One of my all time favorites.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

THE CITY OF VIOLENCE is a solid action film with an engaging, gangster-focused storyline and plenty of interesting characters to keep the viewer's attention. Things kick off with a brutal murder in the street, which leads to the victim's childhood friends reuniting to reminisce about the old days. We learn that each character has gone his own way: one's now a small-time gangster, another a cop. The gradual pursuit and uncovery of the truth eventually leads to violent recriminations for one and all.Interestingly enough, the mystery-style plotting and gangster window-dressing eventually wear off until by the end the film becomes a riotous, ass-kicking extravaganza that bears more than a passing resemble to the infamous 'Crazy 88' action scene in KILL BILL: VOLUME 1. It works: the director contributes plenty of stylish flourishes and the action is well-filmed through, from huge, sprawling street fights early on to the epic bad-assery of the climax. It truly is an excellent ending, lifting what's come before and proving itself a film more than capable of holding its own against bigger productions.

Plot: After a man is killed his four friends seek to find the perpetrators and punish them in their small town but find themselves dragged into a dodgy property deal run by out of town criminals that implicate one of their own.Expecting plot or dialogue from a martial arts film is usually a losing game. There is a plot here and it's easy enough to follow provided you are good at telling Korean faces apart but it's nothing you haven't seen done before. What you're here for is the fights and City of Violence provides them. Yes it is completely unrealistic. Yes the fights are nothing special in themselves. But they are well edited, feature enough visual flourishes to win you over and are laid to a decent score. The result is a picture that never quite grabs your heartstrings like it should but is a lot of fun anyway. If you've ever wanted to watch a goon and a cop fight break dancing martial artists whilst the town lights explode above them or to see a fight set to cheesy 1980s K-Pop then this is your film.

Amusingly violent and funny action story done in a style best described as film noir (plot) meets spaghetti western (music) meet Asian action film. Its the story of an organized crime detective who goes home for the funeral of a boyhood friend. Sensing something was wrong about the case he and another friend begin to investigate and find that the city they grew up in has changed and that somethings are better left undiscovered.This is a neat little film. Its not the be all and end all, but it fires along in its own bloody way for 90 entertaining minutes. The dialog is witty and is the sort of thing you wish you and your friends would come up with. The characters are also the sort of people you know and that familiarity helps make it easy for you to ride along as the plot unfolds, largely as you expect it will. The action is quite good but it is often bloody, so you may not want to watch those parts if you don't like the red stuff. This movie is a great deal of fun in the right frame of mind. Worth a look.(The film reminds me of what Quentin Tarantino might produce were he not insistent on making references and paying homage to obscure little films. Its a thought that I had prior to the end fight which reminded me, in away, of the House of Blue Leaves segment from the first Kill Bill. For the record I like the sequence here better since it plays more real and doesn't go on and on and on)

Two films for the price of one, THE CITY OF VIOLENCE: STAND BY ME by way of DUEL OF THE IRON FIST. The director's cinemanship (my term for "cinematic craftsmanship") is topnotch: he does the "gutwork" (laying the emotional groundwork that any movie worth its salt must evince) and delivers, in the end, a side-by-side/back-to-back toe-to-toe throwdown the likes of which we've rarely seen (and, like a John Woo "gun fu" classic at its best, THE CITY OF VIOLENCE does indeed deliver). The matter-of-fact murderer delivers the best line: "Your sense of right... was all wrong." If you like all-out action when it comes to on screen fight scenes, you'll love THE CITY OF VIOLENCE.