection racketeers: "I do my job, but I betray my friends."
To add to his problems, he begins to bond with Fu (Danny Lee), a member of the gang.
Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee faced a role-reversal two years later when, in John Woo's The Killer, Chow plays a hitman who bonds with Lee, this time appearing as the cop.
