High-Octane
Summary
City on Fire is incredibly influential especially for movies like Reservoir Dogs; it’s slower paced than I expected and doesn’t have much action until the second half, but the violence is raw and it’s definitely worth a watch. It’s on Tubi now along with Hard Boiled which have both been nicely remastered.
Plot: Chow Yun-Fat (Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow) stars in this sizzling, highly influential crime drama from director Ringo Lam (Full Contact, Prison On Fire, Maximum Risk).
Ko Chow is an undercover cop torn between his duty as a police officer and his loyalty to his friends on the wrong side of the law. He wants out – and his commanding officer Inspector Lau reluctantly approves his resignation – but only after he completes one final assignment. Tasked with infiltrating a notorious gang of criminals, Chow bonds with their leader (Danny Lee, The Killer), building a relationship based on mutual trust and respect. But when a planned heist turns into a violent shootout with the law, the tension among the thieves heats up … and they begin to suspect there is an informant in their midst.
Review: Believe it or not I had never seen City on Fire until recently; it wasn’t on any streaming channels and the DVD was super expensive. Thankfully, Shout! Factory have been releasing a whole bunch of Hong Kong movies on 4K and several of the movies are now on Tubi.
I finally watched the film last night which was the inspiration behind Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
Chow Yun-fat plays Ko Chow, an undercover cop who gets in too deep with a group of thieves; he ends up befriending Fu (Danny Lee) and it essentially becomes the Harvey Keitel/Tim Roth relationship from Reservoir Dogs. I have to be honest, as much as I enjoyed City on Fire I didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would. It’s more of a thriller than an action movie with the only real action coming in the last 20 minutes.
I think Chow Yun-fat is one of the most charismatic actors of all time and he is always magnetic any time he is on screen, however I didn’t think Ko Chow was an especially likeable guy. He kept messing his lady around and it’s no wonder she ended up leaving him. I liked Danny Lee as Fu who despite his life as a criminal we get to understand him as the story progresses and why he does what he does.
Yueh Sun is the true hero as Inspector Lau although it frustrated me that it took him so long to tell Inspector John Chan (Roy Cheung) that Chow was an undercover cop. Chan was such a hateful character where we ended up rooting for the criminals rather than the police.
As this is directed by the legendary Ringo Lam the action has a gritty, kinetic feel to it so it doesn’t have the overuse of slow motion that John Woo could be guilty of. I just wish there had been more set-pieces, but what we get is fantastic.
I’m glad I watched this on Tubi rather than blind buying the 4K as like I said I likely wouldn’t watch this too often; still, it’s been well remastered and looks brand new even on streaming.
Overall, City on Fire is interesting because of its influence on other movies, but I wouldn’t be in a rush to watch it again. This still has some solid action in the second half and Chow Yun-fat is as cool as ever even if his character isn’t especially sympathetic.