Memorable, crazy movie

Disappointment for a huge fan!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

The Big Heat is a very underrated HK action flick. This was made in the late 80's, a great time for action and the peak of this genre in HK. this overlooked gem is HK action at its finest. Gritty, fast paced with solid action and direction and lots of high octane, extreme action. The Big Heat is really cooking with truckloads of crazy action, blood and gore. This film has two directors, Andrew Kam and Johnny To. While some projects suffer from "too many cooks in the kitchen", The Big Heat is totally solid and cohesive. Johnny To would later become one of the most prolific and respected directors in HK cinema. Waise Lee is the lead in this film and is an overworked, stressed out cop that is about to retire until he gets the news that one of his close friends gets barbecued in Malaysia. He scratches that idea and starts to work on the case. Waise Lee does a good job as veteran cop and hero. He usually is cast as villain in this type of movie. Speaking of going against type, Chu Kong (who is best known to western audiences as Sydney from John Woo's classic The Killer) is in his element as a violent, drug pushing villain. Also appearing is Shaw Brothers kung fu star Phillip Kwok in one of his most memorable performances in a modern action movie besides Hard Boiled. The gorgeous Joey Wang has a brief, but memorable performance as a nurse. She also is a love interest for the rookie cop working on the case with Waise Lee's group of cops. If you are a fan of action, The Big Heat is hard to beat. Gorehounds should also take note as the violence in this film is very bloody and very extreme.

If you aren't a fan of Cantonese gunplay/gangster movies, you won't like this as much as I did. If you are, however, and you haven't seen "The Big Heat", prepare to thoroughly enjoy yourself. Having been a fan of HK flicks for years, I've reached the stage where I feel like I've seen it all. I've even taken to renting videotapes at 4 bucks a pop, 2 tapes per film, at my local Chinese-language movie store(I live in Phoenix, AZ, so if you're anywhere remotely metropolitan, you probably have one in your town as well). Now, I scour the aisles, hoping to see something even remotely on par with the works of Woo, Lam, and Hark. Most times, I come up disappointed, sitting hopefully through a sluggish, poorly plotted film with one or two halfway decent action sequences. So I was pleasantly surprised by this one. An early entry into the HK cop action genre, this little number was directed by Johnny To and Andrew Kam, both of whom were reportedly fired by producer Tsui Hark, who helmed some of it himself. The story has been described by others here already, so I'll just mention that this thing kicks ass! It moves along at a fair clip, never gets dull, and the fight scenes, while more akin to Ringo Lam's close-quarters real-time shootouts than John Woo's orgiastic slo-mo duels, are consistently inventive and exciting. A couple of motifs here ended up in later films, like "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled". And, I swear, the "shoot the hostage" bit from "Speed" was lifted directly from this film. If you've watched all of the better-known HK movies(and some of the lesser-known ones), and are jonesing for a fix of Asian action, check this one out. And, yes, it really is gruesomely violent for a HK film.

This film, The Big Heat (Hong Kong, 1988) is outstanding, and it shows exactly what differs these movies from others. This is directed by Johnnie To and Andrew Kam and the story involves a little bunch of police officers (including Waise Lee, the smooth actor from Better Tomorrow and Bullet in the Head) who are on the trail of a criminal league which is also responsible for one of the cops' partner's death. What follows is non-stop action and never before seen cinematic mayhem.I'm mostly attracted by the apocalyptic tone the film has. In many Hong Kong films from that period, the main theme is that what will happen to Hong Kong in 1997..? It is a subject matter that scares and really concerns people in these films. But the infernal visions of The Big Heat can also be seen universally and as a statement of the whole globe's future and attitudes which destroy it. The apocalyptic element is maintained by the action and gory mayhem, which never actually stops during the film. There are no chances to have a break and be in peace. The whole system is collapsing and everybody has to fight for life all the time or the "stronger will get you."The action scenes and gun battles are incredible (sorry for using these adjectives so much). When I first saw this, I watched it on VHS tape, dubbed in English and fullscreen, but still that tape was uncut. When I first saw it, the film didn't have any particular effect on me, although one extremely brutal car scene stayed in my mind, but the film as a whole didn't "blow me away" back then. Then I purchased the DVD which is subtitled in English and letterboxed and after that second viewing, I was kicked in the head. This is the case usually with HK movies: they have to be seen many times, before you really can see through them and appreciate them. The Big Heat showed its real face for me during that second time and now I've ranked the film among the most outrageous, fast paced and also savagely violent action films ever. And I think that people with open minds will come to that conclusion too. If we talk about the violence in HK films, the violent Woo movies are not too hard to take because they are so beautiful and full of more or less mysterious elements (white birds/doves, crushing statues, and so on..) but the violence in Big Heat is very different. It comes pretty close to violence in Ringo Lam's masterful Full Contact which is also pretty savage and not "beautifully" violent and symbolic as John Woo's films. I really love Woo's artistic work too, but the attitudes in his films are very different than Big Heat's.A local collector has told me that he has tried to show Big Heat to some of his colleagues at work, and no one has managed to sit through it! That really tells something about what are chances for mainstream audiences to understand these kinds of films which DON'T intend to entertain stupid masses.In its own masterful genre, The Big Heat is a 10 out of 10 points experience and it can be recommended only for fanatics of the challenging Far East cinema.

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.