Before his passing in August of 2020, Benny Chan ( A Moment of Romance, New Police Story) wrote the last chapter of his extraordinary movie career giving us this last “Raging Fire” as his final cinematic statement, delivering a non´stop action thriller in which Donnie Yen (Ip Man, SPL, Flashpoint) and Nicholas Tse (New Police Story, Dragon Tiger Gate, Invisible Target) joined forces once again to be the absolute stars of a thrilling story that revolves around honor, justice and betrayal, in an attempt of bringing back the missing glory of the golden age of Hong Kong action cinema.
The plot follows Inspector Cheung Sung-bong (Donnie Yen), a righteous cop who finds himself trapped in a spiral of violence, where police officers are specially targeted by a dangerous criminal gang led by his former protege, Ngo (Nicholas Tse). A rising police officer to whom Cheung didn´t hesitate in sending to jail, when he abused of his authority breaking the law. Now turned into a vulgar criminal and freshed out of jail, Ngo is ready to set the streets on fire with just one thing in mind, collect his revenge. It´s payback time!
The script written by Benny Chan, Chan, Ryan Ling y Tong Yiu-ling, is a succesion of cliches wrapped into the style of these type of films, presenting nothing really new or original, but filling the screen with the amusement of cinematic glorious violence in a cocktail of explosions, ballistic action, insane stunts and violent hand to hand combat scenes directed by Donnie Yen himself, bringing back the type of fight sequences that he made popular on some of his classic cop thrillers such as SPL or Flash point, where modern MMA movements and classic Kung Fu kicks and punches are combined, in order to give out a powerful and brutal display of the best action on screen.
Raging Fire delivers everything that could be expected, being a delightful ride of brutal action and breathless enjoyment, having Hong Kong as the perfect scenario to drag the audience into a two-hour evasive entertaintment in which Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse filled the screen with their talent and astonishing charisma, giving us the final glances of a wonderful filmmaker as Benny Chan… He´ll be missing.. Wherever he is now, may he rest in power, and thanks for the wonderful cinematic memories…
Trinity CineAsia presents Raging Fire in UK cinemas from 12th November and on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital 31st January 2022
