grantss Ko Chow is about to resign from the police force when he is asked to take on one more case. He is to go undercover in a gang that is robbing jewellery stores. He accepts the task and successfully infiltrates the gang. It is a very dangerous mission, not just because the gang might discover his true identity but because many of the police suspect he may well be a criminal.The movie that inspired Tarantino's superb Reservoir Dogs, and, as it turns out, that's the only possible reason to watch City On Fire. Quite mediocre: random, padded script that only really finds a focus towards the end. Poor direction and performances, resulting in some pretty cringeworthy scenes. The domestic stuff involving Chow Yun Fat, and anything where he is around a woman, is very embarrassing. Hammy acting, by just about everyone concerned, throughout. Don't model your mannerisms on Charlie Chaplin when you're doing drama...Worst of all, it bares very resemblance to Reservoir Dogs. Only in the last 15 minutes or so can you see where Tarantino got the idea for Reservoir Dogs from, and even then the similarities are only in the broader plot development. Ending is not anywhere near as powerful as Reservoir Dogs and the general tone is not anywhere near as gritty.Quite poor and not worth watching, even if you are a Reservoir Dogs fan.

coryspencer666 City on Fire is another classic Hong Kong cinematic experience, but Reservoir Dogs is definitely not a rip off. People question Tarantino's originality because of this film, but other than the similarities in the ending gunpoint scene and the 'undercover cop' story their different movies entirely.City on Fire focuses on one man and only one man, we follow his struggle through the intensity and risk of being undercover and the slightly less focused point of balancing work and relationships. Yun Fat Chow is again outstanding, from the Hong Kong cinema I have seen there is no one quite like that man, and in City on Fire he really does show that he is a leading man and not a supporting one. His performance is up their with Hard Boiled and that is saying something.One thing Hong Kong crime thrillers seem to do so well is music and action, and City on Fire really does mix the slow paced, relaxing jazz with the powerful action and grittiness of the characters and plot.It's no wonder Tarantino got his 'inspiration' from this film because its a good watch with strong acting from the lead roll and also captures Hong Kong perfectly especially the underbelly of the crime world. If you're put off by subtitled films then don't be because you're missing out on great cinema.

david-sarkies At first I thought that this movie was a little slow, but the problem was that the recording was quite bad, so it pulled the quality of this movie down. It is quite slow in parts and is very different from the namesake Prison on Fire. Where as Prison on Fire is an action film, City on Fire is a thriller. The dark setting, the jazz background music, gives the feel of New Orleans, and the movie come across as Film Noir.An undercover cop is killed in a jewel heist and another deep undercover cop is asked to infiltrate the gang and help the police stop them. The cop, unfortunately, already betrayed somebody that he was watching. He had built a deep relationship with this person, but he had to betray him because it was his job. As such he has decided against continuing as a police officer. Unfortunately his supervisor does not want him to resign yet and convinces him to go on one more assignment.This movie is a cops and robbers movie with a twist. With the robbers it is one last job and that is it, but the big job always fails and ends up dead. In this film, the robbers know that there is never going to be any last job, they are going to be doing it until they die. Instead it is the police officer who goes on that last job.As usual the police officer is struggling with his relationships. Instead of him wanting to do his job, he would rather leave his job and spend time with the woman that he loves. He continues chasing her during the movie but if his job does not interrupt their relationship, his family does. He is also under pressure from the other police departments who either do not realise or do not care that he is an undercover cop. Rather they think that he is corrupt and want to deal with him appropriately.Though he tries to pull out of the scene and settle down, he keeps on being dragged back in. This is his fatal flaw, the fact that he lives a double life, a life that is dangerous if others discover this double feature. If the criminals discover that he is a cop then he is likely to be killed.There are a number of interesting ideas in the movie. One is that the criminal knows that he will always be a criminal. The more money he gets the more he will spend and the sooner he will need to commit another crime. One criminal claims that he does not hate cops because it is their job to go after people like him. As such he will not hate the police officer for his job, but rather treat him as another working man. He earns his living by robbing jewelry stores while the police officer earns his living by arresting criminals.City on Fire is a dark, tragic movie that looks at the pain of the life of an undercover cop. Here the life is not glorified, but rather dirt real. It is a style that I wish to be influenced by because of the stark reality that the film portrays. A stark reality that people hide behind the illusion of television, and a reality that is broken open in movies like the Truman Show and Edward Scissorhands.

Mike Garcia Quentin Trantino stole the plot of this masterpiece to make his own vision of the story on the acclaimed Reservoir Dogs, in my opinion much worst than this. Ringo Lam is a master on filmmaking, in this film he builds a story of friendship and betray and a new vision of the crime world..Chow yun fat is amazing as always that he works on China, his character an undercover cop who finally become friend with one of the guys that he must betray. Danny Lee's character has blind faith on chow's until the very end when he discovers that the one who was his friend is also his worst enemy. This film is one of my all time favorite, the action, the plot, the acting everything is great. a must seen movie