27 Things You Didn't Know About Reservoir Dogs

12. The Film Is Heavily Inspired By Ringo Lam's City On Fire

Surely the film's biggest controversy is its notable resemblance to Ringo Lam's 1987 cult classic thriller City on Fire, which stars Chow Yun-fat as a cop who goes undercover with a gang of thieves as they prepare to execute a jewellery heist.

Numerous scenes from Lam's film are "homaged" in Reservoir Dogs, namely the botched heist, the undercover cop getting gravely wounded and the Mexican standoff finale.

For Tarantino's part, he has at least acknowledged the similarities and his love for Lam's film, even dedicating Reservoir Dogs' script to Chow Yun-fat himself.

Nevertheless, the success of Reservoir Dogs, in taking Lam's decent material and giving it an exuberant makeover, was just the first of the countless times Tarantino incorporated existing ideas and iconography into his own work.