City on Fire by Ringo Lam (1987)
Ringo Lam’s City on Fire is perhaps best known for being the movie that Quentin Tarantino ripped off for 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. And while that’s technically true, it’s also wildly overstated, and actually diminishes both films. For starters, City on Fire is far more concerned with the build-up to the final robbery-gone-wrong, whereas Reservoir Dogs focuses on the aftermath of said robbery, as the gangsters try to identify the rat in their midst. And while Reservoir Dogs is an ensemble piece, City of Fire is primarily focused on Kam-wah (Chow Yun-fat), an undercover cop who’s stressed out, run ragged, and just wants to retire. But out of loyalty, he agrees to one more assignment, which is when he meets Fu (Danny Lee), a hardened thief who Kam-wah starts to befriend. Much of the film focuses on Kam-wah trying to balance the various aspects of his life, most noticeably his relationship with his fickle girlfriend (Carrie Ng), while the demands of being an undercover cop threaten to overwhelm him. There’s also an interesting side-plot involving Kam-wah’s aging superior who’s threatened by a younger rival on the force. Although it doesn’t reach the operatic heights of John Woo’s films — Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee would reunite two years later in Woo’s The Killer — City on Fire possesses an arresting (npi) atmosphere all its own that’s enhanced by Teddy Robin Kwan’s moody score.
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