City on Fire (1987)
Director - Ringo Lam
DVD Released by : Universe
Player reviewed with : Sony S3000
Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925
Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Filmogrophies and Bios
Trailer
Cantonese or Mandarin Soundtracks

Subtitles : English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, and Thai
Dolby Digital
Running Time : 100 mins

City on Fire is a great movie and this DVD is one of the better ones out there. This movie got a lot of attention because of the blatant influence it had on RESERVOIR DOGS. Tarrantino "borrowed" many a shot from this one. Maybe someday I'll put something up about this but I know it has been probably done to death. This isn't to say it's bad. RESERVOIR DOGS is a good film on its own.

In CITY ON FIRE, Chow Yun-Fat goes undercover to smash a gang involved in jewel heists. Danny Lee is the gang member he befriends even though he knows his foremost duty is to be a cop.
The picture quality is very good. It is far better than the A BETTER TOMORROW DVD's. The colors are very rich and balanced. This is one of the better transfers I've seen. There is one scene where Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee are looking out a window of Chow-yun Fat's apartment where there is a big red blur at the lower left corner but it could be from one of the lights in the scene.

The sound, unfortunately, is a 5.1 re-mix as is most of the Media Asia DVD's. Though not terrible, I wish these DVD companies would keep the mono soundtracks that they were supposed to have. The one funny thing I noticed is that the Christmas song that is played towards the end is mixed very low. I remember it being pretty loud when I saw it in the theatre. I didn't notice the rear speakers being used too much.

The extras are very basic. The menu is setup with a great picture as the background but the menu itself is rather bland. It has the usual filmographies and a few trailers as extras.

This is a great movie and a good DVD. It is probably the best version of this movie that there is. This is also a good movie to see if you haven't seen many Hong Kong Films. Though the setup of the menus won't floor you, the movie itself is well worth seeing.