City on Fire
Synopsis
Ko Chow is an undercover cop who is under pressure from all sides. His boss, Inspector Lau, wants him to infiltrate a gang of ruthless jewel thieves; in order to do this he must obtain some handguns; his girlfriend 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, a member of the gang.
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This is a film with more good ideas than it knows what to do with. A script polish wouldn't have been out of line, and if it had narrowed it's focus a little (even at the expense of some of the better ideas), it probably would have been a better film. Even so, it's a good film with ideas that were influential all over the film world. There's no question that Reservoir Dogs is taken largely from this film and you can see it's influence in a variety of other films as well, which is remarkable because there's nothing flashy here, it's just good solid story ideas.
The best part of this film is Chow Yun Fat who is simply…
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Thriller de policías undercovers tan del gusto de la época y de la ex-colonia. Todos los implicados estaban en su mejor momento -Ringo Lam, unos maravillosos Chow Yun-Fat y Danny Lee e, incluso, participaba un Andrew Lau en labores de director de fotografía- y parieron un clasicazo del cine de acción que aguanta todos los visionados que se le quieran echar.
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A pretty bland film that has a weird time presenting its tone. Where Woo puts gun fights and TO puts atmosphere, Lam puts 80's saxophone jazz in his movies.
I always forget while watching this that it is a inspiration for Reservoir Dogs, until the last 15 mins.
Nice ramped up third act if anything.
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A pretty bland film that has a weird time presenting its tone. Where Woo puts gun fights and TO puts atmosphere, Lam puts 80's saxophone jazz in his movies.
I always forget while watching this that it is a inspiration for Reservoir Dogs, until the last 15 mins.
Nice ramped up third act if anything.
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Well this film definitely wasn't what I expected! I had it in mind that it was very much like the Hong Kong actioners of the time with bullets and explosions going off left and right. That said, I was definitely glad with the film actually is, which is almost a 70s inflected crime thriller.
I agree with the general concensus that the film is perhaps bogged down by too many ideas and not enough time to fully flesh them out, but I really enjoyed every bit of it.
Chow Yun-Fat shows yet again why he became as famous as he did and oozes charm at every moment. Usually comedic scenes in chinese movies absolutely pull me out of the film…
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The subtitles I had were atrocious. Lines like "we confront a few robbers only, not an army troop" were common. As a result, my understanding of what was going on was... utilitarian, let's say. I figured out the story beats, and it's a pretty typical undercover cop movie (undercover cop is about to get out of the game and propose to his girlfriend, but gets drawn back in when a gang of jewel thieves kill someone close to him). The visuals are City on Fire's saving grace.
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Shoot him again. His soul's still dancing.
Grim, hyper-masculine, squibs-and-saxophone saturated crime thriller where the bonds of brotherhood are forged in a hailstorm of bullets and the eternal conflict between cops and robbers verges on petty tribalism. Chow-Yun Fat is a excellent as the proverbial "man without a country," turning in a career-defining performance that capitalizes on his charisma, cocksure bravado, and wounded vulnerability. Ringo Lam's direction has an eruptive, live-wire energy; the film oscillates unpredictably from steely calm to vesuvian outbursts of violence, from gritty, on-the-street realism to an operatic, neon-soaked, bullet-holes-through-corrugated-sheet-metal melodrama.
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RESERVOIR DOGS comparisons are, at this point, unavoidable. But Tarantino's film, rather than simply being a rip-off, actually complements the original quite nicely, expanding the stand-off climax of Lam's film while using flashbacks to fill in the back story that gets a bit laborious in CITY ON FIRE (especially anything to do with Chow Yun-fat's undercover cop's love interest). Lam tells the story front to back, Tarantino (more or less) back to front and the two films meet at the heist, brilliantly staged by Lam: the violence erupts in the midst of a crowded Hong Kong street at night, as opposed to Tarantino's vacant, wide-open Los Angeles.
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Thriller de policías undercovers tan del gusto de la época y de la ex-colonia. Todos los implicados estaban en su mejor momento -Ringo Lam, unos maravillosos Chow Yun-Fat y Danny Lee e, incluso, participaba un Andrew Lau en labores de director de fotografía- y parieron un clasicazo del cine de acción que aguanta todos los visionados que se le quieran echar.
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This movie is a crazy hybrid of a 70's blaxploitation flick, and an 80's Michael Mann crime thriller. It is widely known that this movie was a huge influence on Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, and there are plenty of scenes that seem to be lifted straight from this movie into that one. Chow Yun-Fat is his charismatic self in this heist / undercover cop movie. I thought the soundtrack was great and even the dubbing wasn't bad.
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This is a film with more good ideas than it knows what to do with. A script polish wouldn't have been out of line, and if it had narrowed it's focus a little (even at the expense of some of the better ideas), it probably would have been a better film. Even so, it's a good film with ideas that were influential all over the film world. There's no question that Reservoir Dogs is taken largely from this film and you can see it's influence in a variety of other films as well, which is remarkable because there's nothing flashy here, it's just good solid story ideas.
The best part of this film is Chow Yun Fat who is simply…
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A movie which surely helped inspire Quentin Tarantino's debut, Reservoir Dogs. I wouldn't be surprised if Infernal Affairs alos got some inspiration from this Chow Yun-Fat undercover cop role.
On its own it's a little bit more potential in several directions, than an accomplished one. Interesting enough, but quite not polished, or unpolished, enough to make it all the way.