The Cinematheque

“The quintessential undercover-cop/heist movie … A film full of brutal realism, and a career-high performance from star Chow Yun-fat.”

Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

One of the seminal works of the heroic bloodshed genre, Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, released just six months after John Woo’s blockbuster A Better Tomorrow, cemented Chow Yun-fat as an action superstar and famously afforded Quentin Tarantino the inspiration for Reservoir Dogs. Lam’s own inspiration—the 1984 heist of the Time Watch Company, which culminated in a police shoot-out—is indicative of the film’s more grounded, world-mirroring designs when compared to the almost mythical register of Woo’s crime picture. Shot on the neon-canopied streets of Hong Kong and set to a sultry saxophone score, the film follows deep-cover cop Ko Chow (Chow) as he infiltrates a syndicate of jewelry thieves while being hunted by an inspector oblivious to the sting operation. Danny Lee plays the gangster loyal to Chow, an echo of a former associate the informant betrayed. City on Fire initiated a cycle of ​“On Fire” films by Lam exploring the underbelly of Hong Kong society.

In Cantonese with English subtitles

Best Director, Actor
Hong Kong Film Awards 1988