CITY ON FIRE is a rough and ready crime thriller from celebrated Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, featuring Chow Yun Fat in another of his star-making performances. This time around, Chow is a renegade cop (of course) who finds himself embroiled in the hunt for a gang of violent jewel thieves. Eventually he's coerced into going undercover and joining the gang himself, with violent consequences.This is a noticeably lower budgeted production than much later fare by Lam, but the rough and tumble nature of the story means it doesn't matter and in some cases the gritty, shoot-on-the-street style of filming makes it more realistic than a slicker production might have been. The various heist sequences are very well filmed, and there's a neat turn from Danny Lee as the leader of the gang; the two would later pair up to famed effect in Woo's THE KILLER. Tarantino loved this film so much he borrowed copiously from the climax for his own RESERVOIR DOGS.

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.

Chow Yun-Fat stars in one of Hong Kong Director Ringo Lam's earlier action films: City On Fire. He plays a police detective persuaded by his superiors to go undercover one more time before he leaves the force. In so doing, he has his uncle (his superior) to deal with, as well as the regular police, who are moving in on the gang Chow infiltrates simultaneously. He also contends with a girlfriend, in a forgettable subplot, who wants him to make up his mind about marrying her. The characters are short on development, but Chow Yun-Fat impresses as the man that wants to leave police work, only to face conflicting loyalties between his job and the gang he infiltrates; he carries the whole film. Danny Lee, as Fu, is the gang member Chow befriends within the gang. The rest of the gang members do not stand out, nor does the girl that plays Chow's girlfriend. The film is stylish with violent action and excellent gun play characteristic of Hong Kong action films, accompanied by a pulsating musical score that accentuates the action. The film takes a while to get the plot moving, but once it does, it clicks. The last half hour is especially outstanding, as action, cinematography, music, and style converge in an abandoned warehouse. This is the famous scene that inspired Quentin Tarantino to make Reservoir Dogs. **1/2 of 4 stars.

When an undercover officer is killed after being found out by a brutal gang, his inspector approaches ex-police officer Chow to renew his links and get himself into the gang. Chow supplies the gang with guns to prove he is `one of them', however as the job approaches, a special unit of the police begins to close in on the gang and put Chow at risk.I didn't watch this film because it was the inspiration for Reservoir Dogs. No, I watched it because I'm a big Chow Yun Fat fan and I'm watching some of his films to get me in the mood for Bullet-Proof Monk. This film is a really good introduction to Hong Kong style, the focus is very much on the style without too much in the way of underlying currents and such. For information, Reservoir Dogs really only focuses on the final part of the film, whereas Longhu Fengyun covers longer story where we always know who the cop is. This takes away a little bit from the thrills but the film makes it up with style.Everyone has cool sunglasses, the direction is slick and the action moves quite well. The final standoff is good but generally the film is quite exciting and moves along smoothly. Chow Yun Fat is a great star and here he shows why he is such a big star. He has emotional depth yet is comical and likeable, he is tough and an action star but yet he is not some distant muscle-bound hunk that is outside of reality. The rest of the cast are all good but it is difficult to judge performances when it is all subtitled (I find it hard anyway), however there are no weak links.Overall this is a stylish thriller from Hong Kong. It is stylish but doesn't fall into the HK formula with slow-mo and such. Don't watch it because you're a Tarantino fan – watch it because it's a solid crime thriller in it's own right.