A Hong Kong crime thriller famous over here for one reason - it was supposedly the main inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. So just how much did the fledgling US auteur nick? Not as much as you might expect. Basically the beginning and the end are recognisable Dog artefacts - they include the "let's go to work" scene, but far less iconic here and without the black suits and colour-coded criminal names - and the ending in which, again the undercover cop reveals himself in a pool of blood to a crim. Tarantino added reams of imaginative, tangential Elmore Leonard-style dialogue, lots of tension, hulking Michael Madsen in a career-best performance, a scene-stealing ear, Steelers Wheel and an extra 17 pints of blood.
City of Fire, made by the splendidly monikered Ringo Lam, can't match all that, but it's an enjoyable crime thriller in its own right, with a very young looking Chow Yun-Fat (it was made in 1987) as the undercover cop who wants out, an inter-gang fight of Bowyer v Dyer intensity, and some skilful broad comedy as Chow balances his duty with an impatient bride to be - the job keeps getting in the way of his wedding to feisty girlfriend Carrie Ng. It's probably an influence on Hong Kong's splendid Infernal Affairs films as well as Tarantino, and it makes excellent use of Hong Kong's gaudy main street Nathan Road, so neon-bright that pilots were apt to mistake it for a runway before the new airport got built.
