I viewed this on late night TV and it immediately grabbed me. It was due to its interesting music, shoot outs, superior cinematography and a brilliant performance by Chow-Yun Fat as the undercover agent sent to join a gang headed by the excellent Danny Lee. Only the ending bears comparison to Reservoir Dogs with the rest of the film building up to this moment. In it's own right this is as good as Tarantino's effort and should be seen by as many people.

CITY ON FIRE is not in the mold of A BETTER TOMORROW or FULL CONTACT. It's a drama about the emotional pressures an undercover police officer faces when he is ordered, against his better judgement, to infiltrate a gang of violent, gun-toting jewel robbers.

That Ko Chow (Chow Yun Fat) is having problems with his fiancée makes the situation all the more difficult for him. He's unable to explain why it is he can never keep a date with Hung (Carrie Ng) as only secrecy is keeping him alive. Even his fellow officers don't know he is really an undercover cop and pursue him relentlessly as they (rightly) suspect him of supplying arms to the robbers.

The negative points are that the drama between Ko Chow and Hung is never convincingly explored. Even if Ko Chow couldn't tell Hung that he was having meetings with the leader of the jewel thieves, he could at least tell her something. No wonder she leaves him for a sixty- year-old millionaire.

Also, Ko Chow's deep bond of friendship with Fu (Danny Lee) is a bit easily formed. It just doesn't convince that one conversation between them about their childhoods would make them so close that one would die for the other.

In this respect, the script construction of CITY ON FIRE is a little weak.

However, credit should be given to director/writer Ringo Lam for bringing the theme of misplaced loyalty to the undercover cop genre.

And though RESERVOIR DOGS is criticised here for stealing the core plot elements of CITY ON FIRE, it has to be said that the structure of Taratino's film is far superior to Lam's. But it would be nice to think Quentin had paid Ringo something for using his ideas.

Even before the superb Final Contact (1992-also reviewed) was the first title I viewed by him,I was well aware of Ringo Lam,thanks to how he had inspired QT. Wanting to end my week "Auteurs in '87" run on a strong note, and having heard about the trilogy for years,I got set for Lam to light my fire.

View on the film:

Building on the skill he had displayed in his co-directing debut Esprit D'amour, (1983-also reviewed)and given a free hand by producer Karl Mak to do whatever project he wanted, co-writer/(with Sai-Shing Shum) directing auteur Ringo Lam becomes one of the leading figures of the Heroic Bloodshed sub-genre,with a blistering entry. Continuing to expand on the Jazzy Blues score of D'amour with a vibrant Neo-Noir score from Teddy Robin Kwan, Lam takes debuting cinematographer Andrew Lau Wai-Keung onto the streets of Hong Kong in guerrilla filming style, (a recurring filming technique for Lam) that fires off a rough & tumble sawn-off shotgun atmosphere of Lam's long tracking shots, (which catch the odd side mirror of cars Lam's secretly filming in!) being welded to Heroic Bloodshed slow-motion parting shots, and whip-pans darting towards each thief clearing out their part of shop in the robberies.

Displaying his eye for Neo-Noir for the first time, Lam brings a depth fatal heroism to the bloodshed, dressing Chow in ultra-stylised black and white low-lighting, (lined between his loyalty with the cops,and loyalty to the gang leader) and closely-held two-shots pushing the nervous cops to the very outskirts of the frame/the law. Far more than just being the original Reservoir Dogs, the screenplay by Lam & Sai-Shing Shum holds Chow's feet to the fire as a absolute Noir loner, who must pick at the grey to make his isolating moral choices (a regular theme of Lam's credits.)

Gaining the trust of the gang by a tagged handing over of weapons, the writers take a excellent slow-burn approach to the handing over Chow makes not only of weapons, but loyalty, via new, young hip cop John Chan shoving the steady hands of Inspector Lau away from guiding Chow in the case, leaving Chow open to gaining a closer look at the traditional hand of loyalty lead gangster Fu places on his fellow thieves.

Getting his fingers burnt,Yueh Sun gives a tense, worn down to the bones turn as Lau, whilst Danny Lee brilliantly carries Fu with the confidence of knowing he is the toughest in the room, but aware of times he needs to show his hand. The first in his long collaboration with Lam, Chow Yun-Fat gives a mesmerising performance as Chow, drilling down on Chow's early swagger to a bloodstained, morally blurred wreak,who leaves the city on fire.