City on Fire

 

City on Fire Directed by Ringo Lam, starring Chow Yun Fat (1987).

A butcher knife stabbing with gangsters running wild at a swap meet ignites the flame of this Ringo Lam cop drama. This was the movie that inspired Tarantino to create Reservoir Dogs. So far I don’t see it but what hasn’t old Mr. foot fetish/Oscar winner ripped off from the Far East? 

Right off the bat the film is littered with sunglass wearing black tie gathering attired gentlemen. Chow Yun Fat plays his standard bad-azz cigarette dangling undercover cop role brilliantly. The victim in the 1st scene was an also a narc that was killed in a jewelry heist, right now he’s in the morgue deep freeze. Ski mask wearing thugs break into a bank office and stab the mgr’s hand to make him cough up the safe code. This is part of the "on fire" trilogy which includes School on Fire (1988) and Prison on fire (1987). Coming soon you’ll see the others in the series reviewed on TOG. 

Mr. Yun-Fat’s character has a girlfriend, they hop in the shower together and their banter is all toilet driven. Yuck what a scene! The comedy is subtle among the head kicks and blasts. There’s a Cabaret singer that looks like an Asian Etta James, they sing the search montage led by Chow. 

Heh heh funny?

There’s copious amounts of cigarette smoke trickling around in this flick. The cheesiest part of this flick is the cornball jazz! Chow is strong armed into going undercover to intercept the jewelry thieves that stabbed his partner to death. Bony and tiger are some of the ski masked thugs who wield razors and knives with their standard issued guns. Cop cars start flipping over and then are sprayed with extinguisher liquid.

Eradicator!

Poor Uncle Kwan, one of the most sympathetic characters is aged out by a kid in his 30s! This drives him to literally drink himself to death.The scene in the graveyard reminds me of The Onion Field (only idle threats happen not fatal ones). The wire that Chow wears and the mailing tape sticking to his skin--EEeek! That part seemed inspired by Midnight Express (1978). The undercover Narc posing as a gangster is the only connection this and Tarantino’s first movie. Plus it's so much more than that and the ending is very satisfying. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Shout! Studios is giving this the 4K upgrade and it's coming out next month. 

hey good looking we'll comeback later

I can't, this corpse smells funny

we also can't charge QT with plagiarism