“Raging Fire” Theatrical Poster
Director: Benny Chan
Cast: Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Ray Lui, Qin Lan, Patrick Tam Yiu-Man, Kenny Wong Tak-Ban
Running Time: 126 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Is there anything that gets fans of Hong Kong action cinema more hyped than the promise of a Donnie Yen angry cop movie!? Arguably not, and it’s easy to understand why after Yen put Hong Kong action back on the map during one of its driest spells with 2005’s Sha Po Lang. We’ve had intermittent cop action from Yen in the intervening years, namely in the form of 2007’s Flash Point and 2013’s Special ID, so when it was announced that he was returning to the genre once more for Raging Fire, expectations were understandably set high.
The final movie from director Benny Chan (Big Bullet, The White Storm) before his untimely passing in 2020, the selling point for Raging Fire is the pairing of Yen and Nicholas Tse (Beast Stalker, The Viral Factor) as enemies on a collision course with each other. All 3 have worked together before, with Yen and Tse sharing co-star status (along with Shawn Yu) on the 2006 comic book adaption Dragon Tiger Gate, as well as clocking in memorable supporting roles in 2009’s Bodyguards and Assassins. Chan and Tse go back a long way, with Tse’s big break coming thanks to 1999’s Gen-X Cops, before reuniting for 2004’s New Police Story, 2007’s Invisible Target, and 2011’s Shaolin. After a decade apart, it’s equally as exciting to see Tse back in a Benny Chan flick as it is to see Yen working with the director for the first time on a feature length production.
Straight out of the gates Raging Fire feels immediately familiar. Yen plays a tortured incorruptible supercop with a frail pregnant wife (played by Qin Lan, in possibly the most thankless role of the year). We’ve seen Yen play this character plenty of times before, and the marital combination is practically a mainstay of the HK cop genre. As soon as his buddy cop Ray Lui (Walk on Fire, Thunder Run) turns up and finds himself forced to cut Yen out of a drug bust due to Yen’s incorruptible nature not doing any favours for the higher ups, it becomes clear we’re playing by the 80’s HK cop flick rule book. Sure enough it isn’t long before Lui bites the dust after things go pear shaped (complete with a sentimental flashback of a scene featuring Yen and Lui that we just witnessed moments earlier), and it’s up to Yen’s supercop abilities to track down the bad guys behind it!
Said bad guys turn out to be a group of ex-cops led by Nicholas Tse that used to work closely with Yen. We learn that 3 years ago a millionaire was kidnapped who had police connections, and to avoid any damage to his companies share value, an off-the-books operation is ordered to find and rescue him before sunrise. The dream team of Yen and Tse are dispatched, with Tse’s unit tracking down a suspect who’s known to be involved. With mounting pressure from his superiors to do whatever it takes, Tse and the team resort to beating the information out of the suspect, with Yen arriving just in time to see him receive an unintended fatal blow. Being the incorruptible cop that he is, Yen’s testimony is ultimately what sends Tse and his team to prison for excessive force, and now that they’re out they only have one thing on their mind – revenge.
Raging Fire certainly doesn’t win any points for originality, however there’s something reassuringly familiar about many of the conversations that play out. Yen’s team predictably bicker with each other over the desire to catch criminals but the importance of doing so by the book, and lines such as “Don’t confuse right and wrong” represent the epitome of the script. With a running time of over 2 hours though that sense of familiarity eventually begins to wear thin, as there’s only so many times you can watch a group of cops indulge in these cookie cutter exchanges before it all begins to feel a little too generic. Thankfully though this is a Donnie Yen movie, so nobody is checking in expecting Shakespeare, with the audience for Raging Fire clearly banking their enjoyment on the quality of the action as they should be.
While there’s no doubt that Yen also had a hand in much of the action design, choreography duties are credited to Kenji Tanigaki, fresh off making his directorial debut with Enter the Fat Dragon, and Ku Huen-Chiu, who’s responsible for the action found in the likes of 14 Blades and Shadow. The first 40 minutes are scarce on the action front, save for the drug bust that finds Ray Lui run afoul of Tse and his gang, until Yen finally gets a chance to do his thing during a shanty town stakeout that turns into a BuyBust-esque battle for survival against the hordes. It’s an effective sequence with some wince worthy falls, and also comes with the bonus of a Yen versus Ben Lam (Angry Ranger, High Risk) rematch, more than 20 years after their face off in Yen’s own 1997 directorial debut Legend of the Wolf.
After that though the action comes intermittently, with Raging Fire’s biggest issue being its pacing. There’s a lean action movie in there somewhere, however the decision to include a number of flashback scenes to Yen and Tse’s relationship serve to bloat the runtime rather than add to it, and commit any flashback sequences greatest crime of knocking the pacing off whenever they appear. One sequence involves what feels like the whole courtroom trial of Tse and his unit, thrown in mid-way through when the tension should be ramping up, but instead grinding things to a halt while we watch what anyone with half a brain will have already figured out.
Other pacing issues rear their head due to the need to appease the Mainland censors, such as when Yen finds himself forced to fire at another officer. In the context of the scene it makes sense, and had Raging Fire been made a couple of decades ago we’d all be able to move on, however now we also have to watch Yen’s entire disciplinary hearing about the incident (which at least includes a cameo from Simon Yam). It’s a needlessly protracted scene, which at its most bizarre has the whole station gate-crash the hearing to espouse the virtues of Yen’s character, before Yen himself launches into a to camera monologue about the nature of police work. Suffice to say those looking for Yen’s nuanced acting performances in the likes of Wu Xia and the Ip Man franchise are in the wrong place. Such scenes result in a stop-start feel to the narrative, and mean that Raging Fire never really finds its flow.
The rest of the action is a mixed bag, with the biggest detriment being a vehicular chase that has a motorbike riding Tse (look out for the unexplained wardrobe change) versus Yen behind the wheel. The sequence commits the usual misdemeanours of switching to blatantly obvious CGI for any of the money shots, and the way it ends will likely result in laughter for many. It’s good news then, that for the finale Chan brings things back on track, with an impressive vehicular crash through a storefront that then segues into a derivative but still fun replica of the iconic mid-movie shootout from Michael Mann’s 1995 classic Heat. While Andy Lau still takes the cake in Firestorm for ridiculously gratuitous shootouts on the streets of Hong Kong, the staging here is competently crafted, and we even get a real explosion. These things count for something in 2021.
The promised finale of Yen versus Tse also delivers the goods, taking a leaf out of The Killer’s book and playing out in an abandoned church which is being renovated. It’s 6 minutes of brutality encompassing butterfly knives, police batons, sledgehammers, and screwdrivers. It may not reach the lofty peaks of the fight action found in Yen’s modern classics Sha Po Lang or Flash Point (or even Yen-influenced contemporaries like Hydra), however I know a fight scene is good whenever I find myself unconsciously smiling during it, and this one checked the box. How much goodwill the scene will allow fans to look past many of the issues strewn throughout the almost 2 hours prior to it will likely vary.
As the swansong of Benny Chan Raging Fire feels like a fitting one – it’s loud, unrestrained, and aims purely to entertain. As a return to straight faced contemporary fare Yen proves that he still has gas in the tank, even after 2014’s Kung Fu Jungle felt like he was saying goodbye to these kinds of roles. Still, Raging Fire lacks that freshness which is so important to keep action cinema evolving, so as entertaining as parts of it may be, perhaps it’s also time to pass the flame onto someone else.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
YES AT LAST HE REVIEWED IT ! Thank you Sir Paul ! Damn wish the movie was at least a 7 but hey as a final film to a legendary director who fell ill during production, the end result could’ve also turned out way worse so I’ll take what I can get.
Most of all in this movie I’ve been looking forward to that final fight scene between Nicholas Tse and Donnie Yen and my god I was ecstatic when I read Paul smiling throughout it, that’s awesome can’t wait to see it myself.
Is the camerawork/editing during the action sequences always clear and energetic Paul ? or are there confusing shots/goofs here and there that detracted from the action ? how’s the cinematography overall (I’m asking because apparently my friend’s father was the cinematographer of the film :0 ) ? and lastly would you say you’re now even more excited to see Yen in John Wick 4 after Raging Fire ?
Excellent review once more, cheers !
Look forward to hearing your thoughts on it once you have a chance to check it out Andrew! The camerawork during the action and cinematography overall is solid, not including the awful CGI cutaways during the Yen vs Tse vehicle chase, with some well placed angles during the final fight to convey impact and power. Overall its a slick looking production that delivers on the technical aspects, it just becomes unstuck more than once due to some of the creative choices (both legitimate and the one’s that need to be forced into the narrative).
Yen appearing in ‘John Wick 4’ holds no excitement for me. The face off between Keanu Reeves and Mark Dacascos that constituted the finale of ‘John Wick 3’ was a damp squib in my opinion, so I expect Yen will need to be reigned in for the 4th installment. I’d be up for an ‘Ip Man 4’ rematch of Yen vs Adkins transferred to a modern setting, but in reality I’m expecting his involvement to be, at best, comparable to his role in ‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage’. We’ll get the jumping back kick and probably the wind-up punch as a bonus.
Ahahaha yes I do agree about the Dacascos/Reeves showdown in Chapter 3, compared to the otherwise good action that came before that one was definitely a dud in comparison and yes the Yen vs Adkins face-off in modern day would be awesome !
It was also a dud because John Wick had just fought the two kung fu henchmen, both of whom did more spectacular moves than MD.
Agreed with the both of you. Keanu is best when he’s fighting someone who’s his equal or using some kind of clever weapon choreography. Going against high level martial artists makes him look clumsy by comparison and his opponent has to slow down for him so we’re getting worst of both worlds. Besides Dacascos the Raid guys made him look even worse. If they’re smart they’d pit Yen against the other martial artists they cast, besides Adkins maybe Zaror, or even Hiroyuki Sanada!
I knew you wouldn’t like it.
Biggest succes in China for Yen after Ip man 3 & 4. People really like it there.
I don’t care about both. I’ll watch anyway and if it’s good enough for me I’ll buy the Blu-Ray.
The long awaited review from Paul arrives! Sad to see it doesn’t sound like the dose of undiluted adrenaline we’d hope it’d be. Worse that it’s the prerequisite mainland moralizing that took the wind out of its sails. Same problem I’ve had with all the bloated Andy Lau/Louis Koo/Aaron Kwok vehicles over the past decade. How would you say Raging Fire compares to the likes of all the __Storm movies, Cold War movies, and Shock Wave movies? Last year’s Caught in Time?
The days of Asian cinema being butchered for a US release are long gone, but ironically this may be an instance where a shortened international cut with talky political crap cut out might have been a good thing…
Good to see Donnie has brought Ben Lam back for one more fight, after being wasted by Collin Chou and his lackeys in Flash Point (and unused in Chan’s White Storm). Even better that there’s a Heatsploitation scene, which is a comforting staple in every Benny Chan cop movie. Too bad about the CG ruined car chase. Why didn’t they bring Bruce Law in, master of that particular trade? Even Chin Kar Lok who has has been known to bring in some good stuff for other mainland blockbusters…
I already got tickets to this for the 12th at my local theater! Can’t wait!
Look forward to hearing your thoughts YM once you’ve had an opportunity to check it out!
I’d say ‘Raging Fire’ is definitely more entertaining than the overly talkative ‘(insert random letter here) Storm’ movies or the 2 ‘Cold War’ flicks, but then they sold themselves as crime thrillers rather than action blockbusters, so in that regard its difficult to compare. Similar story for both ‘Shock Wave’ entries, although that’s to be expected because if Herman Yau was able to craft a better action flick than Benny Chan I’d be seriously worried (we don’t talk about ‘The White Storm’!). I’ve yet to see ‘Caught in Time’, and fear the reason why we still don’t have a Blu-ray is likely because its fallen foul of the new censorship laws (that’s purely a theory on my part though).
I love a good car chase, so found the one here to be a frustration. Ironically as much as I wasn’t a fan of ‘Special ID’, I found the car chase in that one to be fantastic, and one of the highlights in an otherwise painful movie. Here it suffers from the same problems as the whole jet ski sequence in ‘Vanguard’ – yes a chase was filmed on the streets of Hong Kong, but whenever we get a flip or a vehicle that goes airborne, it switches to CGI. Like you suggested, they should have called Bruce Law or Chin Kar Lok!
I finally saw it! Took a few days to recover, but I am disappointed overall. Swarmed with thoughts. Movie really goes all in to eulogize the end of modern Hong Kong movies and maybe even Hong Kong as a distinct culture. I thought all the subtext was way more interesting than the actual story.
That opening with the rich assholes pressuring the cops to bend the knee seems like a thinly veiled jab at the overreach of the Chinese central gov.
That funeral at lasting forever feels weird for a character we barely knew, but feels appropriate for passing of the director as well as lamentation of inevitable passing of HK’s generation of superstars like Ray Lui. I like how Yen and Tse’s teams are totally faceless. Chan usually gives these roles small moments to shine, but this time it’s almost as if he was saying there will be no more worthy stars for the future.
Similarly, Ben Lam’s fight with Donnie in the ghetto is a mess, they feel old, slow, and desperate, but maybe that’s the point. I watched Legend of the Wolf recently, and while a crap movie, the hyperactive near anime levels of fighting between the same two actors were insane. Going from that to this saddens me, which is again maybe something Chan wanted.
Nic Tse’s character feels like a stand in for Hong Kong’s angry, disaffected youth, the protesters that were worldwide news not so long ago. Like Nic Tse, they feel betrayed by the political system, stripped of their future, so they lash out on the streets and cause chaos in the city. That street shootout at the end is usual Benny Chan, but this time it feels like commentary on how the unrest in Hong Kong is destroying its wealth and stability as an attractive financial center in Asia. Chan usually casts Gwailo, Mainlanders, and Japanese as the villains. This time it’s Nic Tse, his favorite protege, a local in story in and in life, which feels ominously like he’s saying Hong Kong’s problems today stem from within. Nic Tse running to a church and losing the fight inside it? Definitely an allegory for how British colonial power is a dead end, no longer able to provide shelter.
Donnie’s character too, seems like a reluctant stand in for those of his generation, and those in power who don’t challenge higher authority that is dismantling Hong Kong. The film wants you to see him kick ass, but doesn’t stand behind him morally. After all, it’s Nic Tse that gets the last word in, and kills himself, leaving Yen, the old guard alone, without satisfaction or successors. The fact there’s no “happily ever after scene” as is standard for these tells me all I need to know about Chan’s state of mind.
Best part is when Simon Yam, the face of HK movie cops for the last 2 decades, tells Donnie he has “24 hours left to be a cop. Don’t disappoint me.” That is Benny Chan speaking to us, telling us he’s on his deathbed, Hong Kong cop movies are on their deathbed, but there’s time for one last awesome time, and he won’t disappoint us. Then the crazy finale happens. Fitting end, at least.
It’s such a grim and downbeat movie outside of the action. And I gotta wonder what the Chan cut would have looked like. At least it got past censors: with all that baggage in there you’d think they’d throttle it.
Even though I enjoyed analyzing the shit out of it, while I watched it felt slow and bloated. The drama parts are interchangeable w/ any of the mainland movies we referenced in our prior conversation. The action is definitely a cut above, but not up to 2000s era Chan or Donnie. Final fight has too many fast cuts. Hoping it’d dethrone some of the challengers that have superseded HK movies in recent years like John Wick or Raid 2 but no dice. Guess there’s only so much a dying man and a near 60 year old man can do.
Still waaaay better than Caught in Time, which was 99% mainland copaganda and 1% HK action DNA.
Mr YM, people have overanalyzed Citizen Kane less than you have with Raging Fire. (Put down that rock!)
You do make some good points like jabs at the government and Nic Tse as the angry generation. I personally would be happy if all bombastic action films coming out of China were like Raging Fire or Wolf Warrior 2, and less like the Alphabet Storm films. Raging Fire is not a golden age era film, but it felt to me like a minor throwback and ended up being Benny Chan’s best film since Shaolin.
And if old men like Donnie can still go better than guys half their age, I support it.
@Andrew What can I say? This one put me in a melodramatic mood.
Indeed Raging Fire goes pretty hard for what it is, and I agree it’s Chan’s best film in a long time. No one else is making them like this these days, so I can only complain so much.
I’m guessing Yen only has about 5 more of these physically demanding roles left in him before he takes to Seagal/Willis status of cameo appearances.
Hope you’ve made a full recovery YM, you went deep with this one! I agree that the subtext was more interesting than the actual story, I just wonder how much of it was intentional and how much is down to interpretation.
After the turmoil of the protests last year and the backlash against the Hong Kong police force, Yen’s to camera monologue during his disciplinary hearing almost comes across as apologist on their behalf. Considering one of the earlier lines has a character state “Don’t confuse right and wrong” – obvious lip service to the Mainland’s preferred portrayal of law enforcement as morally upstanding and righteous – Yen’s contradictory speech where he waxes lyrical about cops having to deal with areas of grey feels like the script is backtracking, and pivots to opting for an empathetic speech spoken directly to the audience. I feel certain the scene is only there to satisfy the Mainland censors, as it’s tonally jarring to everything going on around it.
@Paul: You might be right! I might have gone too deep on this, like Snyder fans who read meaning into his overlong souless movies. Benny Chan’s movies after all have always been popcorn first and not too concerned with politics beyond a surface level. This one just feels… different. Like you said, the film has mixed messages, but gotta please those censors!
But it can only be downhill from here. Given all the coinciding factors, like Hong Kong’s new law imposed by China, that any film deemed “a threat to national security” would henceforth be banned from distribution”, the exit of Benny Chan as HK’s last action auteur, The lack of draw by action stars younger than Yen, I’d be surprised if we see another full on action film of this kind in the next 5 or even 10 years. Holding out for SPL 3 with Max Zhang…
The CG in the car chase didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would, but yeah definitely would’ve been way better if Bruce Law did it which we can all agree on. I was afraid it’d be like the CG car shots in Firestorm, which were horrendous.
Hi Paul,
How does Raging Fire fare to Yen’s other excellent action movies like SPL or Flash Point?
In short, no comparison.
Just saw Raging Fire and I loved it. It doesn’t do anything original, but as someone who loves cop films and can’t get enough of the usual dialogue, procedures, and so called “cliches,” it all sat well with me.
It’s hard to believe that Donnie Yen is almost 60 and still putting himself through all this physicality. I want to be as spry as him! Nic Tse was a great villain going from sympathetic to pure evil in a way that I haven’t seen from him before.
I’d go as far to say that the final fight at the end was just as good as in SPL and Flash Point. It was a great combination of martial arts and brawling and had my attention.
As for Caught in Time not getting a Blu Ray, I would be surprised if it didn’t considering what that movie did to please the government. The new “national security” laws shouldn’t affect it. I’m surprised Raging Fire didn’t have the same “police recruitment” vibe as Caught in Time.
As far as “tough guy cinema” goes, Nobody, Wrath of Man and Raging Fire have proven to be a great triple threat at the theatre!
Fuck Yea Andrew ! so stoked to see this – “I’d go as far to say that the final fight at the end was just as good as in SPL and Flash Point. It was a great combination of martial arts and brawling and had my attention.” you sold me !
More like “time for retirement dad cinema” (Don’t hurt me, I love these movies as much as you do).
I enjoyed the final fight too, but I don’t think it was as mindblowing for me. It did have a visceral, sophisticated feel that feels like the culmination of Donnie and his team’s longtime experience in fight scenes though. As standards go, easily better than all fights in John Wick 3 except the knife shop one, and not as good as the kitchen fight in Raid 2.
It’s not really a fair comparison since I look at those scenes like different kinds of food. The Raid 2 was a way different flavor and I don’t think Raging Fire was trying to compete with that, rather just make a good scene in its own right.
A general comment of mine in response to some of the statements here like “The face off between Keanu Reeves and Mark Dacascos that constituted the finale of ‘John Wick 3’ was a damp squib in my opinion”, “Ben Lam’s fight with Donnie in the ghetto is a mess, they feel old”:
We may be guilty of piling on unrealistic expectations on our Aging Action Gods. Dacascos is 57, Yen is 58, and while they’re far still far fitter than any of us will ever be, it’s a tall order to expect Dacascos and Yen to pull the same moves they did in DRIVE or LEGEND OF THE WOLF which came out close to a quarter century ago! Age catches up to everyone and when even the great Jackie Chan has been doubled in his last decades’ output and a JCVD signature split apparently performed by a stand in (allegedly) in THE LAST MERCENARY, then I’m just thankful Yen and Dacascos still display such remarkable agility at their age. Another decade and our current reigning Martial Arts DTV Kings Scott Adkins and MJW would struggle to pull off their signature kicks. And a decade after that, Tony Jaa or Iko Uwais wouldn’t be able to give you anything close to ONG-BAK or RAID-levels of action without being doubled (or under-cranked) significantly
Hi KayKay, thanks for weighing in. To provide some additional clarity around my comment on Dacascos in the finale of ‘John Wick 3’ (I won’t speak for YM who made the Yen/Lam comment), for me it has nothing to do with age. I thought the fight was a damp squib because the choreography didn’t live up what was on display in earlier parts of the movie. In fact the best part in ‘John Wick 3’ for me was when Reeves faced off against Roger Yuan at the beginning, and Yuan is 3 years older than Dacascos!
Sure we can’t expect our action heroes who are now in their late 50’s/early 60’s to perform like they did when they were 20 – 30 years younger, but they don’t need to when you have solid choreography that caters to their age. Sammo Hung was 64 when ‘The Bodyguard’ was released, Jackie Chan was 63 when ‘The Foreigner’ hit our screens. Both are perfect examples of exciting choreography tailored to the performers. The Reeves vs Dacascos fight in ‘John Wick 3’ felt clunky and overblown, and for me that’s down to the choreography and the way it was shot, rather than being related to age.
That’s a good point, Paul. JW3 was probably attempting a style of choreography better suited to a younger Dacascos and when paired with Reeves, who’s not a martial artist by training, it came off as lackluster. I will concede the knife fight with Roger Yuan and team (and a cameo-ing Tiger Chen providing the franchise’s goriest kill) was so good the rest of the set pieces struggled to keep up (although Halle Berry and her Alsatians’ take-down in Morocco came pretty close). On the one hand, you want to save your best set piece for the end but on the other, you want the opener to knock your socks off and maintain your interest. It’s a delicate balancing act.
@KayKay It’s true I had unrealistic expectations going into this, but I was quickly brought back down to earth. I am aware that these guys aren’t what they use to be, and I’m just sad to see them grow old even though they’re still pretty spry.
The Ben/Yen fight wasn’t shot or choreographed very well. Echoing Paul, it’s more than just age. Keanu is about the same age as Yen and way less skilled, but the John Wick movies (first 2 anyway) stage convincing set pieces regardless. So for a HK movie from a top action director, I expected more out of that particular scene. Instead it was lit poorly, cut sloppy, shot too wide, and Ben/Yen fall into a pile of trash where I can’t even see what’s going on.
For reference, how is it that a XXX movie starring Donnie Yen would have a better fight scene than an actual Donnie Yen movie (I know he brought on his stunt team to do that one and also it’s a different style but still)? This is just so much cleaner:
https://youtu.be/8Vhf9OTowFE?t=15
I highly doubt Raging Fire’s fight scenes are better than XXX’s lmao, that film and the fights were dogshite.
Ok so finally had the opportunity to check this out ! FUCKING LOVED IT ! One of the best action movies of the year, and the final fight ? MOVE THE FUCK OVER HYDRA, Donnie’s back in town !
First of all let me address the fact that the pacing of this movie is nothing short of stunning, not only does it balance its ratio of drama vs action so elegantly, I was surprised by how engaged I was during both. The narrative doesn’t win any points for originality obviously, but where it fails to innovate is where it succeeds in sheer entertainment of how OLD-SCHOOL this feels. Good cops vs bad cops turned rogue, gangs, low lives, cheating hoes, pregnant wives, fucking hell we even get a dual-wielding handgun shootout at one point, probably the first for Donnie (I think, don’t quote me on that) and I know Benny Chan is not John Woo (nor does he have to be, he’s a perfectly unique and awesome action filmmaker of his own) but it’s hard not to get chills and more than a few pleasant tingles of Hard Boiled/Chow Yun-Fat nostalgia in all the right places 😉 during that scene, and that set-piece only gets crazier and cooler as it goes on, and that’s another big thing Raging Fire absolutely crushes – ESCALATION !
Ever see a movie where the best action sequence takes place in the opening or the middle of the film and the rest in comparison looks drab and mundane (looking at you John Wick 3 and John Wick 1 respectively 0_0 ) ? well lemme tell ya, Raging Fire does not suffer from that issue, just when you get done watching one breathlessly exciting, superbly well-shot and coordinated action sequence, the next one rolls around, looks at you, pulls down its sunshades, slicks back its long hair (Nicholas Tse challenged my sexuality in this movie 0_0 I swear I’m not gay tho, not that there’s anything wrong with- ah you get the point) and says to you: “Oh you thought that was cool, WATCH THIS !” enter car chases, mass street shootouts, knife fights, church brawls, gun-fu, all under a signature, fantastic action direction from Donnie Yen and his stunt team, including Kenji Tanigaki, who besides one colossal misfire in Snake Eyes this year, has done 3 amazing martial arts action movies (see Rurouni Kenshin The Final and The Beginning on Netflix, thank me later) with fresh, original ideas in evolving the modern day martial arts movie fight scene (which is extremely hard to do in 2021) and he absolutely brings his A game here, as the finale beatdown between Tse and Yen is an uncompromising, brutal and badass showdown where every move is a clever chess piece being moved, every look is a battle of its own and the crescendo of the two forces colliding inspires levels of epicness nearing biblical proportions (the irony of that being assisted by the location of the fight – a church……. I mean FUCK YEAH !), it may not have the emotional immediacy of the fantastic story preceding it that the alley fight in SPL did nor does it have the incredible intricacy of MMA fighting applications that Flashpoint had, but it makes up for it by combining aspects of both of those fights to a lesser, but still nonetheless enthralling effect (watch out for a scene where Donnie plays the piano…… WITH NIC TSE’S HEAD).
Sure I could complain about the Chinese censorship, the extremely government-insistent emphasis on righteous cops being well….. righteous and criminals being……. dirty fucking criminals, but to be fair despite those elements being there indefinitely, this film at least goes a small extra mile in presenting shades of gray morality on both sides of the law and taking SOME degree of examination into the judicial and law enforcement system that has become such a hot topic in today’s climate, not just in Hong Kong but worldwide. I could complain about the sometimes heavy-handed dialogue, the over-the-top acting on some performers part where every syllable not pronounced with anger, contempt or a voice above the abnormal must not be all that important. I could also complain about the more than enough flashbacks present in the film to reveal key details of the plot/character at just the right moments to forcefully evoke a emotional response from you as the audience member, which could’ve easily have been done chronologically, with probably more subtlety and more resonance, not to mention with more clarity instead of confusion as a result.
But dude this is a Benny Chan movie, we don’t do that here, and if you’re not a fan of that kinda thing, this movie’s simply not for you, nothing wrong with that, I don’t jive with Bollywood movies personally 0_0 sue me. For the rest this is a slam-bang, action-packed, terrific sendoff to a maestro of Hong Kong action cinema that has departed sadly, all too early and the end credits left a sizeable hole in my heart for the man that has introduced me to Hong Kong action cinema to begin with when I was 8 years old watching “Invisible Target” on my old ass tv that kept on shutting off for some reason (Invisible Target btw is fucking awesome, go watch it, Nicholas Tse there is equally great). RIP to the legend and long live Hong Kong Action cinema, this film right here is proof that the genre in today’s Hong Kong has fire left in it and that fire is RAGING !
9/10
Glad you enjoyed this one Andrew, and thanks for weighing in with your thoughts as always! Interesting to read that we have completely opposite opinions on the pacing, but the world would be a dull place if we all just agreed with each other!
“…hell we even get a dual-wielding handgun shootout at one point, probably the first for Donnie (I think, don’t quote me on that)…”
He has done the dual-wielding handgun deal before in his sophomore directorial feature, 1998’s ‘Ballistic Kiss’! (Now there’s a movie it’d be interesting to hear your thoughts on!)
Wow. Andrew, just to give me some context. What are your top 5 favorite Donnie Yen films of the last 10 years?
Hey Paul thanks for clarifying the dual-handgun thing with Donnie, Ballistic Kiss ! YES ! I forgot about that one lmao, prolly for good reason tho xD
and JJ Bona my top 5 fav Donnie movies of the last 10 years go:
1) Wu Xia
2) Kung Fu Jungle
3) Big Brother
4) Raging Fire
5) IP Man 3
I’m one of few people who liked Ballistic Kiss. It’s a pretentious passion project that combines Neo film noir with heroic bloodshed, and features over the top camera work and editing. For some reason it just spoke to me.
Donnie’s directorial efforts do provide a good indication of what kind of action coordinator he would become, so they’re a good piece of history.
Just watched the movie. Was quite disappointed to be honest. Plot is cliche and there are more gun-shootout scenes than fight scenes (if you have bloody Donnie Yen and you are not making him fight every 5 minutes you are doing it wrong!). The plot is the biggest blow to the movie, 18 year old college grad could have come up with something deeper.
I don’t know about every 5 minutes, but I definitely get your point. lol! =)
But here’s the deal: Above the fight scene/gun shoot-out ratio, what I want is a GOOD MOVIE. For instance, in Shinjuku Incident, Jackie Chan barely lifts a fist, and of course I was there to see him kick some ass. In the end, I was still satisfied because at least the movie worked as a whole. It was a good movie.
I do believe that there can be too much action sometimes, that’s for sure. I felt that with The Raid.