Raging Fire

The Hong Kong comeback from the now sadly deceased director Benny Chan, who brought hits such as New Police Story, Invisible Target, Shaolin and The White Storm, and ends his career with the scorching Raging Fire, which could be described as the Hong-Kong version of Mann's Heat! RIP. For the first time in a while, a really cool action ride where you go for a traditional martial arts brawler with Donnie Yen and get a complex story packed with twists and emotions and a bad guy who is already iconic. Good cop vs bad cop, yeah! I enjoyed the whole two hours immensely. The movie captivates with an attractive story with one interesting twist, very good visuals, and an amazing soundtrack. Donnie Yen is traditionally excellent, and Nicholas Tse is a downright elegant villain, I loved character terribly. The action isn't as much as I would have liked, but when it comes to it, it's great. There are car chases, great shootouts, fights (though it's easy to see that Donnie is getting old, so he saved his fists for the finale), it's bloody, dark, and unpleasant. The finale is less than half an hour long (the shootout on the street with civilian casualties is awesome), and the final duel deserves a place on YouTube in the TOP 10 fights of All the Time. Nicholas Tse is a very fast machine and with his speed with knives he surpassed even the The Man from Nowhere – I didn't breathe, instant goosebumps for 10 minutes!!. Excellent film, which I'll gladly repeat, it was great and I'm glad I got to see a proper guy's movie. Story 4/5, Action 5/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 5/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 4/5, Actors 4/5. 9/10. (07/10/2021)