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Ringo Lam (China, 1955)
debuted when he replaced Po-Chih Leong at the helm of the supernatural romance
Esprit Damour (1983).
The comedies
The Other Side of Gentleman (1984),
written by Cheung Lai-Ling and Barry Wong,
and
Cupid One (1985) didn't amount to much; nor did
Aces Go Places IV - You Never Die Twice (1986),
written by Karl Maka, the fourth in a series, prepare for
Long hu Feng Yun/ City on Fire (1987), the film that established him
as a master of action movies,
a gangster movie following in the footsteps of
John Woo's
A Better Tomorrow (1986).
An undercover police officer is killed by the gang of jewel thieves he was
trying to infiltrate.
Veteran chief Lal asks young and reckless Chow to replace the dead man,
but Chow has problems with his fiance' to solve first.
The gang of jewel thieves strikes again, pulling out a bloody hold up in
broad daylight. Lal is asked to collaborate with an arrogant young detective,
John.
After the funeral of the dead cop,
Chow accepts to go undercover; but he also has to face a fiance' who wants
to get married, so he tells his boss he is resigning after this last job.
Chow wins the trust of the gang's boss.
The arrogant John has his men spying on Chow,
despite Lal's protestation that he's working for the police.
John arrests Chow when Chow is trying to stop his fiance' from leaving,
and then John's men torture Chow to make him talk. Lal is outraged.
Lal's and John's boss sorts the mess out and, suddenly (in the film's
most implausible plot twist), it is John who believes in Chow's undercover
mission to frame the criminals. So Chow is let go and can join the gang's
plan to rob another jewelry. John's cops set up a trap.
John doesn't care about the lives at risk, he only wants results.
In the meantime, Chow has bonded with one of the gangsters. When the
the heist gets out of control and turns into a massive shoot-out (as Lal had
feared) with the
police, Chow saves his buddy's life and kills a police officer.
He is taken to the hide-out, where the boss accuses him of being an
informer. Now it is his buddy who saves his life by pointing a gun to his
own boss. They don't have time to sort it out because the police surrounds
the building. Only Chow and his buddy survive the massacre. Chow, fatally
wounded, confesses that he is indeed a cop. His buddy points the gun at him
but can't shoot. The police enter the building and arrest him. Chow is
dead. Lal strikes John with a brick: again, his methods have caused the
death of an innocent.
He then directed:
Prison on Fire (1987),
The Eighth Happiness (1988),
School on Fire (1988),
Wild Search (1989),
Undeclared War (1990),
Prison on Fire II (1991),
Touch and Go (1991),
Twin Dragons (1992), co-directed with Tsui Hark,
Full Contact (1992),
Burning Paradise (1994),
The Adventurers (1995).
Maximum Risk (1996) Maximum Risk (1996) overflows with car chases, brawls, and shootouts, each more brutal than the last; it is a concentrated dose of Hollywoods worst cliches.
Two men chase a man through the crowded alleys of a French town. After an acrobatic sequence, the man is killed. It turns out he is Michail, the twin brother of local police officer Alain. Their mother had sold Michail to a Russian family who emigrated to the USA, and Michails trail was lost afterward. Alain decides to find out why Michail returned to their country and what kind of life he led.
However, Alain soon discovers that someone else is after Michail too, leaving death and terror in their wake. Alain flies to New York, where he learns that Michail was a feared gangster pursued by the Russian mafia. Following a lead, Alain meets Alex Bohemia, an alluring blonde who was Michails lover and becomes his partner in uncovering the truth. Accompanying them is a taxi driver who aspires to be a writer.
The Russians pursue them relentlessly, led by the ruthless Ivan, who answers to the powerful Kirov. The taxi driver saves them a couple of times but is eventually killed himself. The twist is that the FBI is also on their trailand they know that Alain is not Michail. Some FBI agents are colluding with the Russian mafia, and Michail had recorded their names in a document deposited in a French bank. Two of these agents approach Alain, attempting to coerce him into cooperatingfirst gently, then violently.
Alain realizes who killed Michail when he notices that the Russians are unaware of his death, while the FBI knows. He confronts Kirov, who actually loves him like a son and never ordered Michails murder. Kirov realizes that Ivan is rebelling against him, but its too lateIvan kills Kirov and carries out a massacre. Alain escapes after a chase through the subway.
The FBI captures Alex and uses her to blackmail Alain. He agrees to return to France to open the safety deposit box. Outside the bank, Ivan is waiting, holding Alains police inspector friend hostage. Only Alain is allowed inside, where the bank director gives him two boxes: one contains money and a tape recorded by his brother for him, and the other contains documents Michail, weary of crime, had intended to give to the American embassy.
Alain asks the director to deliver the documents to the embassy and devises a plan to create chaos. The Russians are already moving, but Alain arrives just in time to intercept the gangster who had stolen the documents from the bank director. He eliminates him and alerts the French police. The two FBI agents manage to escape, but Ivan is stopped and the hostage freed. Alain chases the agents car until he ends up inside a freezer, where he finally eliminates the criminals and rescues his love.
Lam still directed:
Full Alert (1997),
The Suspect (1998),
Victim (1999),
Replicant (2001),
Looking for Mr Perfect (2003),
In Hell (2003),
Triangle (2007), co-directed with Tsui Hark and Johnnie To,
and
Wild City (2015).
Lam died in 2018.
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