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City On Fire (Comparison)
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
A film which many believe to be the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", "City On Fire" is a 1987 Hong Kong actioner staring Chow Yun-Fat ("The Replacement Killers") as Ko Chow, a police officer sent undercover to infiltrate a violent gang of thieves. Chow was attempting to retire from the force after an undercover operation went wrong, but his police chief and uncle convince him to take one more case.
Although many have compared it to "Dogs", Tarantino's picture has taken some elements, but also expanded upon the ideas and offered some original elements of it's own in the exploration of loyalty, both professional and personal. The only piece of the film that doesn't work is the character of Chow's fiancee, who threatens to leave him if he doesn't marry her sooner than later. It seems like an unfortunate plot device that slows down the movie and doesn't seem to fit in the middle of the serious crime thriller that surrounds it.
Those going into "City Of Fire" looking for a great deal of action will likely be dissapointed. There are some well-filmed chase and action sequences throughout the picture, but the majority of the movie plays out more driven by drama than action and thrills. This certainly isn't a dissapointment though, as Chow Yun-Fat is a terrific dramatic actor whose screen presence demands attention, which is apparent again in "City".
Although it won't go down as a favorite, "City Of Fire" does offer some very good performances and it was interesting to see the few scenes that seemed to influence Tarantino's film.
The DVD
VIDEO: "City On Fire" is presented by Miramax/Dimension with a new 1.85:1 anamorphic presentation for this release. Skipping through the Tai Sing edition, this new edition by Miramax offers noticably improved image quality. Sharpness and detail are not too exceptional throughout the presentation, but the picture does look fresher and more well-defined on this edition. Some darker scenes did look rather murky and undefined, but otherwise, the picture looked fine for a 13 year old film.
Problems occasionally appeared, but nothing that I found too objectionable. Some minor grain appeared in some scenes, and print flaws occasionally were noticable. Some minor speckles and marks briefly appear, as do the occasional larger instances of wear. These problems were not consistently scene throughout the movie and are seen in some stretches while others appeared clean (or, at least, cleaner.)
Colors appeared brighter and more vibrant on the Buena Vista release, looking fairly well-rendered and never smeared. This release is an improvement, but still remains somewhat flawed at times.
SOUND: Here's where some viewers will likely be dissapointed with the Buena Vista release. As with their previous DVD editions of Hong Kong releases, they have only provided the Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dubbed version of the movie. Although not the worst Dubbed version of a Hong Kong film that I've ever heard, it still remains rather awkward at times. Although the presentation is in 5.1, this generally remains a sound presentation that's forward-focused, as surrounds are hardly ever used and many scenes are simply center-channel driven. The Tai Seng version does present the original language 5.1 soundtrack.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus. Strangely, one has to click an option on one menu to get to the main menu.
EXTRAS:: The Buena Vista release offers no extras.
Final Thoughts: Fans of "City On Fire" are forced to make a choice with this release - either Buena Vista's new edition with better, if still problematic, image quality or the Tai Seng version with the original language and lower picture quality. Either way you go, "City On Fire" is still worth a look for fans of the genre.
A film which many believe to be the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", "City On Fire" is a 1987 Hong Kong actioner staring Chow Yun-Fat ("The Replacement Killers") as Ko Chow, a police officer sent undercover to infiltrate a violent gang of thieves. Chow was attempting to retire from the force after an undercover operation went wrong, but his police chief and uncle convince him to take one more case.
Although many have compared it to "Dogs", Tarantino's picture has taken some elements, but also expanded upon the ideas and offered some original elements of it's own in the exploration of loyalty, both professional and personal. The only piece of the film that doesn't work is the character of Chow's fiancee, who threatens to leave him if he doesn't marry her sooner than later. It seems like an unfortunate plot device that slows down the movie and doesn't seem to fit in the middle of the serious crime thriller that surrounds it.
Those going into "City Of Fire" looking for a great deal of action will likely be dissapointed. There are some well-filmed chase and action sequences throughout the picture, but the majority of the movie plays out more driven by drama than action and thrills. This certainly isn't a dissapointment though, as Chow Yun-Fat is a terrific dramatic actor whose screen presence demands attention, which is apparent again in "City".
Although it won't go down as a favorite, "City Of Fire" does offer some very good performances and it was interesting to see the few scenes that seemed to influence Tarantino's film.
The DVD
VIDEO: "City On Fire" is presented by Miramax/Dimension with a new 1.85:1 anamorphic presentation for this release. Skipping through the Tai Sing edition, this new edition by Miramax offers noticably improved image quality. Sharpness and detail are not too exceptional throughout the presentation, but the picture does look fresher and more well-defined on this edition. Some darker scenes did look rather murky and undefined, but otherwise, the picture looked fine for a 13 year old film.
Problems occasionally appeared, but nothing that I found too objectionable. Some minor grain appeared in some scenes, and print flaws occasionally were noticable. Some minor speckles and marks briefly appear, as do the occasional larger instances of wear. These problems were not consistently scene throughout the movie and are seen in some stretches while others appeared clean (or, at least, cleaner.)
Colors appeared brighter and more vibrant on the Buena Vista release, looking fairly well-rendered and never smeared. This release is an improvement, but still remains somewhat flawed at times.
SOUND: Here's where some viewers will likely be dissapointed with the Buena Vista release. As with their previous DVD editions of Hong Kong releases, they have only provided the Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dubbed version of the movie. Although not the worst Dubbed version of a Hong Kong film that I've ever heard, it still remains rather awkward at times. Although the presentation is in 5.1, this generally remains a sound presentation that's forward-focused, as surrounds are hardly ever used and many scenes are simply center-channel driven. The Tai Seng version does present the original language 5.1 soundtrack.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus. Strangely, one has to click an option on one menu to get to the main menu.
EXTRAS:: The Buena Vista release offers no extras.
Final Thoughts: Fans of "City On Fire" are forced to make a choice with this release - either Buena Vista's new edition with better, if still problematic, image quality or the Tai Seng version with the original language and lower picture quality. Either way you go, "City On Fire" is still worth a look for fans of the genre.
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