Ever since Quentin Tarantino confess that the last half of Reservoir Dogs
was taken directly from Ringo Lam's City On Fire, the film suddenly gain
international recognition,especially among American audiences.
However all the sudden recognition has done more damage than good to this
Ringo Lam classic.
Movie critics began to compare City On Fire to Reservoir Dogs and naturally,
the latter came out as the better film. Let me point out that it's extremely
unfair to compare a Hong Kong film with a Hollywood one,it's just like
oranges and apples.
City On Fire deserves to be judged on it's own right and furthermore it
did came out first before Reservoir Dogs. City On Fire tells the tale of
undercover cop Ko Chow who is forced to question his loyalties after
becoming attached to his criminal colleagues.Matters become even more
difficult when Ko Chow's cover is blown during a jewellery heist.
City On Fire standouts as one of Ringo Lam's finest films,and one of the best
crime drama to come out of Hong Kong.
Ringo Lam takes a different approach to the action genre but focusing on
relationships and male-bonding instead of the action. Ko Chow is a tragic
character who not only has to risk his life working underworld but his
personal life after work suffers as well.Ringo Lam takes time between the
plot to survey the wreckage of Ko's love-life following his devotion to his
proffesion. Ko is faced with the ultimate dilemma when his fiancee forces
him to get engaged when he is close at cracking the case.
Those who enjoy melodramatic action films like
John Woo's
A Better Tomorrow
would love City On Fire but hard-core action fans might have a difficult time
sitting through City On Fire as the action sequences are far and few.
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