Customer Reviews

City on Fire [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I first saw this gangsters and gunplay epic a few years back late one night on television. From that moment I decided to purchase the film on DVD. When I eventually got a player, years later, it was with giddy excitment that I popped this title into the tray. Unfortunately, this DVD showcases perfectly what can happen when little care is taken in the mastering of a film. Now, i'm DEFINITELY NOT one of these people who whines when the picture quality isn't perfect and other such things, but when I saw this DVD I had to write this review to instruct people NOT to buy this version of the film. So, I will now list the problems this DVD has: 1. The Subtitles, they are TERRIBLE, they were obviously done by a person who did not have even a 20% grip of the english language. Literally, they don't make any sense in places. Secondly, they disappear far too quickly. I'm not a slow reader but you'll be struggling to keep up. 2. The soundtrack is terrible. I could be wrong on this point as I had not seen the film in years, but I got the feeling that the Cantonese soundtrack had been dubbed over with a Chinese one, including new sound effects which are disasterous. The bottom line is that an amazing film has been ruined by these two faults. If it weren't for the fact that the film is so good, I would have given it 1 star. This review may be hard to stomach for the fans of this film but please heed my words, I am a fan of this film too. If there is another version available, please e-mail me.

This movie is primarily known in America as the film on which Quentin Tarrantino's RESERVOIR DOGS was based. That alone makes it a must-see, but it also stands on its own as a classic example of Hong Kong action. Honor, loyalty, and savagery come together to create a real powerhouse. Fat plays an undercover cop assigned to infiltrate a gang of jewel theives. He befriends Lee, a member of the gang, while at the same time trying to hold onto a disintegrating relationship with his girlfriend/fiance. Not only does Fat's job as a cop interfere with his home life, but he feels increasingly guilty about betraying Lee. Fate and bureaucratic incompetence combine to make the gang's final heist a bloodbath, in which Fat is forced to participate. In a chase/shoot out scene reminiscent of the end of DePalma's SCARFACE, bullets fly and blood flows in the streets of Hong Kong's diamond district. Fat finally tells Lee of his betrayal, but not in time to save either of them. This is a must-see for fans of Tarrantino, Hong Kong actioners, or great caper-flicks! Sadly, the subtitles are pretty pathetic ("No poiny gun boss" is among my favorites), and I was really disappointed that they didn't re-do them for the DVD (I've shelled out a total of about $80 to get this on VHS, and later on DVD, and I'd like to be reading complete sentences for that kind of money). That having been said, this is a GREAT movie! See it!

If you order the Dimension/Disney version (which has a big blue Chow Yun-Fat face on the cover and a picture of a city on fire. Get it? city - on - fire. Yes, Disney does think you are that simpleminded) you get the version with English dubbing only. If you get the Tai Seng version (with the faces of three actors and Chinese writing on the cover) you get the vastly superior original version with subtitles. They cost the same but the Tai Seng version is so much better. Do yourself a favor and get that one.

I give the Disney/Dimension version 1 star and the Tai Seng version 5 stars.

The delicate paranoia, the gaping loneliness, the schizophrenic glamour. In his watershed crime classic, the scorsese-damaged "City on Fire", nothing interests Ringo Lam more than the knotty moral and emotional tangles of the undercover life. Chow Yun Fat plays Ko Chow, an undercover cop who infiltrates an enclave of jewel thieves and eventually gets sucked into an undertow of malice. Pretty soon, the line between what's prefab and what's true to life obscures to a blur and the secret identity becomes the alter ego. It is this precise moment that "City on Fire" snipes for dramatic grist. Navigating this hyperkinetic slalom of bullets, betrayal and broken hearts with all the cunning facility of a mastermind, there's a reason why Lam was name-checked by Hollywood, alongside John Woo and Tsui Hark. And it's not just because Quentin Tarantino tactlessly shoplifted chunks of "City on Fire" chapter and verse to surplus his meal ticket to Hollywood, "Reservoir Dogs". ( Indeed, Hollywood pundits have chosen to sweep this henious incident under the carpet or write it off as some kind of homage or the other). Lam is no castoff. And no John Woo parrot by any stretch. Woo has plied these dire straits before, in "Hardboiled" ,also with Chow Yun and a pre-Cannes Tony Leung. But "City on Fire" is a more feral, more raw, less heroic and ultimately more tragic picture. Far from just another "Honor Among Thieves" rehab, it upped the ante of your routine cops and robbers melee. And , more than ten years down the line, still strengthens the argument for Lam as more than a high-impact action specialist. Simply put, a director on fire.

I would like to give this version 5 stars, i love the movie, but this is the Dimension release which only offers an English language dub. If that's OK by you, then this is the cheaper version, but if you are a purist like me, you'll want the Cantonese/Mandarin version with English subtitles.

OK, the cover to my DVD is slightly different from the one picture on amazon, but I imagine that this is the same release. THE ENGLISH SUBTITLES ARE AWFUL! Yeah, dubbed versions of Hong Kong crime are bad, but at least you can follow the action. The English subtitles are godawful- broken english, badly timed, often confusing, and it gives me the feeling that I'm missing half of the movie. My recommendation is to rent a dubbed copy of this film before seeing the subtitled version. That way, you'll know what's going on, and be able to enjoy the film as it was intended. I give the DVD 2 stars only for the subtitles- it is a beautiful adaptation to DVD from an image perspective...

Ok, tarantino has the dialogue. But no one can doubt how blatant a rip off "Reservoir Dogs" was from this film. Tarantino's film is broken to basics and uses stylistic violence, Lam's films is a police action fare (he's the HK master). What I love about Lam's films are the realism, whereas John Woo (my fave) is highly stylized. All that considered, City On Fire is the tragic story of Ko Chow, A HK undercover cop who blurs the line between right & wrong, and loyalty while working undercover to bring down a jewlery robbing syndicate. A word of note for DVD fans, the picture quality of this DVD and sound quality are a perfect transfer! It looks and sounds fantastic!

The information available in one of the reviews (referring to the better subtitling in the Disney edition) is incorrect. This editon only has the dubbed English language sound track. What a waste.

This 1987 Ringo Lam classic reverses the roles of Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee as later seen in the Killer. The film is dated somewhat, but still shows Hong Kong cinema at the height of its energy and Lam intensifies the action with strong, inventive directing. Chow Yun Fat is as always brilliant in the film, while Lee dutifully portrays the antagonist. As a note, Tarantino used this film as the basis for his first film "Resevoir Dogs".

While this movie may not be in the same league as some of the classic Chow Yun Fat thrillers (The Killer, Hard-Boiled, Full Contact, for example), this is still a decent action film. The interplay between the characters is, unfortunately, cliched and sometimes ludicrous (the scene in the cemetery, for example), but the assured direction, complex storyline, and gritty realism more than make up for it; the jewelry heist and the nihilistic, bullet-riddled ending are particularly well-staged. The DVD I have is the (badly) dubbed version, which sounds like it was done by a third-rate comedian locked in a closet. The print of the film, however, is clear and sharp (I had seen this on videotape several years ago, and remember it as being somewhat grainy), though it did seem sometimes as if there was a little jumpiness from shot to shot in some scenes.