MovieChat Forums > Lung foo fung wan (1987) Discussion > John Landis' story on asking Tarantino a...

John Landis' story on asking Tarantino about RD and COF:

posted 11 years ago by jp3183
8 replies | jump to latest

http://youtu.be/9lFRSndTI1U

Edit: The video has been taken down. I've described its contents in a post below.

Thank you for posting this!

[–] jp3183 11 years ago

No problem!

That's funny. I thought Tarantino had denied this for years, but he just came right out, and told Landis? I remember Film Threat magazine seemed to have been one of the first to point out the City on Fire/Reservoir Dogs connection, I was a big Hong Kong film fan at the time, I hadn't seen City on Fire then, but I had seen Reservoir Dogs, and when it got to the credit sequence I immediately thought to myself that someone had obviously seen A Better Tomorrow II. I got a copy of City on Fire right away and although it is not exactly a scene-for-scene remake, it's still pretty obvious that he had seen it, and ripped a lot from it...

[–] woollybully07 11 years ago

since the video is now down would you mind telling us atleast the gist of what John Ladis' story is?

[–] SeasonalAffective 10 years ago

Video is down. Can you please sum up what happened?

[–] jp3183 10 years ago

For everyone who's asking, Landis basically says that he had seen COF before RD and immediately recognized the similarities. So in a meeting w/ Quentin, he looked to confirm it. The exchange, according to Landis, went something like this...

Landis: "Say, I gotta ask you something."
Quentin: "What?"
Landis: "Reservoir Dogs..."
Quentin: "City on Fire!"
Landis: "Wha... really?"
Quentin: "Yeah, have you seen City on Fire? Great movie!"
Landis: "Oh... okay then." *laughs*

Then Landis basically says that Quentin's blunt answer to his controversial question surprised him.

On a separate note, the site below alleges the following quotes:

"I loved CITY ON FIRE, I got the poster framed in my house, so it's a great movie." - Quentin Tarantino, Film Threat, Issue 18, pg. 23.

"I've got the poster right here. That's Danny Lee. Ringo Lam is like my second, after Jackie Chan, third favorite of all the Hong Kong directors." - Quentin Tarantino, The Village Voice 10/25/94 No. 43, pg. 31.

http://www.ronlim.com/worldarchive/tarantino.html

[–] Zerose 10 years ago

Yes, he usually says he loved the film but as far as I can remember, he's never confirmed using COF as an inspiration. He always cites The Killing and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three as inspirations.

[–] 10 years ago

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