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Cimino spent four years recovering from the commercial disaster and the audience rejection of his ambitious Heaven's Gate, and came back with what I love him for: a piece of proper filmmaking, with "Cimino-esque" precision, where Chinatown, with hundreds of extras, pulses with life as believably as the explicit street gang violence depicted here with bullet-riddled bodies and one severed head. Mickey Rourke as the grizzled, uncompromising Commissioner Stanley White is perfect, and never mind the critics of the time who accused this character of open, unconcealed racism caused by the trauma of his military service in the Vietnam War, and then wrongly accused Cimino of being intolerant of minorities in American society. Maybe that's why the film kind of fizzled out without much audience response in the cinemas, Cimino became bitter and, to our misfortune, Year of the Dragon is his last big film. (watched on Blu-ray). (01.12.2013)

I would say that this is a somewhat underrated film and a very pleasant surprise for me. In many films, I have a problem with the logic of the unfolding story, the motivation of the characters, and the genre baggage that would in this case mean crazy action orgies and excessive brutality. Not that there is no action, intense shootouts, fights, and various types of violence in the film, but it is dosed exactly as I believe it should work in the given environment and situation. Mickey Rourke perfectly suits the role of a relentless and uncompromising police officer and his character is similar to Gene Hackman in The French Connection. All the characters act more or less as dictated by the circumstances and their goals, and how I would probably behave in their situation. Due to being set in a Chinese quarter, it is also a somewhat exotic spectacle, but definitely not for its own sake. Overall impression: 80%. (09.05.2010)

Cimino’s solid directing and Stone’s excellent screenplay that uncovers the goings-on behind the scenes of Chinatown. Lots of excellent ideas (wife, shootout on the bridge) and no pussyfooting. The rather slow tempo is a little annoying, it could have been a first-rate movie. This way it’s only a fine genre piece with the young (not yet too decadent) Mickey Rourke. The people in this country have no memory. Nobody remembers anything. (22.03.2014)