City on Fire (1987 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

City on Fire
Hong Kong Legends DVD cover
Directed by	Ringo Lam
Produced by	Karl Maka Ringo Lam
Written by	Ringo Lam
Starring	Chow Yun-Fat Sun Yueh Danny Lee Carrie Ng Roy Cheung
Music by	Teddy Robin Kwan
Cinematography	Wai Keung Lau
Editing by	Ming Lam Wong
Release date(s)	February 13, 1987
Running time	98 min.
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese Mandarin
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

City on Fire (Chinese:龍虎風雲;Simplified Chinese: 龙虎风云, Pinyin: Lóng hǔ fēng yún) is a gritty and stylish 1987 Hong Kong action film directed by Ringo Lam, and starring Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee and Sun Yueh. Following A Better Tomorrow (1986) it helped establish Chow's popularity as an action star in Asia, and to a lesser degree the West.

[edit] Plot Summary

Ko Chow (Chow Yun Fat) is an undercover cop who is under pressure from all sides. His boss, Inspector Lau (Yueh Sun), wants him to infiltrate a gang of ruthless jewel thieves; in order to do this he must obtain some handguns; his girlfriend (Carrie Ng) wants him to commit to marriage or she will leave Hong Kong with another lover; and he is being pursued by other cops who are unaware that he is a colleague.

What is more Chow would rather quit the force. He feels guilty about having to betray people who have become his friends, even if they do happen to be killers, drug dealers, loan sharks and protection racketeers: "I do my job, but I betray my friends".

To add to his problems, he begins to bond with Fu (Danny Lee), a member of the gang.

[edit] Cultural Influence

City on Fire is Ringo Lam's most celebrated work. It saw a surge in popularity following the 1992 release of Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino has cited it as one of his favourite movies and an influence in his own film, which borrows several key plot elements and scenes, most notably the famous Mexican standoff near the end of the film.

[edit] External links

• City on Fire at the Internet Movie Database
• An article by Ron Lim on the similarities between City on Fire and Reservoir Dogs
• A review from hkfilm.net that also outlines the similarities between both movies.]