After the murder of an undercover cop, Inspector Lau (Sun Yueh) is forced to bring in another undercover operative, Ko Chow (Chow Yun-fat), to take down a particularly brutal gang of jewelry thieves. Unfortunately, Ko is tired of undercover work, and is traumatized from having to arrest a criminal he befriended during his previous case, haunted by having to betray their trust. Plus, his relationship with his girlfriend Hung (Carrie Ng) is on the rocks, so obviously, this isn't great timing for a new assignment. However, when the thieves strike again, Lau and Ko have no choice but to proceed with the mission, with Ko set up as an arms dealer selling weapons to the thieves for their next job.
An undercover cop must survive infiltrating a brutal gang of thieves in Ringo Lam's City on Fire, one of the many cinematic gems to come out of Hong Kong's New Wave. By the late 1970s, the Hong Kong film industry was one of the biggest in the world, surpassed only by America and India in terms of the number of films produced and released per year. Martial arts films were huge business, especially internationally, but Hong Kong cinema had plenty to offer in other genres as well. Even after the rise of Golden Harvest and the end of the Shaw Bros. monopoly, Shaw still turned out dozens of films per year, and Golden Harvest's success paved the way for more independent productions, away from the Hollywood-style studio system Shaw employed. Beyond the box office success of the films themselves, the industry itself was acquiring more prestige. Film magazines and film production schools were on the rise, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival made its debut in 1977. The end of the decade saw a new generation of filmmakers emerge, many of whom had studied film production overseas and returned to Hong Kong, using what they'd learned to spice up an industry that, while still going strong, they saw as creatively stale. They introduced Western cinematography and editing techniques to Hong Kong cinema, kicking off the first of Hong Kong's cinematic New Waves. Thanks to the Hong Kong film industry's liberal attitudes toward content and lack of censorship, filmmakers were free to challenge genre conventions and social norms, engaging in hard-hitting social critique. The Second New Wave kicked off in 1984, building on the foundation set on the first, and launching Hong Kong cinema to new heights of commercial success and international acclaim. The New Wave petered out in the mid-1990s as more Hong Kong filmmakers made their way to the United States (in no small part out of concern about the impending transfer of Hong Kong back to China). Some of the big name filmmakers to come out of the New Wave era include (but are not limited to) Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ann Hui, Wong Kar-wai, and City on Fire director Ringo Lam (1955 - 2019). Born Lam Ling-tung in 1955, the future director originally tried his hand at an acting career, enrolling in the TVP Actors Training Program in 1973. However, Lam's focus moved to behind the camera, leading him to study film at Toronto's University of York. Lam returned to Hong Kong in 1981, and his dire financial straits led him to Cinema City, an independent studio. His first directing gig was completing the supernatural romance Esprit d'Amour (1983), which had been abandoned by its original director, Leung Po-chih, following a blowout with producer Karl Maka. Maka needed someone cheap to take over finishing the film, and Lam desperately needed work, so he accepted the gig. Esprit d'Amour was a solid hit, and Lam directed three more films for Maka, the last of which was the fourth entry in the Aces Go Places series - Lam said it was a favor to Maka. Aces Go Places IV (1986) ended up being such a colossal success that Maka gave Lam carte blanche permission to make whatever kind of film he wanted next, even contributing $4 million HK toward the budget. Lam, inspired by the Indian crime thriller Gaddaar (1973), came up with City on Fire. To star in the film, Lam recruited Chow Yun-fat, whom he had previously befriended while they were both in TVB's actor's training program. Chow made a name for himself on TV, but his early ventures into film met with failure. That all changed with his supporting role in John Woo's gangster melodrama A Better Tomorrow (1986), which went on to shatter box office records and win dozens of awards and nominations, including two Best Actor wins for Chow at both the Golden Horse and the Hong Kong Film Awards. This was only the beginning of Chow's super-stardom, and City on Fire helped put him further along that path. (Due to length, I'm keeping this section short - and besides, I'll be getting back to more movies with Chow Yun-fat one day.) Chow Yun-fat in A Better Tomorrow (1986) WARNING: Here be spoilers! Read further at your own risk! After the murder of an undercover cop, Inspector Lau (Sun Yueh) is forced to bring in another undercover operative, Ko Chow (Chow Yun-fat), to take down a particularly brutal gang of jewelry thieves. Unfortunately, Ko is tired of undercover work, and is traumatized from having to arrest a criminal he befriended during his previous case, haunted by having to betray their trust. Plus, his relationship with his girlfriend Hung (Carrie Ng) is on the rocks, so obviously, this isn't great timing for a new assignment. However, when the thieves strike again, Lau and Ko have no choice but to proceed with the mission, with Ko set up as an arms dealer selling weapons to the thieves for their next job. An undercover gig is dangerous enough, and the crooks are on extra high alert after killing one undercover cop. But to make things even worse for Ko, Inspector Chan (Roy Cheung) is put in charge of a task force investigating the gang, and he identifies Ko as one of the crooks. Chan is determined to arrest Ko, even after Lau informs him that Ko is one of his men, endangering not only Ko, but his mission as well. Plus, Ko finds himself befriending Fu (Danny Lee), leaving him in a position where he'll once again have to betray a trust in order to do his job. While Chow Yun-fat played a supporting role in A Better Tomorrow, here he's in the lead, and he carries the film effortlessly. Despite his character's many flaws (some of which have nothing to do with his role as an undercover cop), Chow's natural charisma and strong acting talents make his character easy to empathize with and root for. Danny Lee, famous for portraying police officers, got to play against type as a criminal instead. Lee was reportedly worried that audiences wouldn't accept him in such a role, but according to Ringo Lam, his previous good guy roles actually helped audiences accept him as a criminal with a sense of honor. Lee and Chow would co-star again in John Woo's The Killer (1989), one of Woo's most renowned works - and yes, Lee played a cop in that film. We get strong performances from the rest of our cast, Sun Yueh in particular as a worn-out honest cop, exhausted from the responsibilities and sacrifices his job entails, and Carrie Ng has some good substance to her role as Ko's girlfriend (although the subtitles in the version I saw made their relationship status at the beginning of the film a bit confusing). Lastly in terms of the acting department, Roy Cheung has a natural smugness to him as the arrogant Inspector Chan, rather than overplaying him and making him too much of a caricature. Unlike John Woo's heavily-stylized action-drama spectacles, Lam took a gritty, realistic approach to the genre, which would be typical of much of his work. According to Lam, in addition to Gaddaar, the film was inspired by a real-life jewelry store robbery, where the thieves escaped despite being surrounded by police by shooting their way out. As Lam himself put it, "It was like chaos, the breakdown of civilization. I wanted to capture that on film." While City on Fire doesn't exactly depict a societal collapse or anything all that cataclysmic, it paints a pretty bleak picture - earnest cops either die or are booted aside in favor of power-trippers, the criminals are a brutal, ruthless lot, living spaces are claustrophobically cramped, and even romantic relationships struggle to stay together. Andrew Lau's cinematography lingers over characters getting shot to death in order to show the brutality of death by gunfire, rather than making the gun fights thrilling. (There are, however, some exciting stunts during Ko's escape from the police, which Chow performed himself.) Teddy Robin Kwan's melancholy musical score, dominated by a jazzy saxophone solo only adds to the film's bleak, melancholy mood. City on Fire was a critical and commercial success in Hong Kong, solidifying Chow's status as an action star. Its most famous legacy is serving as the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's first movie, Reservoir Dogs (1992). Lam would go on to make numerous sequels in name only, continuing to use "____ on Fire" in the title. Lam later made his Hollywood debut with Maximum Risk (1996) starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, the first of several films they'd make together. (Van Damme had specifically requested Lam direct the film.) As for me, while I wouldn't say I enjoyed it on account of its heavy tone, I think this is an excellent film, with strong characters and story as well as vivid cinematography, the visuals lingering in the mind long after I saw the film itself. As of when I'm writing this, it's available through Kanopy, with a Chinese language track and English subtitles if you're anti-dubbing, as I am. (The translation can be a bit clumsy and awkward at times, but it's a minor inconvenience and doesn't get in the way of being able to follow what's going on.) If you like your crime dramas on the grittier side, City on Fire is definitely worth your time, and a decent taste of the best of what Hong Kong cinema has to offer. Definitely make sure to see this one.
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