Raging Fire

Yen Smolders in 'Raging Fire'. Donnie Yen has clearly established himself as an international, bankable action star. He is not only a dynamic martial arts action star, but a highly watchable screen presence.

In Raging Fire, Benny Chan's final Directorial work, Yen combines the elements of his persona as an action star and dramatic actor for a successful result. His dramatic engagement equals his action prowess, and these elements combine to make this film superior.

Shan (Donnie Yen) is a highly respected hardline cop with a long history of success on dangerous cases. However, his past unexpectedly comes back to haunt him when a sting operation is attacked by a mysterious group of criminals led by Ngo (Nicholas Tse), his former protégé, a talented former officer who had once respected and admired Shan. However, a terrible mistake three years prior landed him in prison, quickly turning the once rising star into a furious man with a grudge, and the will to destroy everyone who had wronged him-including his former mentor.

Many East Asian action films have a common theme showcasing the blurred line between police officer and villain. This film is no exception. While Yen is clearly the protagonist, Nicholas Tse is a sympathetic, albeit ruthless, adversary.

The film's story is not necessarily original, but it is engaging. Both Yen and Nicholas Tse bring a deep gravitas to their performances that makes them sympathetic, despite the circumstances. Nicholas Tse' performance is a strong counter-balance to Yen's. Yen's does not have as much depth and meaning without Tse.

This film is unusually deep for an action film, and perhaps, that is defining signature of a Benny Chan film. Here it is executed on a high level.

While the film has dramatic elements, there is no shortage of action. The knife fight choreography is about as exciting as you will see in any film. While I could write on about the dramatic undertones for paragraphs it is the final Yen-Tse showdown that puts this film among the top of the year's martial arts action jewels. The fight choreography is sensational.

I am sentimental; so I couldn't help but feel sad that Chan will not have the chance to see the international acclaim this film will likely garner. The closing credits feature behind the scenes clips of BennyChan in action, directing this one. He is clearly all-in.

The film is subtitled.

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.

I found it to be an excellent action movie.

I went to go see Donnie Yen bring it and he delivered, despite this feeling that Yen is hit by old age. You can tell he was avoiding the quick punches from Ip man that he most likely cannot pull off any more, but he makes up for it with this new raw, tough and tumble style, made to look special with some great camera work.

Than again, another reason for Yen's change of styles could be that I was expecting a kung fu flick but what I got was just this complete action film. It has everything you would expect from an action flick: Gun fights, car chases and fight scenes and what makes it nice is that you get more than one of all these things.

I can't honestly give a good examination on how the story goes as my mandarin is non existent and I read subtitles at a 6th grade level, but I'll give some credit to the acting that got me engulf in a story I was barely picking up. Some good character development was going here on the big screen.

I would love to say that this movie is as good as Heat, or somewhere around there because the movie feels like they 're trying to get there, but that's a little too ambitious. It's a decent police drama with a whole lot of amazing action and I'll leave it at that,

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.

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.