It’s no secret that Quentin Tarantino was largely inspired by Ringo Lam’s City on Fire (1987) when writing the script for his debut feature Reservoir Dogs (1992), ushering in an increased interest in Lam’s films, as well as those of his peers, in the West. It took nearly a decade for City on Fire to become legitimately available on home video in the United States, which it did via Dimension—the genre film focused arm of Miramax, the primary home for many of Tarantino’s post-Reservoir Dogs projects—in 2001 on both VHS and DVD. That Lam’s film, and so many other Hong Kong imports, remained difficult to access throughout the 1990s, and many subsequent years, only increased their cachet among the most ardent cinephiles.
By the time most domestic viewers got a chance to set their eyes on City of Fire, Tarantino had directed two more features—Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997)—and established himself as the consummate video store sage, referencing and even re-releasing (via his own distribution imprint, Rolling Thunder Pictures) films that he admired. As many of these Tarantino favorites were re-released, or reappraised, following his fame, they were often contextualized by the press and/or their own marketing with Tarantino’s work. This included City on Fire.
In hindsight, it’s unsurprising that critics reviewing the home video release of City on Fire in 2001 largely focused on its relationship to Reservoir Dogs. After all, Tarantino was much more of a household name in the US than Ringo Lam was, even after Lam made his way to Hollywood to direct films starring Jean Claude Van-Damme. But the reality is that Reservoir Dogs is really not all that similar to City on Fire in structure, tone, or narrative beats. Both films concern a heist and an undercover cop, but function on largely different wavelengths.
Reservoir Dogs opens in the aftermath of a heist gone wrong with one of the men responsible (Tim Roth) bleeding out in the backseat of the car. The rest of the film unfolds in a derelict warehouse with the aforementioned would-be robber laying in a puddle of blood for much of the film’s runtime. As fate would have it, he is later revealed to be an undercover cop, which only adds further tension to an already catastrophic situation. In contrast, City on Fire saves all of this for its last act. The character played by Tim Roth is the lead character in Lam’s film as well, but we are introduced to him (Chow Yun-Fat) as a cop from the outset, with his deception of a criminal unit being a focal point in the film.
While the influence of City on Fire is apparent in Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino isn’t merely copying Lam’s film to create a westernized remake but, instead, reappropriating a portion of it as a tribute to the heroic bloodshed genre that developed in the ‘80s in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong filmmakers, including John Woo and Tsui Hark, in addition to Lam, made their way to Hollywood, it was only sensible that the archetypes of their films found footing in American cinema too. Choosing which is the better film is ultimately a fool’s errand as both Reservoir Dogs and City on Fire bring something entirely different to the table. Tarantino offers a blood-soaked chamber drama while Lam breaks the storied cops and robbers dynamic to create something much more humanist, caring more about the characters than their actions or the consequences of them.
City on Fire screens on Saturday, September 6, at the Roxie as part of the series Hong Kong Cinema Classics.
