Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

dworldeater The Big Heat is a very underrated HK action flick. This was made in the late 80's, a great time for action and the peak of this genre in HK. this overlooked gem is HK action at its finest. Gritty, fast paced with solid action and direction and lots of high octane, extreme action. The Big Heat is really cooking with truckloads of crazy action, blood and gore. This film has two directors, Andrew Kam and Johnny To. While some projects suffer from "too many cooks in the kitchen", The Big Heat is totally solid and cohesive. Johnny To would later become one of the most prolific and respected directors in HK cinema. Waise Lee is the lead in this film and is an overworked, stressed out cop that is about to retire until he gets the news that one of his close friends gets barbecued in Malaysia. He scratches that idea and starts to work on the case. Waise Lee does a good job as veteran cop and hero. He usually is cast as villain in this type of movie. Speaking of going against type, Chu Kong (who is best known to western audiences as Sydney from John Woo's classic The Killer) is in his element as a violent, drug pushing villain. Also appearing is Shaw Brothers kung fu star Phillip Kwok in one of his most memorable performances in a modern action movie besides Hard Boiled. The gorgeous Joey Wang has a brief, but memorable performance as a nurse. She also is a love interest for the rookie cop working on the case with Waise Lee's group of cops. If you are a fan of action, The Big Heat is hard to beat. Gorehounds should also take note as the violence in this film is very bloody and very extreme.

Cam Corder Bad Stuff. Really bad Stuff. I have read others reviews and stayed curious about the film, but, after i've seen it...This movie is one of the worst movies that i have ever saw. Its not the gore or the violence, but the bad acting and the scenes that look like they are fast forward. John woo and Ringo Lam are the best, but this is mediocre cinema. Bad Stuff. I have laughed so much that this should be a comedy. A bad one... A really bad one... Awful Film. Hong Kong makes a lot of films, but most have zero quality. Guns, Cops, Blood, funny deaths. Bad action with no brains. People should see more well made movies and not waste time with this. Horrible.

dbborroughs Johnnie To and Tsui Hark direct with Andrew Kam one of the more violent brooding police films I've seen from Hong Kong. I know that some HK action films can get nasty and brutal, but this one seems to be near the top of the list. The story has a police detective putting his life and retirement on hold when he gets word that a former partner who was in hiding because of a bust that went bad, has been killed. The murder is tied to a wealthy business man who has ties to other dark and not so dark places. Assembling a team of like minded cops he sets off to find justice for his fallen friend. The film begins with a drill going through a man's hand (its a dream sequence referring to our hero's nerve trouble with his right hand) and then it goes from there as bodies are broken and battered and shot both graphically and frequently. Its a blood soaked thrill ride thats gritty and ugly. Its the sort of dark thriller that seems to have fallen out of favor with directors who don't like the idea of "action Noir" unless its brightly lit.I'm guessing this is the result of the ability to do better effects means you don't have to hide stuff in the shadows. This is a good very violent noir film by way of China and is worth a look for anyone who likes dark action.

Jerry Nuckolls If you aren't a fan of Cantonese gunplay/gangster movies, you won't like this as much as I did. If you are, however, and you haven't seen "The Big Heat", prepare to thoroughly enjoy yourself. Having been a fan of HK flicks for years, I've reached the stage where I feel like I've seen it all. I've even taken to renting videotapes at 4 bucks a pop, 2 tapes per film, at my local Chinese-language movie store(I live in Phoenix, AZ, so if you're anywhere remotely metropolitan, you probably have one in your town as well). Now, I scour the aisles, hoping to see something even remotely on par with the works of Woo, Lam, and Hark. Most times, I come up disappointed, sitting hopefully through a sluggish, poorly plotted film with one or two halfway decent action sequences. So I was pleasantly surprised by this one. An early entry into the HK cop action genre, this little number was directed by Johnny To and Andrew Kam, both of whom were reportedly fired by producer Tsui Hark, who helmed some of it himself. The story has been described by others here already, so I'll just mention that this thing kicks ass! It moves along at a fair clip, never gets dull, and the fight scenes, while more akin to Ringo Lam's close-quarters real-time shootouts than John Woo's orgiastic slo-mo duels, are consistently inventive and exciting. A couple of motifs here ended up in later films, like "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled". And, I swear, the "shoot the hostage" bit from "Speed" was lifted directly from this film. If you've watched all of the better-known HK movies(and some of the lesser-known ones), and are jonesing for a fix of Asian action, check this one out. And, yes, it really is gruesomely violent for a HK film.