Prison on Fire II

School on Fire, City on Fire, Prison on Fire: seems like Hong Kong was a rather dangerous place to be in the '80s, a veritable inferno thanks to top HK action director Ringo Lam, who directed the aforementioned trio of movies, and who returned to briefly reignite the series in the early '90s with this sequel to Prison on Fire.

In Prison on Fire II, Asian superstar Chow Yun Fat reprises his role as convict Ching, who must stay on his guard after he is wrongfully accused of identifying gang leader Boss Dragon (Sung Young Chen) as the killer of a fellow prisoner during a riot. Ching must also keep a wary eye on sadistic prison guard Officer Zau (Elvis Tsui) who would like nothing more than to see him beaten to death by Dragon's men.

The first 40 minutes or so of this prison drama is rather uneventful, with little in the way of action or tension as Lam sets up his characters and plot, injecting a little too much not-very-funny humour and maudlin sentimentality into proceedings for my liking. Fortunately, things pick up once Boss Dragon has been fingered for the killing (oo-err!) and makes a break for freedom by leaping into the sea from a cliff, with Ching following suit soon after, the two men forming a bond while on the run.

The latter half of the film is far more entertaining, thanks to better pacing and more action, the best moments being a tense chase through the jungle and across some rickety corrugated iron rooftops, the hilarious sight of Ching and Boss Dragon simultaneously suffering from a bad case of the squits, and a brutal finalé that sees treacherous inmate Skull (the man who framed Boss Dragon for murder) and wicked guard Zau finally get their comeuppance.

I happened to get the chance to sit down and watch both parts I and II of the "Prison On Fire" movies; one after another. I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie, so I was looking forward to binging part II immediately after.

While "Prison On Fire II" (aka "Gam yuk fung wan II: To fan") was adequately enjoyable, it wasn't quite as good as the first movie. Why? Well, for my personal preference they had opted to put a bit too much of comedy into it, or at least elements of comedy. It just felt very much out of place, and it just dumbed down the movie unnecessarily.

It was nice, though, that both writer Yin Nam and director Ringo Lam returned to the helm the movie. Not to mention Chow Yun Fat retuning to his role, along with some other familiar faces in the inmate crowd.

"Prison On Fire II" is watchable and entertaining enough for what it turned out to be. But personally I was not a fan of the attempt to introduce elements of comedy into the movie, when they needed to make the movie more gritty and harsh.

My rating of this 1991 "Prison On Fire II" movie is a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Chow Yun Fat gives another energetic performance as Ching, a good-natured prisoner driven to the edge by a sadistic warden. The warden in this movie is more clearly a villain than in the first, since he enjoys pitting various prisoners against each other, as if for sport.

There is more emphasis on Ching's background than in the first movie, and more scenes take place outside of the prison. But despite the dramatic possibilities, one major flaw in the story line is that Ching never reaches an understanding with his wife.

But despite such a flaw, this movie is more about action, even more than the first, so it's not a big deal. This movie (as well as Prison on Fire, Part I) effectively conveys the futile and oppressive life inside a prison, and you can't help but feel happy for anyone who survives it.

Fans of "City on Fire" (1987), Ringo Lam's earlier team-up with Chow Yun-Fat, will sorely miss the compelling storyline and dynamic action scenes that Lam delivered 4 years before directing Prison on Fire II. The fight sequences, despite their nomination at the Hong Kong Film Festival, were lackluster. The characters don't mean anything to me. Finally, through no fault of anyone but the distributor, the English subtitles are so bad at times that I really hadn't the foggiest what the characters were saying. Again, not Lam's fault. Chow Yun-Fat does his nice-guy thing, but sadly never gets an opportunity to display his martial arts talents; instead he spends a lot of time picking himself up after getting beaten up. He pairs really well with Danny Lee in 1987: the two play off each other's sense of humor and share excellent fight scenes. Chow Yun-Fat was on his own in "Prison on Fire", and the film suffers from the lack of acting talent. I can only hope that Lam was working on a more limited budget than he had for City on Fire, because this film lacks all the impressive effects and action that he deployed skillfully in the latter. There is little joy in this film.

Prison on Fire 2 (1991) follows the life of an inmate that was introduced in Prison on Fire (Chow Yun-Fat). This time the story is all about him as he tries to survive prison life. Chow has two problems, the growing animosity between mainland China prisoners and the Hong Kong inmates. To make matters worse, a new prison guard (Elvis Tsui) has just transfered to the prison and tries to enforce his own law of discipline. Can Chow keep the peace between the gangs or will the prison yard fall into chaos whilst the new yard boss enforces his brutal brand of justice?

Ringo Lam pulls no punches in this docu-drama about life in prison. The characters are more fleshed out this time and we learn the truth about the reason why he's in prison and more about his only child. A deep moving film that's highly recommended for fans of Ringo Lam and Chow Yun-Fat. Stay glued until the end. A very nice surprise from Chow's past comes back into the picture!