Ringo Lam Ling-tung’s 1987 crime film City on Fire is one of the most influential films in Hong Kong history. The movie about triads and the police pursuing them, which stars Chow Yun-fat as an undercover cop who bonds with the gangster he is trailing (played by Danny Lee Sau-yin), all while trying to negotiate a troubled personal life, is a realistic riposte to the romanticised crime dramas of John Woo Yu-sum. Shot on location, the film is also a snapshot of Hong Kong life in the 1980s. The Post talked about City on Fire ’s importance with film historian and novelist Grady Hendrix, during a break in the publicity tour for his book How to Sell A Haunted House . How did Lam come to make City on Fire? Lam had three romantic comedies under his belt when he got a chance to direct the fourth instalment of the goofy Aces Go Places franchise. It was a big hit, and production house Cinema City gave him permission to make anything he wanted – and what Lam wanted to make was a crime film. City on Fire was the result. Why Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat’s hopes of Hollywood success were dashed Even though it didn’t turn him into a huge director (his next movie, Prison on Fire, would do that) or blow up at the box office (again, Prison on Fire ) it won him respect, and the best director and best actor awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It was also a kind of shadow to John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow , which had come out the year before and become a zeitgeist-influencing blockbuster. What effect did it have on his career? City on Fire sent Lam’s career in a new direction, served as a showcase for his talent, and outlined the style Lam would spend the next few decades refining: action shot on location, savage car stunts, intense dual performances at the heart of the film, and realistic dialogue. How does the male bonding between Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee in City on Fire and in Woo’s The Killer differ? The Killer is a fantasy, and the fact that it’s designed to be a fantasy is what caused producer Tsui Hark, who wanted a more realistic film, and director John Woo, who wanted to make everything more romantic, to part ways for a while. The Kille r offers an idealised portrait of hing dai , that bond of brotherhood that transcends your loyalty to authority, your family or even your god, in favour of loyalty to your brother. It’s true and strong, and powerful and good. But City on Fire is far more realistic in showing how hing dai can be exploited, how triads use it to keep their members obeying orders without question. Even worse, Chow Yun-fat’s cop exploits the simple-minded brotherly loyalty of Danny Lee’s character to gain his trust and then betray him. You could consider Woo’s The Killer to be the bright, golden sun and City on Fire to be its dark, clotted shadow. Was City on Fire an influential film? City on Fire is a classic, and while John Woo’s heroic bloodshed movies may have overshadowed it at the box office and overseas in the 1980s and ’90s, I’ve never seen a list of “Hong Kong’s Greatest Films” that doesn’t include it. Reservoir Dogs is an uncredited remake of City on Fire only with less charismatic actors Grady Hendrix, film historian I think Woo’s image of heroism and chivalry is easier to consume and comprehend, so his films are more popular, whereas Lam is selling a more subtle, sneaky, twisted kind of poison. It’s harder to digest but it stays with you longer. How realistic is it? When City on Fire came out, the Big Circle Gangs were conducting smash-and-grab robberies and shooting up the streets of Hong Kong. City on Fire is based very closely on the Time Watch Company robbery in 1984, which was one of these high-calibre robberies. Lam attended the trial of the criminals and, as he said: “I found out they didn’t dress well, and everybody looked like a loser.” Lam’s older brother Nam Yin, who would write Prison on Fire , had a deep knowledge of triad life, and Lam tried to embrace a realist tradition, wanting to depict the life he saw rather than one he dreamed about. This puts him in direct contrast to John Woo, who made aspirational movies about heroism. Lam makes downbeat movies about real criminals. Danny Lee, who plays the undercover cop’s triad brother, was already a big star before he made the film. Danny Lee was a Shaw Brothers headliner almost from the moment he started working for them, and he had starred in three of their weirdest movies, Bruce Lee & I (a Bruce Lee knock-off), Mighty Peking Man (a King Kong knock-off), and Super Inframan (an Ultraman knock-off). Lee won best actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his lead role in Law with Two Phases . In 1987, the same year as City on Fire , he started his production company, Magnum, and under their banner he’d produce dozens of cop films. Lee wanted to be a policeman growing up and would play them more and more as his career progressed until he almost exclusively depicted police officers. He’s never been a flashy actor, always more of a solid leading man who radiates competence and professionalism. How did Lam and cinematographer Andrew Lau Wai-keung go about depicting Hong Kong locations in City on Fire? Hong Kong has two big shooting traditions: shooting on soundstages, which is more associated with Mandarin-language filmmaking and the posh Shaw Brothers and Cathay studios; and shooting on location, which is more associated with the lower-budget Cantonese-language film industry and which was embodied in dozens of scrappy little studios. Ringo Lam definitely works in that Cantonese-language tradition and he’s always felt like preserving Hong Kong’s cityscape on film is part of his mandate. He talks a lot about the rush of energy his movies get shooting on location without permits, saying that it makes his cameramen work faster and take more risks. How Ringo Lam’s Full Alert blends action with premonition of 1997 handover There are several famous sequences in City on Fire that showcase Hong Kong, but for Hongkongers none carries quite the same charge as Chow Yun-fat’s run down Nathan Road from Cheong Lok Street to Kimberley Road as he tries to reach the marriage licence bureau on time, giving viewers a tour of Tsim Sha Tsui circa 1987. How did City on Fire influence Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs? Reservoir Dogs is an uncredited remake of City on Fire only with less charismatic actors. It plays to Quentin Tarantino’s strengths as a writer who’s comfortable with structural gameplaying and delivers blazing dialogue. But the movies pretty much match, plot point by plot point, except one is more concerned with the actors and story ( City on Fire ) and the other is more concerned with being a showcase for its director and writer ( Reservoir Dogs ). How has the film weathered over the years? As the years pass, City on Fire feels more essential, with its jaundiced view of a police force that functions as a legal gang and demonstrates a lack of concern for average citizens; and criminal bosses who manipulate the heroic code of brotherhood and loyalty among thieves to turn its least powerful members into cannon fodder. A film in which two powerful and heavily armed organisations clash and leave average people bleeding out on the floor while they pursue financial gain – it can’t help but look like it’s predicting the future of Hong Kong. In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook