Why Hong Kong filmmaker Ringo Lam is an angry man

Now 61, master of big-screen action who influenced a generation of directors including Quentin Tarantino, feels ‘powerless and very angry’ as he contemplates mortality in the wake of his mother's death, and has poured that into his latest film

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Published: 5:30pm, 22 Nov 2016Updated: 5:40pm, 23 Nov 2016

There are at least two sides to Ringo Lam Ling-tung’s legacy in the popular consciousness – and one is, naturally, as the director behind some of the finest crime thrillers in Hong Kong cinema.

If accolades such as the lifetime achievement award he received at the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival weren’t proof enough of his stature, Lam’s fans could always fall back on the oft-cited trivia that his classic heist drama City on Fire (1987) – with its blend of riveting action, gritty violence and fluid sense of morality – has inspired a generation of filmmakers, among them Quentin Tarantino, whose 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs was thematically similar.

The other Lam is considerably less feted.

Since his career reached an impasse with the straight-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle In Hell (2003), this less salubrious version of Lam has remained a reclusive figure for more than a decade, only coming out to make a segment for the triptych Triangle (2007) at the urging of fellow veterans and firm friends, Johnnie To Kei-fung and Tsui Hark.

Lam’s comeback feature, Wild City (2015), was solid if unmemorable fare, while his upcoming film, Sky on Fire (out in Hong Kong and mainland China this week), looks set to be slaughtered by critics.

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