The Big Heat

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

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

Big Heat is no masterpiece, the editing is sometimes sloppy, the music score is stolen fragments thrown together, there are a few seconds unnecessary comic relief here and there (but only seconds), the acting is often mediocre (even though Waise Lee is okay), the camerawork is not very impressive, the dialogue is nothing special and the story is nothing new.

But despite the obvious flaws, if you like your movies violent you will be entertained.

This is one brutal movie. You will see people get massacred and torn to pieces, you will see gunshots to the head, gunshots with beautiful bloodsquibs and much more extreme violence well scattered from the shock beginning to the brutal ending. I can assure you that the incredible death by car scene is the most violent you have ever seen. The other reviewer Brian Camp has already mentioned the exciting and of course extremely violent elevator shaft scene. Not even the children are safe in this movie, unlike Hollywood movies were they don't even dare to get a dog killed. The pacing is good so you will not be bored and the story is no masterpiece but it works. It is about revenge and those stories seem to work no matter how many revenge movies you have seen. We need bloody revenge. If you do not like brutality do not see this movie. 8 / 10.

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.

THE BIG HEAT is an impressive crime thriller, shot in the streets and urban spaces of Hong Kong and filled with chases, shootouts and fistfights right up until the final action climax. While it doesn't have the sheer spectacle of John Woo's HK crime films (THE KILLER, HARD-BOILED), it is consistently gripping and suspenseful and generally more believable than Woo's films (at least until the final over-the-top battle). Simple one-line-plot: four cops go after a businessman in league with smugglers after the lead cop's former partner is brutally murdered.

The romantic interests are expertly interspersed into the story so that they never detract from the action, but become a part of it. This is a no-nonsense film from beginning to end, with no fat and no waste. There are numerous set-pieces, such as a face-off in a hospital elevator shaft, that are so tightly shot and edited as to rank with similar scenes in the best Hollywood urban crime thrillers.

The stars include Waise Lee (A BULLET IN THE HEAD), as the lead cop on the case, and Joey Wang (A CHINESE GHOST STORY), as a nurse who is romanced by one of the cops. The actor playing Lee's partner is none other than Philip Kwok, a one-time kung fu star (one of the Five Venoms), who, in line with the film's more authentic action, doesn't get to do any kung fu, but instead gets to shoot, run, chase, brawl, and drive at high speeds.

I should point out that the film includes much brutal violence, including beatings, mutilation and gruesome deaths. It's not for the squeamish, but if you're a fan of gritty, down-and-dirty crime thrillers, this DVD is for you.