As boredom sets in due to increasingly bad weather, the time has come for me to delve back into my to watch list of dvds. Last night I did just that and pulled out 1990's Jackie Chan prison thriller Island of Fire.
Here's what I thought of it...
The 'prison' film is a great sub-genre of the crime thriller. Whether we're watching a story of escape or just trying to survive day to day life, they seem to be very watch-able and entertaining. Some films focus on the new 'fish' trying to survive and some focus on the corrupt prison guards and wardens. A few films come to mind when i think of the prison film, Shawshank Redemption for instance is about a man who spends the entire film working on his escape plan, Brubaker, the Robert Redford film is about a new warden cleaning up the prison who uncovers a murder plot and even films like Undisputed, a film about prison boxing shows how a person attempts to survive day to day surrounded by hardened criminals. The Film I am going to review contains pretty much every element seen in the films that I have mentioned. Island Of Fire is a Hong Kong semi-action drama, it focuses on five main characters, Each with their own reason for being there.
The plot of Island Of Fire follows an Undercover cop as he tries to infiltrate a notorious prison, home to everyone from triads, killers, drug dealers, you name it they're all there. His reason for infiltrating the prison is to uncover a plot that uses supposedly executed inmates to carry out assassinations and then grant them they're freedom as long as they leave the country. What the film also does is show the corrupt side of law enforcement in the prison. The guards are as violent as the men they are guarding, treating the prisoner's as animals and abusing them daily. I know it sounds cliché but that's the way the prison film works.
THE CAST: I'm going to take a look at the five main characters in the film.
TONY LEUNG KA FAI as Andy
Ka Fai plays the undercover cop Andy, who, to begin with takes to his role with trepidation when first entering the prison. He is supposed to be serving two years for assault and battery. When inside he is put in a cell with an inmate named Charlie. Being a prison film, one of the characters has to have a pet mouse, Charlie has the pet mouse in this. Anyway the two become friends, and Andy seems to take to his role and to the viewer seems to have forgotten he is a cop. Ka Fai is great as Andy, at the start he plays him as a Vulnerable man, the new fish in a big pond. At first I thought it was Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Infernal Affairs, Lust Caution) but then realised it wasn't and remembered Ka Fai from A Better Tomorrow II. He is really good in this.
SAMMO HUNG as Fatty.
Wow, Sammo was great in this, sure he had some moment of comedy but the man is brilliant dramatic actor too. His character Fatty, spends most of the film escaping and the first time we see him escape is so that he can see his son. This final encounter with his son is quite sad as he know the police are on his tail and as he returns his son to boarding school, the sirens of police cars in the distance, he just stands there, watching his son run inside because he knows he's not getting away. For me Sammo was the most impressive actor and most interesting character in the film.
JACKIE CHAN as Steven
Although I said this was this was a Jackie Chan film, to be honest he is more of a supporting character. Steven does have a back story as to why he is in prison and is the reason for Andy Lau's character being in prison but the film doesn't really focus too much on him. But Jackie is doing what Jackie does best, kicking butt. His character ends up in prison after being accused of cheating at a game of cards for money to save his girlfriends life, getting into a brawl and accidentally killing the owner of the club who just so happens to be Andy Lau's brother. But Jackie is still pretty damn cool in this.
ANDY LAU as Boss Li
A younger Andy Lau post God Of Gamblers, here plays a gangster and brother of the man killed by Jackie whose many attempts to kill Jackie from the outside are thwarted, so get's himself locked up to do the job himself and almost succeeds. Lau is pretty damn cool in almost every film he's in, be it Infernal Affairs, Running On Karma and House Of Flying Daggers, I can never have a bad word to say about Lau's performances in any thing. Here as usual, he's great.
JIMMY WANG YU as Lucas
I'd only heard of Wang Yu recently thanks to the documentary Not Quite Hollywood about the Exploitation films from Australia and how he starred in Brian Trenchard-Smith's The Man From Hong Kong and how he cause controversy due to his demanding and insulting behaviour during the making of that film, here though he's really good as Lucas, the triad boss who runs the prison from the prison cells, how he becomes friends with Ka Fai's character and his untimely death due to Sammo. He has only made five films since Island Of Fire and the last was in 1993 but he does have a new film on the way called Swordsmen. He was also the producer of Island Of Fire.
THE DIRECTION:
I am unfamiliar with the work of Chu Yen Ping, having never seen any of work, but after checking his biography on IMDB, was surprised to find he'd directed the recent Kung Fu Dunk which I had seen. Anyway, here his direction good, the fight scenes are well handles as well as the dramatic segments of the film, the overhead shots of the prison are well shot and lit. Unfortunately the DVD transfer is a little on the grainy side. The Final action scene is very well handled and maybe because of the recent John Woo film The Killer being release only a year previously, Yen Ping decided to put a rather Heroic Bloodshed esque shoot out at the end, two guns, slow motion diving while firing guns, multiple squib hits, all very John Woo. This scene was a bit out of place in a film that primarily has very little action and having this finale really took a way the drama that the previous 90 minutes had been building to.
MY FINAL VERDICT:
Island Of Fire is a cracking little film, well paced, well directed and very well acted that should appeal to fans of Hong Kong Cinema as well as fans of Prison Films. But like I pointed out, the Finale (Shoot out) doesn't really belong in this film, if it was less The Killer and More realistic it would have suited the film better, however the 90 minutes previous are fantastic and this is great way to spend a good 93 minutes, just don't go expecting the usual insanity that comes from most Jackie Chan Films.
FINAL SCORE:
ISLAND OF FIRE: 8/10
Here's what I thought of it...
!!!!!!!!!WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!
The 'prison' film is a great sub-genre of the crime thriller. Whether we're watching a story of escape or just trying to survive day to day life, they seem to be very watch-able and entertaining. Some films focus on the new 'fish' trying to survive and some focus on the corrupt prison guards and wardens. A few films come to mind when i think of the prison film, Shawshank Redemption for instance is about a man who spends the entire film working on his escape plan, Brubaker, the Robert Redford film is about a new warden cleaning up the prison who uncovers a murder plot and even films like Undisputed, a film about prison boxing shows how a person attempts to survive day to day surrounded by hardened criminals. The Film I am going to review contains pretty much every element seen in the films that I have mentioned. Island Of Fire is a Hong Kong semi-action drama, it focuses on five main characters, Each with their own reason for being there.
The plot of Island Of Fire follows an Undercover cop as he tries to infiltrate a notorious prison, home to everyone from triads, killers, drug dealers, you name it they're all there. His reason for infiltrating the prison is to uncover a plot that uses supposedly executed inmates to carry out assassinations and then grant them they're freedom as long as they leave the country. What the film also does is show the corrupt side of law enforcement in the prison. The guards are as violent as the men they are guarding, treating the prisoner's as animals and abusing them daily. I know it sounds cliché but that's the way the prison film works.
THE CAST: I'm going to take a look at the five main characters in the film.
TONY LEUNG KA FAI as Andy
Ka Fai plays the undercover cop Andy, who, to begin with takes to his role with trepidation when first entering the prison. He is supposed to be serving two years for assault and battery. When inside he is put in a cell with an inmate named Charlie. Being a prison film, one of the characters has to have a pet mouse, Charlie has the pet mouse in this. Anyway the two become friends, and Andy seems to take to his role and to the viewer seems to have forgotten he is a cop. Ka Fai is great as Andy, at the start he plays him as a Vulnerable man, the new fish in a big pond. At first I thought it was Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Infernal Affairs, Lust Caution) but then realised it wasn't and remembered Ka Fai from A Better Tomorrow II. He is really good in this.
SAMMO HUNG as Fatty.
Wow, Sammo was great in this, sure he had some moment of comedy but the man is brilliant dramatic actor too. His character Fatty, spends most of the film escaping and the first time we see him escape is so that he can see his son. This final encounter with his son is quite sad as he know the police are on his tail and as he returns his son to boarding school, the sirens of police cars in the distance, he just stands there, watching his son run inside because he knows he's not getting away. For me Sammo was the most impressive actor and most interesting character in the film.
JACKIE CHAN as Steven
Although I said this was this was a Jackie Chan film, to be honest he is more of a supporting character. Steven does have a back story as to why he is in prison and is the reason for Andy Lau's character being in prison but the film doesn't really focus too much on him. But Jackie is doing what Jackie does best, kicking butt. His character ends up in prison after being accused of cheating at a game of cards for money to save his girlfriends life, getting into a brawl and accidentally killing the owner of the club who just so happens to be Andy Lau's brother. But Jackie is still pretty damn cool in this.
ANDY LAU as Boss Li
A younger Andy Lau post God Of Gamblers, here plays a gangster and brother of the man killed by Jackie whose many attempts to kill Jackie from the outside are thwarted, so get's himself locked up to do the job himself and almost succeeds. Lau is pretty damn cool in almost every film he's in, be it Infernal Affairs, Running On Karma and House Of Flying Daggers, I can never have a bad word to say about Lau's performances in any thing. Here as usual, he's great.
JIMMY WANG YU as Lucas
I'd only heard of Wang Yu recently thanks to the documentary Not Quite Hollywood about the Exploitation films from Australia and how he starred in Brian Trenchard-Smith's The Man From Hong Kong and how he cause controversy due to his demanding and insulting behaviour during the making of that film, here though he's really good as Lucas, the triad boss who runs the prison from the prison cells, how he becomes friends with Ka Fai's character and his untimely death due to Sammo. He has only made five films since Island Of Fire and the last was in 1993 but he does have a new film on the way called Swordsmen. He was also the producer of Island Of Fire.
THE DIRECTION:
I am unfamiliar with the work of Chu Yen Ping, having never seen any of work, but after checking his biography on IMDB, was surprised to find he'd directed the recent Kung Fu Dunk which I had seen. Anyway, here his direction good, the fight scenes are well handles as well as the dramatic segments of the film, the overhead shots of the prison are well shot and lit. Unfortunately the DVD transfer is a little on the grainy side. The Final action scene is very well handled and maybe because of the recent John Woo film The Killer being release only a year previously, Yen Ping decided to put a rather Heroic Bloodshed esque shoot out at the end, two guns, slow motion diving while firing guns, multiple squib hits, all very John Woo. This scene was a bit out of place in a film that primarily has very little action and having this finale really took a way the drama that the previous 90 minutes had been building to.
MY FINAL VERDICT:
Island Of Fire is a cracking little film, well paced, well directed and very well acted that should appeal to fans of Hong Kong Cinema as well as fans of Prison Films. But like I pointed out, the Finale (Shoot out) doesn't really belong in this film, if it was less The Killer and More realistic it would have suited the film better, however the 90 minutes previous are fantastic and this is great way to spend a good 93 minutes, just don't go expecting the usual insanity that comes from most Jackie Chan Films.
FINAL SCORE:
ISLAND OF FIRE: 8/10
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