City on Fire (Long hu feng yun, 1987)
Ringo Lam
Hong Kong
100 mins, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)
Before Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee bonded in THE KILLER, they were bonding in this brutal Ringo Lam thriller. There is certainly some chemistry (of the non-homoerotic variety, you sleazy "psychoanalysts") between these two, and although this time the criminal-cop roles are reversed, it works just fine. Set in the crowded, and I mean crowded (i.e. NYC pales in comparison) streets of Hong Kong, the film is a wall-to-wall action replete with stabbings, shoot-outs, explosions, and the occasional humorous or tragic touch. The director really knows his stuff and although he suffers from the same slo-mo affliction that John Woo does, it is not as obvious and therefore not nearly so irritating.
A gang of semi-inept criminals are on a jewelry store robbing spree. Unfortunately, their lack of professionalism always results in many cops arriving at the scene before they have the chance to abscond, with all the entailing consequences. As a rule, a bunch of innocent pedestrians get hurt, so it is not very funny. The beginning of the film is most revealing: an undercover agent is stabbed to death in the middle of a crowded shop, and none of the passersby even bothers to look. This is something you would expect to see in NYC, but apparently it is not an American trait. Anyway, the only passable criminal in this gang is Fu (Danny Lee), who is as savage as needs be.
Ko Chow (Chow Yun-Fat) is also an undercover agent, so deeply undercover in fact, that only his uncle cop knows about it. Although he is tormented by the betrayal that his job often forces him to (he has to turn those criminal friends in, you know), he takes up the task of bringing the robber gang to trial (or death, whichever comes first). He and Fu take to liking each other, and, as it turns out, have many things in common, which further exacerbates Ko Chow's problems with his conscience. His relationship with his fiancee is also falling apart, until the explosive finale puts almost everyone to rest. A final rest.
I liked Danny Lee the first time I saw him in THE KILLER, and Chow Yun-Fat has long been one of my favorite actors (incidentally, he looks a lot like my old roommate). In CITY ON FIRE both manage to portray their conflicted characters without any hint of melodrama that so often accompanies attempts by lesser actors or directors. I particularly enjoyed Yun-Fat when he was fooling around with Huong (Carrie Ng, his girlfriend). His seemingly carefree attitude was excellent and I can see why she was so unnerved and pissed off at the same time. This film is definitely a vehicle for the two principal stars, and they deliver the goods.
The Universe DVD is not too bad at all. In fact, the picture is fine despite some bleeding through and instability. The Cantonese track, as usual, sounds a bit muffled, but is fine. The English subs are easily readable and don't have too many glaring spelling errors (unlike the star bio files in the extras). Since Universe have always been so nice in their aggressive pricing, and because the quality of their releases surpasses most of the Hong Kong competitors, this DVD is the way to own the film.
April 27, 2001. BLS