Best movie of this year hands down!

Purely Joyful Movie!

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

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 a gritty and bombastic action packed thriller and the first in the "On Fire" series by director Ringo Lam. The "On Fire" series also includes Prison On Fire 1 and 2(which also star Chow Yun Fat) and School On Fire. Roy Cheung appears in all four films and in this installment he is an overzealous cop at odds with Chow Yun Fat's character (Ko Chow)who is an undercover cop infiltrating a gang of violent jewel thieves. Chow Yun Fat gives a scathing and electrifying performance of an undercover cop who's life and career is on the edge of collapse. From his strained relationship with his girlfriend, to his reluctant undercover work with Danny Lee's gang and dealing with Roy Cheung's group of cops following and chasing him all over Hong Kong. Ko Chow is a cop with a lot on his plate, trying to make everything work and stay alive in the process. In a rare appearance as a criminal, Danny Lee is great as a charismatic but violent jewel robber with a code of honor. He and Chow Yun Fat have great chemistry and work well here and a year later in John Woo's classic The Killer. Make no mistake, City On Fire is also a classic. Ringo Lam, along with John Woo are ace filmmakers. Their styles are different however. Ringo's style is generally darker and rooted more in reality. John Woo is more over the top with a larger emphasis on action. Chow Yun Fat worked frequently with both directors, giving amazing performances for both parties. City On Fire is a very well made and brutal film and if you enjoy gritty crime thrillers, I give City On Fire the highest recommendation.

Chow yun fat made this movie for me. It's one of those movies that makes me see why Hollywood was kissing his butt for a while. He was very charming, funny, and dramatic. I saw some of this in the movies he had done for America, but never in this extended range.This movie is centered around Chow yun fat who plays a cop whose in deep deep cover attempting to balance his real life relationship with his girlfriend with being toss in to deeper cover by his superiors to catch a criminal.If this sounds like every Kung Fu film made in the 80's with an English dub, that's because it is, but unlike the police Drama Police Story in which Jacky Chan plays a man dedicated to his heroics to a fault, Chow yun Fat plays a man who wants out but his boss needs to keep him in as he's the only one who can capture the main villain. adding to this is the fact that it's not clear to some in the police department whose side he's on, which adds to the drama.The movie also expresses some of the gun fu violence that chow yun fat became famous for, but not on the level as some of his others like Hard boiled or A Better Tomorrow, but it's there.I would recommend everyone see this police drama and let chow yun fat prove to you what a great leading man he was at his peak.

To anyone who's taken a few steps into the wonderful world of internet film discussion, the title "City on Fire" should set alarm bells ringing due to its unfavourable connection with Reservior Dogs. Unfavourable because people now seem to be incapable of judging the film on its own without referring the Chow Yun Fat as "The Mr. Orange guy". So this film has a sort of Holy Grail status amongst Tarantino's critics, which tends to mean its faults and individual merits go equally overlooked. So I'll do my best to review it from a neutral perspective.As always, Chowy is great quality in the lead role, with a much more detailed character than Tim Roth had (argh!). He maintains the effective "heroic bloodshed" chemistry with his frequent co star Danny Lee that would be used most notably two years later in Woo's "The Killer". The rest of the cast are perfectly fine as they dance around the two stars, and Lam's direction avoids the OTT va va voom of his later works such as "Full Contact", staying suitably restrained for the fairly by-the-numbers plot. However the action is what Lam is usually noted for, and he handles the gunplay here very effectively with his usual stylish skill.At times, the film feels like it's weighing itself down with too much baggage, mainly with the romance between Chow and his fiancée. However, this ultimately serves to up the tragedy of the final scenes and make Chowy's character seem a lot more human than the roles he is most noted for in the west, such as Hard Boiled's Tequila.Overall, "City on Fire" may not standout in the careers of anyone involved, however it is an effective, enjoyably action drama. And to the question everyone asks, while it may lack discussions about Madonna and Steeler's Wheel numbers, at its centre it has a beating heart, something that seemed to be lost in translation when Tarantino made his breakthrough hit.