Co-Director Johnnie To who has also created other classic Chinese crime flicks, Fulltime Killer 2001, Drug War 2012, The Mission 1999 and Exiled 2006 and co-director Wah Yeung have created another gem in The Big Heat.Starring Waise Lee who has also been in another classic flick, Bullet in the Head 1990 and another classic Chinese Crime flick, A Better Tomorrow 1986.Also starring Joey Wang.Also starring Philip Kwok who has also been in other classic flicks, Tomorrow Never Dies 1997, Crippled Avengers 1978, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky 1991, Shaolin Temple 1976, Master of the Flying Guillotine 1976 and another classic Chinese crime flick, Hard-Boiled 1992.Also starring Matthew Wong.I enjoyed the violence and non-stop action.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic Chinese crime flicks, Above the Law 1986, Beast Cops 1998, A Better Tomorrow II 1987, Crime Story 1993, Ebola Syndrome 1996, Flash Point 2007, Full Contact 1992, Gen-X Cops 1999, Invisible Target 2007, SPL: Kill Zone 2005, The Killer 1989, On the Run 1988, In the Line of Duty 1986, Vengeance 1970, White Tiger 1996, Burning Ambition 1989, Safe 2012, Fatal Move 2008, The Viral Factor 2012, SPL 2: A Time for Consequences 2015, Dog Bite Dog 2006, Big Bullet 1996, Firestorm 2013, The White Storm 2013, Paradox 2017 and Year of the Dragon 1985.

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.

Big Heat is no masterpiece, the editing is sometimes sloppy, the music score is stolen fragments thrown together, there are a few seconds unnecessary comic relief here and there (but only seconds), the acting is often mediocre (even though Waise Lee is okay), the camerawork is not very impressive, the dialogue is nothing special and the story is nothing new.But despite the obvious flaws, if you like your movies violent you will be entertained.This is one brutal movie. You will see people get massacred and torn to pieces, you will see gunshots to the head, gunshots with beautiful bloodsquibs and much more extreme violence well scattered from the shock beginning to the brutal ending. I can assure you that the incredible death by car scene is the most violent you have ever seen. The other reviewer Brian Camp has already mentioned the exciting and of course extremely violent elevator shaft scene. Not even the children are safe in this movie, unlike Hollywood movies were they don't even dare to get a dog killed. The pacing is good so you will not be bored and the story is no masterpiece but it works. It is about revenge and those stories seem to work no matter how many revenge movies you have seen. We need bloody revenge. If you do not like brutality do not see this movie. 8 / 10.

Gloomy apocalyptic testament of Hong Kong's capitalism. Homosexuality, drug-dealing, and street-showdown between the police and a psychic criminal show that Chinese views of value have been already raped by 100 year-domain of westernization regardless of their UNWANTED retro-annexation to main China.