Waise Lee packs some serious heat as a tough-as-nails supercop.
The Big Heat is a 1988 Hong Kong movie directed by Johnnie To, with plenty of elements inspired directly by John Woo's earlier outputs in the Heroic Bloodshed genre. It is noted by fans of Johnnie To for being To's first attempt into making action movies; according to To, the movie was made on a "chaotic" shooting schedule with an ever-changing script, where To would want to pay homage to John Woo completely without ripping him off, while having his own unique ideas on what should be added into the film.
Waise Lee, who previously played the Big Bad of A Better Tomorrow, takes a turn at being the protagonist, a Cowboy Cop who is losing control of his hand due to an accident. Investigating the unfortunate demise of a friend who's violently killed while on undercover assignment in Malaysia, Wong and his new partner, Kwok, uncovers a far more sinister plot involving smuggling operations making its way into Hong Kong.
Besides its overly long shooting schedule, the movie is known for its excessive violence and over-the-top gore effects, including multiple amounts of overkills.
Do not confuse this with the 1953 film, The Big Heat.
This film provides examples of:
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Inspector Wong, with several scenes in a suit and tie.
- Body Horror: The demise of the Big Bad, Han Ching. He attempts to shoot Inspector Wong with a shotgun, but Inspector Wong managed to retaliate by firing back at him, landing a hit into the shotgun’s barrel, which causes every shell in the weapon to go off and blast Han Ching in the face and body. The result looks like a man fused with a block of Swiss cheese in a teleporter accident.
- Cool Shades: Worn by most of the characters throughout the movie.
- Cowboy Cop: Inspector Wong, a police sergeant who isn’t above threatening witnesses with firearms, shooting escaping suspects in public, and going into shootouts with criminals indiscreetly.
- Cut-and-Paste Note: The letter issued by the dealers for the 1-million-dollar ransom.
- Fingore: Thanks to Wong’s Improbable Aiming Skills. During the drug dealer’s raid, a dealer tries drawing his revolver on Wong, but Wong shoots his weapon, causing the revolver to explode, and removing four of the dealer’s fingers.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Han Ching, the Big Bad of the movie.
- Hot Pursuit: Inspector Wong and Inspector Kwok chasing the suspect through heavy traffic, all three men avoiding moving cars while trying to shoot each other. Kwok is thrown off the chase early when he has to stop and save a child, but Wong continues relentlessly.
- Improbable Infant Survival:
- Played straight in one chase scene where Inspector Wong and Kwok pursues a suspect after the docks investigation. The suspect grabs a little boy who got in his way and throws him into the middle of traffic to distract the police, but Kwok is quick enough to grab the child and shield him from falling on the road. A truck comes dangerously close to running them both over before stopping, missing them by an inch, and the boy is unharmed (well, maybe traumatized a little).
- Averted in the hospital shootout.
- Kick the Dog: During the hospital shootout, a handful of unarmed bystanders and civilians gets shot dead when caught between the police and mooks which are firing their weapons everywhere indiscriminately. One of the victims is a little girl with polio who's confined to a wheelchair. She's not a random bystander, mind you, there is an earlier scene in the same hospital where the child has quite a few minutes of screentime, and yet when she gets shot her death is treated much like any faceless mook...
- Knee-capping: Inspector Wong would shoot suspects in the knee if he wants them to be taken alive. It doesn’t work for the suspect in the docks scene though, since the guy was in heavy traffic at the time and shooting his knee only results in him getting run over by a vehicle.
- Man on Fire: Happens to the unfortunate informant who happens to be standing in a pool of gasoline just as a lighted match is dropped on its surface.
- Not Enough to Bury: Surprisingly averted for the informant who gets killed in Malaysia, despite his death seemingly otherwise. Said victim was set on fire, hit by a vehicle and shoved into a set of oil drums, who then explodes, but the police are able to retrieve a complete, if badly-burnt, corpse of the victim, who despite being roasted alive still have the features of a former human being.
- Off with His Head!: During the raid on the drug dealer’s hideout, Inspector Wong shoots a henchman trying to sneak up on him, causing the henchman to fall backwards, neck-first, on a thin zinc-sheet. Which results in his entire head being lopped off and rolling aside before falling over a tall railing.
- Outside Ride: Happens in the foot chase, when Inspector Wong clings on the hood of a vehicle to catch up with the fleeing suspect who’s making his way through heavy traffic.
- Shooting Gallery: Inspector Wong and Kwok practices their skills with their standard-issue police revolvers in one of these. Naturally, given Wong being a crack shot, he hits the target dead center with every shot fired.
- Shoot the Hostage: Subverted in a Mexican Standoff scene. Inspector Kwok shoots the hostage in his thigh, causing him to fall and the hostage-taker to fire an empty shot at where the hostage’s head was.
- Slow-Motion Fall: Happens several times in the movie, especially during the raid on the drug dealer’s hideout when Wong’s partner gets shot in the knee. It takes him around 5 seconds to fall and hit the floor.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The movie has plenty of explosions, including oil drums, vehicles, warehouses, various facilities in a hospital, and an entire apartment block.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- The informant in Malaysia, who dies from getting himself set on fire, and then rammed by a vehicle into a series of oil drums. Who then explodes on him.
- During the highway chase, the suspect is shot by Wong in the leg, then hit by a moving vehicle while atop an overpass, causing him to be flung over a tall railing and landing on another vehicle below, before hitting the road and ending under the wheels of a third vehicle.
