Cheap City War (DVD) (Yun-Fat Chow) (Chung Sun) Price

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Customer Reviews of City War

It's All About Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung
With any other actors this would have been your typical 'Dirty Harry - Death Wish' Hong Kong Cinema. But Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung make the story come alive. As sort of a role reversal Chow Yun Fat's character (Dick) is not the hotshot play by his own rules uncontrollable cop. The beauty in watching Chow Yun Fat is that he can play a part where he is almost a kiss-a** as easily as he can play Clint Eastwood in Hard Boiled.

The plot is pretty standard fare - a drug lord (Ted) that Dick's close friend (Ken) put away 10 years ago is released and he has Ken's partner killed and is bent on revenge against Ken. It's not much of a stretch to figure out how it plays out since Ken is the hot headed cop and Dick falls for Ted's girlfriend. The outfits she wears are a crack up and I found it hilarious listening to the Hong Kong version of You Can Take Your Hat Off. A little rip off from 9 1/2 weeks.

Anyway Ti Lung plays Ken so tightly wound but keeps it from going over the top. I was amazed at how well Chow Yun Fat plays the 'company man' cop. I found the role reversal of the characters to be one of the highlights of the movie. The violence is constrained - UNTIL the hit on Ken's family, then all hell broke loose. I did not catch the dummy child falling (Ken's son) but when his wife gets shot up - well her dying WAS over the top.

The finale was not for the squeemish, but unlike a lot of other Hong Kong movie's the amount of bad guys needed to be killed was reasonble (like maybe just 15). The ending is great with a unique and classic justice being served. I did expect to hear "Knocking on Heavan's Door" to be playing in the background, as the pair (Chow and Ti) looked exactly like Mel and Danny in the end of Lethal Weapon 2. Although actually I think this movie came out first. Wouldn't be the first time a scene was borrowed from a Chow Yun Fat movie.

In sum a great performance by Chow Yun Fat and TI Lung. Rent it or buy it you won't be disappointed.

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mid-eighties cheese action film
This film is so eighties! but i love it anyway, the same way i like Predator, Lethal Weapon and The Running Man. The eighties were all about cheesy action. But this film has something all the others don't....Chow Yun Fat!

Yun-Fat plays Dick Lee, a hk police negotiator. Always under his control Is Ti Lung, as a veteran hot-head cop with a personal grudge against the criminals he cathes. All hell breaks loose when a criminal (named Ted -HA!) Ti Lung put away gets out of prison, and slaughters Lungs family. Thrown into the mix, Yun Fat is romancing Ted's disenchanted girlfriend.

What i like about this film is it would have been instantly forgettable if is wasn't for the two leads, they both ooze charisma. Yun-Fat's character is obviously modeled after Don Johnson on Miami vice (white suits, pink and blue lighting of Miami nightclubs). Ted's girlfriend wears hideous white sunglasses and a matching polka dot dress looking like an extra in a Wham video.

The film is also pretty gritty and violent, the Ted character is very believable, especially when he is trying to romance his g/f as he burns himself with a cigarette. The slaughter of Lungs family at machinegun point is extremely brutal, and shown in loving detail. But as one assasin takes a header off of a roof with Lungs child in hand, i couldn't help but laugh. The dummy child is horrible!

The finale to this film pulls out all the stops, extremely violent, includes Ti Lung being hit with a fireaxe and Chow yun Fat eating more bullets than he did in a better tomorrow. Beware of the end titles, a paragraph comes up at the end giving some sort of epilogue to the film, however it is not subtitled. If anyone has any info on this, please mail me. All in all- good heroic bloodshed fare.

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Entertaining
This is a film in which the roles of the famous duo - Chow and Ti Lung from "A Better Tomorrow" - seem to be reversed. This time, Chow portrays a cop with the mature and sound mind, while Ti Lung seems to be the one who makes the trouble. Ti Lung's temperamental nature leads him into trouble with the enemy who ends up killing his family. It is up to the duo to avenge for the family, and blood-bath follows. The plot is mediocre and I thought killing the entire family seemed too cruel. Chow is still great in here, but it is too bad the story and the director did not fully exploit his great acting potential. Furthermore, I think the audience would rather see Chow as the temperamental cop and Ti Lung as the calm one. But it is still a good movie to see for die hard Chow fans.