Prison on Fire II
(Gam yuk fung wan II: To fan)
Ringo Lam
- 1991
- Hong Kong
- Action / Drama
- 1h49mn
- Original version with French subtitles
- Color
New 4K master
In this second opus, Chung Tin-ching, targeted by a sadistic prison guard aiming to have him murdered by fellow inmates, attempts to escape to find his son who has been placed in an orphanage.
These Hong Kong prison movie classics, released four years apart, imposed Ringo Lam’s singular mark. In this cult diptych the filmmaker illustrates the genre’s archetypes while attempting to demystify them and strip them of their spectacular adornments. The corrupt guards try to set the inmates up against each other by spreading rumors to provoke fatal incidents, while the heroes seek only one thing: survival. The filmmaker always employs a very strange blend of genres and tones, shifting from suspense to comedy to melodrama. Adopting an almost Italian buddy movie humor, he seems more interested in the developing friendships than in eruptions of violence. Constantly subverting the genre’s conventions, he downplays the drama, eschews tragedy, and films the numerous fights without glamorizing them, but more as chaotic brawls among clumsy individuals. Here, attempts at heroism are defused or doomed to failure. While most prison films depict prison as a nightmare, Ringo Lam portrays a living environment, a social microcosm filled with surprisingly lighthearted moments.. By rediscovering these two films, we are also reminded that before being the epic hero of The Killer and Hard Boiled, Chow Yun-fat excelled at comedy.
Screenings
02/09 • 14h30 • Screen 100
12/09 • 18h45 • Screen 300
Credits
- With : Chow Yun-fat, Chen Sung-young, Elvis Tsui, Wong Kwong-leung, Victor Hon, Frankie Chi-hung Ng...
- Screenplay : Yin Nam
- Photography : Fan Chuen-lam
- Editing : Tony Kwok-chung Chow
- Music by : Wellington Fung
- Production : Wellington Fung
