City on Fire

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films ever ripped off.
Review: Ok, tarantino has the dialogue. But no one can doubt how blatant a rip off "Reservoir Dogs" was from this film. Tarantino's film is broken to basics and uses stylistic violence, Lam's films is a police action fare (he's the HK master). What I love about Lam's films are the realism, whereas John Woo (my fave) is highly stylized. All that considered, City On Fire is the tragic story of Ko Chow, A HK undercover cop who blurs the line between right & wrong, and loyalty while working undercover to bring down a jewlery robbing syndicate. A word of note for DVD fans, the picture quality of this DVD and sound quality are a perfect transfer! It looks and sounds fantastic!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films ever ripped off.
Review: Ok, tarantino has the dialogue. But no one can doubt how blatant a rip off "Reservoir Dogs" was from this film. Tarantino's film is broken to basics and uses stylistic violence, Lam's films is a police action fare (he's the HK master). What I love about Lam's films are the realism, whereas John Woo (my fave) is highly stylized. All that considered, City On Fire is the tragic story of Ko Chow, A HK undercover cop who blurs the line between right & wrong, and loyalty while working undercover to bring down a jewlery robbing syndicate. A word of note for DVD fans, the picture quality of this DVD and sound quality are a perfect transfer! It looks and sounds fantastic!

Rating:
Summary: BEWARE THE SUBTITLES
Review: OK, the cover to my DVD is slightly different from the one picture on amazon, but I imagine that this is the same release. THE ENGLISH SUBTITLES ARE AWFUL! Yeah, dubbed versions of Hong Kong crime are bad, but at least you can follow the action. The English subtitles are godawful- broken english, badly timed, often confusing, and it gives me the feeling that I'm missing half of the movie. My recommendation is to rent a dubbed copy of this film before seeing the subtitled version. That way, you'll know what's going on, and be able to enjoy the film as it was intended. I give the DVD 2 stars only for the subtitles- it is a beautiful adaptation to DVD from an image perspective...

Rating:
Summary: Story is okay, but Chow makes watching it all worth it
Review: Personally, I don't think the story is all that great. It is inconceivable that an undercover cop would be forced to risk his life after he had time and again asked for permission to resign. The performance by the younger, callous cop is especially annoying. However, Chow brings the film to life in his relationship with one of the gang members played by Danny Lee (the cop from "The Killer"). This film pays attention to his great acting abilities without guns as well as the action scenes he's known for.

Rating:
Summary: Get the version in the ORIGINAL CHINESE
Review: Technically, great. I love this film. But, I HATE the English dubbing. I still find myself watching the VHS version. No one has so far managed to translate the inflections, and emotions, of a language, once they dub it...

Rating:
Summary: THE REAL RESERVOIR DOGS
Review: The delicate paranoia, the gaping loneliness, the schizophrenic glamour. In his watershed crime classic, the scorsese-damaged "City on Fire", nothing interests Ringo Lam more than the knotty moral and emotional tangles of the undercover life. Chow Yun Fat plays Ko Chow, an undercover cop who infiltrates an enclave of jewel thieves and eventually gets sucked into an undertow of malice. Pretty soon, the line between what's prefab and what's true to life obscures to a blur and the secret identity becomes the alter ego. It is this precise moment that "City on Fire" snipes for dramatic grist. Navigating this hyperkinetic slalom of bullets, betrayal and broken hearts with all the cunning facility of a mastermind, there's a reason why Lam was name-checked by Hollywood, alongside John Woo and Tsui Hark. And it's not just because Quentin Tarantino tactlessly shoplifted chunks of "City on Fire" chapter and verse to surplus his meal ticket to Hollywood, "Reservoir Dogs". ( Indeed, Hollywood pundits have chosen to sweep this henious incident under the carpet or write it off as some kind of homage or the other). Lam is no castoff. And no John Woo parrot by any stretch. Woo has plied these dire straits before, in "Hardboiled" ,also with Chow Yun and a pre-Cannes Tony Leung. But "City on Fire" is a more feral, more raw, less heroic and ultimately more tragic picture. Far from just another "Honor Among Thieves" rehab, it upped the ante of your routine cops and robbers melee. And , more than ten years down the line, still strengthens the argument for Lam as more than a high-impact action specialist. Simply put, a director on fire.

Rating:
Summary: THE REAL RESERVOIR DOGS
Review: The delicate paranoia, the gaping loneliness, the schizophrenic glamour. In his watershed crime classic, the scorsese-damaged "City on Fire", nothing interests Ringo Lam more than the knotty moral and emotional tangles of the undercover life. Chow Yun Fat plays Ko Chow, an undercover cop who infiltrates an enclave of jewel thieves and eventually gets sucked into an undertow of malice. Pretty soon, the line between what's prefab and what's true to life obscures to a blur and the secret identity becomes the alter ego. It is this precise moment that "City on Fire" snipes for dramatic grist. Navigating this hyperkinetic slalom of bullets, betrayal and broken hearts with all the cunning facility of a mastermind, there's a reason why Lam was name-checked by Hollywood, alongside John Woo and Tsui Hark. And it's not just because Quentin Tarantino tactlessly shoplifted chunks of "City on Fire" chapter and verse to surplus his meal ticket to Hollywood, "Reservoir Dogs". ( Indeed, Hollywood pundits have chosen to sweep this henious incident under the carpet or write it off as some kind of homage or the other). Lam is no castoff. And no John Woo parrot by any stretch. Woo has plied these dire straits before, in "Hardboiled" ,also with Chow Yun and a pre-Cannes Tony Leung. But "City on Fire" is a more feral, more raw, less heroic and ultimately more tragic picture. Far from just another "Honor Among Thieves" rehab, it upped the ante of your routine cops and robbers melee. And , more than ten years down the line, still strengthens the argument for Lam as more than a high-impact action specialist. Simply put, a director on fire.

Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this dubbed edition
Review: The information available in one of the reviews (referring to the better subtitling in the Disney edition) is incorrect. This editon only has the dubbed English language sound track. What a waste.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic early team-up between Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee
Review: This 1987 Ringo Lam classic reverses the roles of Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee as later seen in the Killer. The film is dated somewhat, but still shows Hong Kong cinema at the height of its energy and Lam intensifies the action with strong, inventive directing. Chow Yun Fat is as always brilliant in the film, while Lee dutifully portrays the antagonist. As a note, Tarantino used this film as the basis for his first film "Resevoir Dogs".

Rating:
Summary: Routine, but enjoyable
Review: This is a routine undercover cop story. I got the Tai Seng version which is subtitled. So, I cannot comment on the dubbing of this tape. The story takes place at a time where guns are hard to obtain. The bad guys get guns from Chow Yun Fat's character. It's a somewhat predictable story, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.