Item #: 2325 Category: FAT, CHOW YUN Format: VHS MPAA Rating: R

Woolly Rating: 6/10 (172 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

Matt	Aug 17, 2001 @ 11:43:29

Will the real 'Tony Leung' please stand up?
Prison on Fire was one of several movies from the "... on Fire" films made by Ringo Lam [School on Fire, City on Fire]. One of the many things to note about this movie- made in 1987 in the midst of Chow's "both-pistols-a' Blazing" period, is the absence of guns!!! Playing the "innocent caught up in bad circumstances" is Tony Leung Chiu Wai [not the Tony Leung Ka Fei from Hard Boiled and Bullet in the Head- people get these guys mixed up all the time due to their names, and a lot of "fan" sites just lump their movies together. This Tony Leung was also in She Shoots Straight and Farewell China- you can 'easily' tell the difference if you see this movies], who accidentally kills a gang member who has just shot (or stabbed) his father outside their family store. Anyway, Chow is like the prison's 'old timer with a heart of gold' who constantly works to both keep spirits up, and to diffuse potentially tense situations among the inmates. His job is not made any easier due to inner struggles involving the Triads and the prison's masochistic warden, who is a killer when angered. Of course, Chow takes poor Tony under his wing: and Tony has a real knack for attracting the "wrong" kind of trouble. A sub-plot of the movie involves Chow's very young son, whom it seems will be waiting a long time for his dad t get out of jail - because every time Chow comes up for parole, his unspoken sense of duty (and an inability to free himself from his own prison of guilt) keep him in the pen each time he comes up for parole. Chow's latent "Mu Bai" shines through. If you know Hong Kong cinema then you know that 'extreme violence' and 'extreme melodramatic sappiness' waltz hand in hand - and this movie is no exception. I liked this movie and much of Chow's other work as well, but I'm glad our grinning, toothpick chomping gun-totter has tried his hand at other genres such as Crouching Tiger. He has, as an actor, perhaps gotten in touch with his inner "Mu Bai" after all. Chow Yun Mat

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