City on Fire has a reputation as the inspiration for Reservoir Dogs. Hopefully making it available again shows it stands on its own (as does Dogs). it has a diamond heist and an undercover cop in it but that’s about it.
I’ve been to Hong Kong and this 4K takes me back. Even though it was 25 years after this movie, I walked those streets. You can see the deep background in a nightclub.
Frank Djeng’s commentary with F.J. DeSanto identifies many of those locations in Hong Kong. The significance is that director Ringo Lam shot most of them without permission so it was real guerilla filmmaking.
Writer Tommy Sham gives a new interview reflecting on the film. Experts Grady Hendrix and Ric Myers put the film in context of the Hong Kong cinema movement. Kim Newman really digs into the Reservoir Dogs comparison much more deeply than I did above.