City on Fire

Distributed by Made In Hong Kong

Cert: 18

Running time: 101 minutes

Year: 1987

Pressing: 1996

Sides: 2 (CLV)

Chapters: 41 (20/21)

Cat.no: HK 003L

Sound: Mono

Widescreen : 1.85:1

Cantonese language with English subtitles

Price: £29.99

Extras : None

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Director:

Ringo Lam (Twin Dragons, Maximum Risk)

Cast:

Ko Chow : Chow Yun Fat (The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow)
Fu : Danny Lee (The Killer, Just Heroes, Tiger on the Beat 2)

City on Fire stars established Chinese film actor Chow Yun Fat as Ko Chow as a maverick undercover cop who has nightmares of a colleague, Shing, who was murdered at a crime scene which went wrong, and his feelings of betraying Shing.

Shortly after the film begins, another colleague is dead. This time it's Wah, a cop who was on the trail of a gang of ruthless jewellery thieves, and now Chow has no choice other than to take on from where Wah left off. He has to go in to the store where the heist is taking place and infiltrate the robbery by pretending to join in. After being wounded during the bloodshed that occurs inside the store, he becomes trapped in the gangster's hideout as they try to work out who the traitor is in their gang...

If all this sounds rather a lot like the plot of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, then in a nutshell it is, although there will of course be a number of differences between that of the new kid in Hollywood, and an experienced director of Hong Kong action films, especially in the way that the violent scenes are handled. One other difference is that Lam's film shows the heist taking place and the reaction of the police once the gangster's have got away. Tarantino's classic never showed the heist, just talked about it afterwards, and as well as being told in flashback, never cared much for the fate of the cops.

In fact, this film is essential viewing for those who are big fans of the aforementioned Reservoir Dogs, and want to make the comparisons and see the scenes mentioned in 'Dogs' which were never part of the film, such as Mr. White's reference to Blonde's shooting of the female bank teller, "How old was that girl? 20?...21?". Well watch City on Fireand check it out for yourself.

The print of the film is very clean, with the 1.85:1 widescreen ratio being at the top of the screen, and the black bar below housing the subtitles. The mono soundmix is functional. It would be nice to hear all the bullets ricocheting around the room in surround sound, but at least this luxury is being provided as directors such as Lam and John Woo trade Hong Kong for America these days, the latest film from Lam being the new Jean Claude Van Damme actioner, Maximum Risk. The disc is very well chaptered with 41 altogether for the 101 minutes running time.