Photo: May S. Young from Metro NYC, United States / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Ringo Lam is one of those Hong Kong New Wave directors I think deserves more credit outside cinephile circles. City on Fire alone earned him a kind of cult immortality once people connected its undercover-cop tension to Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, and the heroic bloodshed films he made stand up to anyone working that genre in the late '80s. What strikes me is how grounded and gritty his crime stories feel compared to flashier contemporaries. He died in 2018, and I get the sense his influence still hasn't been fully measured. A filmmaker worth revisiting if you only know the genre by reputation.
Overview
Ringo Lam Ling-Tung (simplified Chinese: 林岭东; traditional Chinese: 林嶺東; Jyutping: lam4 ling5 dung1, 8 December 1955 – 29 December 2018) was a Hong Kong filmmaker. He was known for his action and crime films produced during the Hong Kong New Wave, many of them comprising entries in the heroic bloodshed subgenre.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Ringo Lam
- Name (Japanese)
- リンゴ・ラム
- Reading
- りんご・らむ
- Born
- December 8, 1955 – December 29, 2018
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Goat
- Origin
- British Hong Kong, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film director / screenwriter / film producer / director / actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- York University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | City on Fire | — | |
| Notable work | Undeclared War | — |
6. Links
Film director — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.