Raging Fire

Good editing can improve on a so-so script but not even the best editor can improve on a convoluted, disjointed mess like this one. Good production values are no substitute for a solid story that hooks the viewer. An hour into this, you may still be wondering who you are supposed to root for. Yen playing a stoic cop looks lost.

This contemporary Chinese martial arts crime flick is a perfect vehicle for its two male leads - Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. Yen plays the good cop. Tse is his former good-cop buddy, who has become really good at being really bad for reasons we learn along the way. Many of these films are thrown together with a muddled plot that exists only to set up their action sequences. Here we have a shining exception, as main characters and their backstories are fleshed out to fine advantage, making for a production that satisfies the brain as well as fulfilling the desired adrenalin quota.

Yen has nearly 80 acting credits and handful of directing stints, including fight-scene choreography. He comes by his art honestly, as the son of a martial arts master (Fun fact - that's his mom, not his dad.), trained from childhood in multiple disciplines. Although I've only seen about a fourth of his films, I'm inclined to think that at this stage of his career, Yen may be incapable of cranking out a bad movie. (I specify the present because after writing the previous sentence, I caught one of his flicks from 1991, showing he didn't always have good scripts to choose from.) He's perhaps best known for starring in the history-based Ip Man series. There, as here, Yen embodies the stoic integrity of a Gary Cooper, with the bonus gift of kicking butt like a Jet Li.

The Raging Fire plot involves a cop-killing band of robbers, motivated by both grudges and gains. Yen is in charge of catching them; we learn early that Tse is the ringleader, with his motives unfolding throughout. The tale plays out more coherently than is often the case in Asian cops vs. Gangs flicks (actually, the same is true for many Hollywood entries, as well), magnifying the emotional impact of its splendidly-staged action sequences, stuffed with all the fights, shootouts, chases and explosions genre fans crave. A couple of Yen's one-on-ones are particularly exciting and creatively staged.

Late director Benny Chan deserves credit for not only pacing the action flawlessly, but editing and lighting those scenes for clarity of who's doing what to whom that's way above the norm from both sides of the Pacific, in what is, lamentably, his final project. Tse is also superb as a more complex villain than usual, with an understandable, almost sympathetic, transition from valued colleague to nemesis. That all adds up to a gem within its genre.

RAGING FIRE is a fitting swansong for Hong Kong director Benny Chan, who died during post-production. It's a cop thriller throwback to the likes of NEW POLICE STORY and INVINCIBLE TARGET, with Donnie Yen typically playing a dedicated cop on the trail of a gang of robbers headed by Nicholas Tse. The film suffers from being overlong - half an hour out would have improved that - and from over-complexifying a rather straightforward scenario. But the action zings, particularly in Donnie's two fight scenes, and the climax is a real delight. It tends to avoid cheese and overwhelming sentiment which is good too.

Whilst the plot is nothing new, Raging Fire is an absolutely incredible action thriller full of memorable set pieces and is definitely a superb and bittersweet final film for director Benny Chan.

Donnie Yen gives an excellent lead performance whose physicality is balanced against more dramatic moments. Nicholas Tse is a superb villain, equally physically capable with believable motivation yet still managing to be gleefully evil.

Benny Chan's direction is phenomenal with a variety of standout set pieces including hand to hand combat, shootouts and car chases. The music by Nicolas Errèra is great, consistently ridiculously bombastic which helps to make everything even more dramatic.

Hong Kong police are well known to be -and always have been- as corrupt as the politicians and criminals they mix with. At least that was the case way back when in the time of this 19080's style Cops & Robbers outing (and I very much doubt it has changed any in this day and age). Anyway what we get is an action filled manic paced bullets and blood thriller. What little script there is for the actors is all really by the by and of no importance whatsoever. I say that because this is meant to be nothing else but a pure 100 mile per hour action gobsmacker. Its not a brilliant film actioneer (if you have seen any John Woo films you'll know what I mean) but it is certainly not rubbish either. Its just what it is and its very engrossing and entertaining.

Donnie Yen's fight choreography, for all the cast, is superb (and I'm sure he'll pick up an award or 2 for it) and the camera work is flawless in its accentuation of the vicious array of martial arts mayhem.

Its a great finale to a very good man of Asian Cinema and guarentee's that Benny Chan went out with a monumental big bang! R. I. P Benny and thankyou for all your input to the cinema of Asia!