CITY ON FIRE
(Chinatown Video)
Reviewed by Jonathan
Marshall
Like The Killer, City On Fire is
another Chow Yun Fat / Danny Lee vehicle from the height
of pre-unification Hong Kong action cinema, re-released in a letter-box, wide-screen
format with new subtitles. Where The Killer was directed by John Woo (Face/Off),
COF is from Ringo Lam. Where Woo is all
luscious visual effects, slow-motion explosions, style and blood, Lam is
grimy locations, dishevelled figures and violent grimaces. Where Woo displays
a cinematic virtuosity akin to Scorsese, Michael Mann and
Sergio Leone, Lam’s style is closer to the edgy,
cinema-verite realism of 1970s US cop films. The locations are predominantly cold-lit
police station rooms, or shadowy streets and bars illuminated by Hong Kong’s garish
neon lights. Where Woo beats the audience over the head with his radical
shifts from souped-up orchestras to Hong Kong pop, Lam inserts a sense of
melancholy inevitability into story of the characters’ violent demise using low-key
jazz and some ‘big-mamma’-style blues about making the tough calls on your own.
Like ‘70s action films featuring Steve MacQueen and Al
Pacino (Cruising, Bullit, etc), COF is primarily a
character study, dealing with the conflicting loyalties and sacrifices set into play by Chow’s
assignment as an undercover cop amongst a close-knit band of professional thieves -
violent men with a strong sense of fidelity. The amiable Chow must trade
his affections for his girlfriend for those his situation demands of him. The final
set-piece of the film - with Chow bleeding to death amongst his betrayed
comrades while Lee protects his comrade from the vengeance of the others - provided the
basis for Reservoir Dogs, but do not be misled. In terms of style and content, COF
has little in common with this remake - Tarantino came much closer
to such an aesthetic with his neo-‘70s caper film, Jackie Brown. Unlike many
contemporary action directors, Lam does not fetishize violence, rather in
COF he psychologises it. In joining the classic Hong Kong gangster themes of
masculine ethics with such an aesthetic, Lam has created a modern
classic.
© 2000 Jonathan Marshall
H E R O I C * C I N E M A
http://www.heroic-cinema.com
