Big Heat

A fierce and fatalistic Hong Kong policier. As produced by Tsui Hark and co-directed by the great Johnny To, this gore-drenched neo noir is as far removed from a John Woo bullet ballet as possible. Unlike Woo's romantic notions of honor and loyalty in a morally bankrupt world, the vision here is bleaker, more unsparing. There are no beautifully choreographed dances of deaths, no heroic displays of bloodshed and brotherhood. The filmmakers pummel our violence-jaded sensibilities, rubbing our noses in the sundry ways a human being can be physically mangled or emotionally savaged. They're determined to make us feel the pain, and they succeed in spades. This one fricken hurts to watch.

The film is a Hong Kong travel agent's worst nightmare, a portrait of the city as a neon-lit charnel house. The protagonist is a stolid, world-weary police detective (Waise Lee), whose nerve-impaired shooting hand serves as the perfect symbol of this pitiless urban jungle-- it's beyond repair, as out of control as the landscape he inhabits. In a rare star turn, Lee (the memorable villain of Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" and "Bullet in the Head") is coolly persuasive at suggesting bottled torment; he makes reticence seem like a powerful emotion.

The crime story involving the pursuit of a Malaysian drug cartel is routine stuff, as is the inclusion of a clumsy rookie cop assigned as partner to Lee. But Hark and To invest these familiar tropes with a profoundly unsettling despair that gets under your skin and stays there.

The Big Heat doesn't just burn -- it scalds.

If you aren't a fan of Cantonese gunplay/gangster movies, you won't like this as much as I did. If you are, however, and you haven't seen "The Big Heat", prepare to thoroughly enjoy yourself. Having been a fan of HK flicks for years, I've reached the stage where I feel like I've seen it all. I've even taken to renting videotapes at 4 bucks a pop, 2 tapes per film, at my local Chinese-language movie store(I live in Phoenix, AZ, so if you're anywhere remotely metropolitan, you probably have one in your town as well). Now, I scour the aisles, hoping to see something even remotely on par with the works of Woo, Lam, and Hark. Most times, I come up disappointed, sitting hopefully through a sluggish, poorly plotted film with one or two halfway decent action sequences. So I was pleasantly surprised by this one. An early entry into the HK cop action genre, this little number was directed by Johnny To and Andrew Kam, both of whom were reportedly fired by producer Tsui Hark, who helmed some of it himself. The story has been described by others here already, so I'll just mention that this thing kicks ass! It moves along at a fair clip, never gets dull, and the fight scenes, while more akin to Ringo Lam's close-quarters real-time shootouts than John Woo's orgiastic slo-mo duels, are consistently inventive and exciting. A couple of motifs here ended up in later films, like "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled". And, I swear, the "shoot the hostage" bit from "Speed" was lifted directly from this film. If you've watched all of the better-known HK movies(and some of the lesser-known ones), and are jonesing for a fix of Asian action, check this one out. And, yes, it really is gruesomely violent for a HK film.

One of Johnnie To's earlier films, this tale is more akin to the hard crime thriller of Martin Scorsese rather than To's recent "tongue-in- cheek" style. What we have here is brutal storytelling of blackmail, espionage, corruption, and violence all facing one struggling Hong Kong detective. Even by today's standards the violence is both shocking and disturbing to see. Some sequences may be over the top, and while out of place they are vastly entertaining. The plot of "a washed-up cop pulled back in for one last job" had been done to death even back in 1988, however Johnnie To added in some twists plus heavy suspense to make the material fresh. In my opinion the faults are the editing and lack of charisma from Waise Lee's character. The protagonist could have been more likable to better engage the audience, and the editing is dated with some awkward cuts and sped up/slowed down moments which don't blend well with the drama. Other than that the material hit home with me, and the all-out conclusion left me in awe. Keep in mind this is filled with winding clues and bloody confrontations, not an easy watch. -7/10

Written by Gordon Chan, director of Fist Of Legend and Thunderbolt, The Big Heat may be a little rough-around-the-edges, but it still stands strong as a fantastically gritty, violent, and fast-paced action thriller. Directed by Andrew Kam and Johnnie To, with the great Tsui Hark getting behind some scenes, uncredited, the film is brilliantly shot, in a way that only compliments the dark revenge plot, with its brutal tale of cops and robbers, screaming the style of a certain Ringo Lam, with only hints of light breaking through this raw, gore-filled, dark and exciting Hong Kong gem!

For me, the great Philip Kwok steals the show. Playing a cop on Lee's team, he could have carried this as the lead, bringing an explosive energy to his role and delivering one of the better performances in the film. After watching him in so may Shaw Brothers films recently, it was good to see him in a modern setting. But for Waise Lee, who had made an impression with his breakout role in the classic, A Better Tomorrow, only 2 years prior, The Big Heat helped take him to another level. Playing a cop with a spinal injury that affects his gun hand, Lee is advised to resign early. But when he gets word about the murder of his ex-partner, Lee delays his plans until he finds out who was behind the brutal killing. I would like to say that, if Chow Yun Fat had been in Lee's place, this film would be in everyone's collection much like his classics with Woo and Lam...

When I watch The Big Heat, I see Tsui Hark giving us a project inspired by his time on A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2. With John Woo taking a different approach to his stylised action thrillers, this gave Hark the chance to darken the tone even more, blending his dark humour with more ultra-violent, kinetic action. Working with Andrew Kam, the man behind Swordsman, Fatal Termination, and High Voltage with Donnie Yen - as well as the great Johnnie To who was still fresh as a film director (although had already been assisted on films such as Royal Warriors and Magnificent Warriors with Michelle Yeoh), producer and director Tsui Hark delivers an underrated classic that I say, deserves a place beside the legendary John Woo flicks.

Although leaning more towards that of a Ringo Lam film than the work of Woo, The Big Heat is packed with stunning cinematography that pulls you into the action, making for a tense viewing experience full of graphic gun fights and action, where limbs and heads are blown-off, and kids and innocent people get abused, backed by that stunning, night-time Hong Kong movie lighting, tight editing and great soundtrack. As the plot moves along, emotions run high with each of the cast members giving memorable performances - even Waise Lee, with a great collection of names, some just starting off in their career. Keep an eye out for the likes of Crime Story director Kirk Wong, Wong Hin Mung, Joey Wong, Paul Chu Kong, Ong Sai Kit, Michael Chow, Robin Shou, Roy Cheung, and the aforementioned Philip Kwok, who also doubles up as the action choreographer alongside Joe Chu and Paul Wong. Strangely enough, Kwok takes part in a fantastic hospital shoot-out, something that may just have inspired a certain scene in the amazing Hardboiled, where Kwok plays Mad Dog against Chow Yun Fat's gun-toting Tequila...

Brutal and fast-paced from the get-go, there's no denying its pace in the heroic bloodshed genre of Hong Kong cinema. I love The Big Heat and hope to see it resurrected with a 4K restoration one day soon. Unapologetic in its shock value and violence, the film stands as one of the most brooding and brutal crime films I have ever seen!

Overall: Powerful and memorable, The Big Heat is one of Hong Kong cinema's darkest and greatest action-thrillers that deserves to be seen!

This is my second review on this incredible action film, The Big Heat (Hong Kong, 1988) by film makers Andrew Kam and Johnnie To. More detailed review by me can be found by reading user comments on this film or alternatively clicking my IMDb nick and searching there the first review of mine. I feel a need to write more about this film now that I watched the film again tonight.

The atmosphere and tune of the film is so incredibly infernal and non-stop ominous that I'm even more impressed than what I was when I watched this previously, and that is only one proof of the fact that most Hong Kong/Asian films are revealed more and more with each viewing and they cannot be fully understood after first viewing. The cinematography is very convincing and there are couple of scenes involving brightly red smoke and dangerously misty blue which really create an atmosphere of mayhem and violence, which is present whole the time in this movie, and also in World the film depicts collapsing. Blue smoke and atmosphere created by blue is very usual element among greatest Hong Kong thrillers, and most memorable use of that element can be found in finale of Ringo Lam's City on Fire, and also in many films made by Billy Tang, like Red to Kill and Dr. Lamb (which he directed with actor turned director Danny Lee.) The music in The Big Heat is also very effective and adds to the tension very greatly.

The blood and guts carnage and ultra violent action is very graphic and over-the-top to say the least, and will definitely make more squeamish viewer think twice whether or not continue watching the film. One death scene involving a multi level highway is perhaps the most brutal death scene I've seen in any film, and that is really saying something about the power and punch of this unique film, and that "highway scene" is just one pretty brief scene in this film. The shootout at the hospital is very dark and savage and no one is safe from angry bullets, including little children and nurses. The editing is very important element in these action scenes and there's absolutely nothing worth blaming about editing and cinematography in this film. This film is far grittier and bleaker than most John Woo films, and this is pretty close to Ringo Lam's films full of rage. I love also John Woo's films, but they are very different compared to The Big Heat and other rougher rides of Hong Kong mayhem/action cinema.

The Big Heat may have some negative points like unbelievable plot turns and other usual flaws usually found in action films, but it fortunately lacks all the stupid humor elements found irritatingly too often in Hong Kong action films. The Big Heat is serious all the time and tries not to entertain its audience by making it laugh. The plot is again very confusing, but that is another thing that is often present in these films and seems perhaps more confusing seen through Western eyes, but all these little negative things in the film are so easy to forgive since the film as a whole is so full of positive things and cinematic achievements that really make this film among the greatest Eastern action films ever. I think one has to be pretty keen on Hong Kong and Asian cinema in general in order to appreciate The Big Heat as much as I do, and I know many people wouldn't like films like The Big Heat by various reasons, perhaps most notably because it (fortunately) lacks all the efforts to entertain and make feel safe. I love this film very much and in its own genre full of rage, this film ranks among the most powerful and memorable films ever made. 10/10