Cheung Sung-bong is an officer of the Regional Crime Unit who worked in the front line for many years. His protege, Yau Kong-ngo, respects him and manages to reach up to him. However, fate brings pits them against each other.
Donnie Yen plays Cheung Sung-bong, a senior inspector of the Hong Kong Regional Crime Unit who is honorable and law-abiding, to a fault, and sometimes to the chagrin of his colleagues and superiors. He is honest and aboveboard and does everything by the book. When Tai Cheuk-yin (Kenny Wong), Cheung’s most trusted subordinate, takes on a big case, much to Cheung’s opposition as he feels he is not equipped for the job, he and his fellow officers are ambushed and killed. Upon further investigation, Cheung discovers that the man responsible for the assault is an old acquaintance and protege of his, Yau Kong-ngo (Nicholas Tse), and when he shows no sign of surrendering, Cheung must put their past aside, and bring him and his organization down, even if it means deviating from his customary ethical stance.
“Raging Fire” has all the quintessential trademarks of a high-quality Hollywood thriller; slow-burning tension, magnificent aerial shots of Hong Kong, impressive action set-pieces and shootouts, not the culturally distinctive fast-paced, non-stop action and violence we typically associate with films from this genre, and that’s why I had high hopes for this movie, it looked and sounded better than it had a right to but in the end, the acting from all involved is what caused it to fall flat. Donnie Yen is always physically remarkable in every film he appears in, his mixed martial arts choreography is unmatched and here, he gets to showcase his talents but gets to shoot a lot of bad guys too, proving that he is truly a lethal weapon, with or without a gun.
I have always found that dramatic acting and emoting is not something a lot of Asian actors are particularly good at. Their film industry relies more on action, fighting, and violence, so when a movie comes around that requires some of them to express emotion, they meet with disaster, especially if the film ends up getting a poorly English-dubbed version. I’m not saying Asian people cannot express themselves, I’m simply saying that in Asian Cinema, sentimentality and emotional resonance are not their forte, and unfortunately, that is the case here. “Raging Fire” is a beautiful-looking film with thrilling action that is sadly mired in emotional detachment and because of this, the sensational action scenes fall short as their repercussions are not adequately conveyed by the ensemble cast.
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