Bullet Points: Raging Fire

Last year, the action community mourned the passing of legendary film director, Benny Chan. Today, we celebrate Benny Chan’s life by taking a look at his final film, Raging Fire.

The 2021 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is set to premiere Raging Fire as their Centerpiece Presentation on August 9th, but I had the honor of getting an early look. Raging Fire is one of the most anticipated action releases of the year. Let us find out if Raging Fire is indeed straight fire. 

Raging Fire is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Well Go USA Entertainment or you can stream it on Hi-Yah!

• The Plot: It is cop vs. crook as Donnie Yen stars as a righteous cop out to takedown a gang of hard-to-catch criminals led by Nicholas Tse. What makes the story even more complex is Tse used to be Yen’s protégée, but Tse went to prison after an interrogation gone too far. Raging Fire is written and directed by Benny Chan.
• Donnie: Did Donnie Yen discover the secret to the Fountain of Youth? Did Donnie know Ponce de León in a past life? Donnie Yen has not aged since the Atari 2600 was first introduced. Donnie is one of the biggest action stars on the planet. He has made a career out of starring in cop movies, historical period pieces and IP Man films. I personally prefer Donnie in cop films. Flash Point and SPL come to mind as two of my favorites. The combination of Benny Chan and Donnie Yen has the hype train for Raging Fire maxed out. Donnie is once again a cop and having Benny Chan as the director, you know the action will be on point. 

• Heroic Bloodshed / Righteous Cop: Raging Fire has elements of the Heroic Bloodshed genre. The sense of honor, loyalty, family and the emotion between action sequences. The hero is the Righteous Cop. Donnie’s character is as honorable as they come. When you watch Raging Fire, you expect Donnie to act this way. When you watch a Bollywood action movie, you know there will be singing between awesome action scenes. I cannot fault Donnie for acting all goody-goody. This is how you must make an action film in Hong Kong. If not, your movie might never be released. Credit Benny Chan for there not being any obvious over-the-top glorification. For the most part, Raging Fire is simply a badass action flick. 
• The Action: There is an early action sequence that does not even feature Donnie, and it is probably one of the best action scenes you have seen all year. The finale is the best action sequence I have seen with my two eyes this year. Benny Chan knew how to shoot action like most people know how to breathe. His eye for action was as unconsciously natural as they come. I put Benny in the same category as John Woo and Johnny To. The action looks natural to the naked eye. The gunplay uses near-perfect tactical tactics. The fight scenes are not short cut after short cut, they are long well-choreographed scenes with lots of effort put into each reel. The driving while fighting scenes, the long-extended shootouts and each and every fight is executed with a precision only an expert could pull off. Raging Fire is the most polished action movie I have seen all year. 

• The Showstopper: We need a good bad guy and Raging Fire delivers with Nicholas Tse’s Ngo. Tse effortlessly steals the film. You are not supposed to cheer for the bad guys in Raging Fire, but I could not help it. Tse looks the part, and he gives one of my favorites performances of the year. 
• Final Thoughts: Rest In Peace, Benny Chan. Your final film might be your best overall work. Raging Fire is everything you would expect it to be. Raging Fire is straight fire. Raging Fire puts most Hollywood action movies to shame. Rarely do you watch a movie and get everything you expected from it. Raging Fire is the action movie of the year.
• Grade: A+