Prison on Fire II (1991)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

A Brilliant Conflict

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

This film follows on from the original with Ching still in prison. Tensions are high with prisoners from mainland China and those from Hong Kong constantly fighting. To make matters worse sadistic guard, Officer Zau, is determined to crush Ching. After Ching is refused leave to visit his son in the orphanage he escapes; he then turns himself in and back in prison Zau is determined to punish him further by letting it be known that Ching informed against a senior gang leader to protect his actual informant. Fearing for his life Ching escapes again and ends up on the run with the gang leader. Eventually he returns to prison and must confront his enemies; both the inmates and Zau.This was an enjoyable sequel to the first film; Chow Yun Fat is on good form as Ching although anybody expecting martial arts action will be disappointed as the fight are ordinary scrapping. There is a degree of humour which is fun and doesn't detract from the main story. Elvis Tsui is suitably unpleasant as Officer Zau; a character who starts mean and only gets worse. The scenes in the jail are fairly tense, especially after Zau starts targeting Ching. The escape scenes were entertaining even if it was a little hard to believe that Ching got away more than once when almost surrounded by his pursuers. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the first film but suspect it can be enjoyed almost as much even if you haven't seen the original.These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

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.

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.

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.