Prison on Fire (Gaam yuk fung wan, 1987)

Ringo Lam

Hong Kong

98 min, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

The first installment in Ringo Lam's two-part prison story about the savvy Prisoner #41671 Ching (Chow Yun-Fat), Prison on Fire is a dramatic, if somewhat romanticized, view of the HK jail system from the inside.

Lo Ka Yiu (Tony Leung Ka Fai) lives a good comfortable life: he has a nice job, a nice family, and a nice girlfriend whom he is about to marry. One night, while he is helping his dad at their grocery store, a small-time gang tries to make off without paying for juice. In the ensuing brawl Yiu accidentally pushes one of the gang members on the street where he is crushed by a bus. For the manslaughter, Yiu gets three years in prison.

It becomes painfully clear that Yiu will not make it in the new environment. Brought up to be upright and direct, he cannot ingratiate himself to the warden, and he antagonizes the triad cellmates. Ching, in prison for the manslaughter of his wife, takes him under his wing and tries to teach Yiu the ropes of jail survival. As the two become the "lamb" and the "monkey" of the prison zoo, they develop a strong bond of loyalty, which often lands Ching in trouble because of the loud-mouthed (and for some reason strangely unresponsive to learning) Yiu.

As usual, there is a vicious warden, Officer "Scarface" Hung (Roy Cheung), who abuses his authority by manipulating inter-triad conflicts, and generally seems to like violence a bit too much. Needless to say, Yiu quickly gets on his bad side, dragging Ching along with him. Eventually, Scarface frames Ching as a "traitor," ensuring that the gullible inmates will exact a bloody retribution on him. Only agent provocateur Micky's (Ho Ka-Kui) inept handling of inmate psychology (by breaking the hunger strike he breaks with the unwritten code of solidarity) gives Ching a much-needed break by leaving the two to square it off between themselves.

In the final, very intense, brutal, and somewhat apocalyptic scene, the perennially smiling and smarting Ching finally loses it, almost killing Micky and attacking, with dire consequences, the evil Scarface.

There are at least three memorable things about this film, which make it such a pleasure to see. First, there are some parallels with the later Hollywood production of The Shawshank Redemption, another favorite film of mine. Ching, although not as self-consciously intelligent, has apparently quickly mastered the art of survival even without belonging to any triad to protect him. By being harmless and likable, he is everyone's friend. When his friendship with Yiu lands him in hot water, he still has enough support left so he does not get killed. Although most of the story is ostensibly about Yiu's learning process, it is really about the lengths to which Ching would go to protect his friend.

Second, Yiu undergoes a transformation from an easily intimidated nerd to a self-assured nerd. When pushed to the edge near the beginning of his prison life, he lapses into a frenzy and almost kills himself. Later on, perhaps goaded by his anger at his girlfriend (who he wrongly believes plans to break up with him), he lashes out at Micky and almost guarantees that he won't survive the remaining term. The third time, he jumps in to help Ching although the odds are against the two. It is not clear that he learns to keep his mouth shut for until the very end he antagonizes the warden with his childish outspokenness. Interestingly enough, the transformation has resulted in a form of camaraderie with the fellow inmates for when it comes time to go, Liu is obviously pained at the thought of parting what has become his immediate family. In a touching show of closeness, even the most brutal inmates wish him good luck on the outside and instruct him to take care and never return.

There are some refreshing aspects of Ringo Lam's approach. Although he does not shy from frank depiction of the grisly existence that prison life can sometimes be, he avoids reveling in violence and shock, preferring to concentrate on drama. This is such a change of pace from the emphasis found in analogous US films that seems to work very well. Also, there was none of the notorious sexual angle, also inevitable in US productions. Prisoners here are tough but not irredeemable, and all of them keep their pants on. By foregoing cheap exploitation effects, Ringo Lam has managed to craft an unstinting and moving drama. The final fireworks are thus all the more impressive. Yun-Fat is at his best here. Still, the sequel is better.

The Universe DVD is good, although far from excellent. The picture is soft and although the color levels look fine, it shows its age. The stereo sound is generally acceptable despite some noise in the quiet parts. The English translation is good but not error-free. A decent release of a fine film, the DVD is one to own.

October 4, 2001.