Prison on Fire
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Prison on Fire |
| Original title | Prison on Fire / 监狱 风云 |
| Country of production | Hong Kong |
| original language | Cantonese , English |
| Publishing year | 1987 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ringo Lam |
| script | Nam Yin |
| production | Karl Maka , Catherine SK Chang |
| music | Lowell Lo |
| camera | Wen Yun Huang |
| occupation | |
| |
Prison on Fire is a 1987 Hong Kong-produced prison film directed by Ringo Lam and starring Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Ka-Fai . The film is about the friendship of two inmates of a Hong Kong prison and their conflicts with the guards and groups of triads among the inmates.
The film did not have a regular theatrical release in Germany and only appeared in various video formats. In 1991 a sequel was released under the title Prison on Fire 2 .
action
Advertising designer Lo Ka Yiu is serving a three-year sentence for manslaughter in a Hong Kong prison. He was convicted of pursuing a fugitive thief in his father's shop and driving the fugitive onto a street where he was run over.
Yiu is assigned to work in the infirmary, where he meets Chung Tin Ching. The men become friends and Yiu has Ching transfer her to the laundry. There Yiu observes like a member of a gang under the leadership of triad boss Micky, stealing scissors from Ching to use them as a weapon. Yiu points this out to Ching, who succeeds in getting the scissors back. However, Yiu is subsequently harassed by the Triad members.
During a cell check, forbidden items (playing cards and improvised weapons) are found and several men (including Yiu, Micky and Bill, a boss of another triad) are led away from the cell. They are interrogated by Hung, a senior guard who is only called "Scarface" by inmates because of a characteristic scar. Hung tries to recruit Yiu as an informant, but he refuses. Then Micky is interrogated by Hung, who asks his men to search for tools that have disappeared in the prison workshops (and that are also suitable as weapons). In return, he would have Mickey move a rival to another prison. However, since someone has to be held accountable for the improvised weapons found, Micky suggests that Yiu blackened one of Bill's men. Hung accepts the offer and relocates several gang members as punishment.
The following night, Mickey's men dragged Yiu out of the cell and into the washroom, where he is beaten. Ching tries to stop them, but is unsuccessful. When one of the guards becomes aware of the noise, Yiu tells the guard that he just slipped and is left alone for the time being.
Yiu's girlfriend visits him in his cell and announces that she will move to England for nine months to study. Yiu is upset and asks her to stay, but cannot change her mind. Later that day, Micky Yiu speaks to the laundry and demands compensation - in the form of cigarettes - for the punishment of his men. Yiu then publicly accuses him of false accusations and pushes Micky, who injures his face in the process. There is a fight between Yiu / Ching and Micky's people. Yiu defends himself against the superiority of the gang members with a piece of glass, accidentally injuring Ching as well.
Yiu and Ching are shown to the head of the prison. When asked by the leader how the argument started, Ching accuses Hung, who is also present, of setting a trap for Yiu. The leader secures to investigate the case and has both locked up in single cells. Mickey is ultimately transferred to another prison.
Everyday life in prison returns to normal. A year later on New Year's Day, Ching Yiu tells why he is being detained; exactly four years earlier he had caught his wife prostituting herself, then killed her and then tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. Their son now lives with his grandmother and visits him regularly.
The following summer, Mickey is transferred back to prison. He continues to seek revenge as he has never been defeated as a triad boss. Yiu asks Hung to move him and Ching to another prison. Hung holds him out. The next time he visits the prison guard, Yiu speaks to the inspector and requests a transfer because he and Ching are threatened by triads. Hung denies the existence of triads within the prison and accuses them of having gambling debt problems with other prisoners. The prison chief instructs Hung to write a report and guarantees a transfer if the triad problems prove real. Ultimately, however, they remain in the prison and also have to clean the fecal pits.
To protest against the rise in cigarette prices in the institution, Bill's gang members start a hunger strike, which Micky's men and the other prisoners join. Scarface has Micky taken from the dining room and tells him to go on a hunger strike, otherwise he would have all the triad leaders locked up and tell them Micky had revealed the initiator of the hunger strike to him. However, Micky does not want to stand there as a traitor and instead wrongly charges Yiu as the instigator. He denies everything and Hung whispers to Ching in the presence of the other prisoners in order to create the impression that he has betrayed the other prisoners. The prison director enters the dining room and tells everyone to eat again. Micky begins to eat again after being asked by Hung and threatens Ching with repression in a whisper if he continues to refuse food. Ching is very upset by the further provocation and attacks Hung with the support of Yiu. Both are overpowered by the guards with batons and brought to the infirmary. Hung appears there, accompanied by three other guards. The still angry Yiu and Ching insult him, whereupon Hung has them transferred back to the regular cell as revenge (where they are defenseless against the triads).
Once there, Mickey's men start beating Yiu and Ching as soon as the guards have left the room. The rest of the inmates intervene, however, and instead demand that Micky face a "man against man" fight against Ching. Without the support of his men, Micky Ching is inferior, but when he goes down and Ching hits him, Mickey's men still intervene to support him, whereby Micky regains the upper hand. In the meantime, the guards have been alerted by the noise of the battle, but cannot enter the cell because Hung, who is currently absent, has locked them. Ching overpowers Mickey and almost chokes him to death with a bed rail. When Hung arrives again, the guards storm the cell, so that Ching has to let go of Micky at the last moment. A big fight breaks out between the guards and the prisoners, while the Ching knocks Hung out with a dropkick from a bunk bed. The madly laughing Ching lunges at Hung and bites off his ear.
A few months later, Yiu was released from custody and welcomed in liberty by his family and his girlfriend, who had meanwhile returned from Europe. As they leave the prison, they see Ching (who was transferred to a hospital after the attack) is taken back to the prison by bus.
reception
At the 7th presentation of the Hong Kong Film Award , the film was nominated eight times, but could not win any prize.
Web links
- Prison on Fire in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Prison on Fire at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 7th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. LoveHKFilm, accessed December 27, 2017 .