Ringo Lam’s 1987 cop yarn starring a magnetic Chow Yun-fat delivers the violent realism and emotional heft that shaped Reservoir Dogs’ bloody caper

Ringo Lam’s Hong Kong cop thriller gained a new level of recognition in the west when Quentin Tarantino admitted he’d borrowed heavily from its plot for his own Reservoir Dogs. In truth, apart from the bare bones of the plot (culminating in that famous Mexican standoff), there’s little comparison. No wisecracking about Madonna lyrics or torture scenes set to 70s soft rock here; instead, you get gritty, often bloody violence in the bustling streets and night markets of Hong Kong (which look splendid in this new restoration), and an effective tale of cops, robbers and divided loyalty. (And to be fair, Lam in turn was inspired by 1970s Indian thriller Gaddaar.)

You also get Chow Yun-fat in his prime, as an undercover police officer charged with infiltrating a gang of jewel thieves. Unlike Reservoir Dogs, though, we know he’s a cop from the outset, and the story contrasts his own force’s infighting and inhumanity with the relative honour and camaraderie he finds among the criminals – that even includes the one who killed his colleague (Danny Lee). In his undercover persona Chow is cool and clownish, but he also effectively conveys the toll and turmoil of his double identity. Chow’s work in John Woo’s operatically flashy action movies such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled put this era of late-80s and early-90s Hong Kong cinema on the global map, but this is a more brutal and realistic kind of movie, full of grubby locations, tough choices and sudden deaths as well as some thrilling foot chases and shootouts.