The Prisoner (1990)

• Year: 1990
• Released: N/A
• Country: Taiwan
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099812/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_prisoner
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Tagalog
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
• Runtime: 125 min
• Writer: Li Fu, Domonic Muir, Yun Chiao Yeh
• Director: Yen-Ping Chu
• Cast: Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung

5.7/10

The Prisoner Storyline

Inspector Wei Wang goes deep undercover inside a prison to go after the people responsible for his teacher’s death. Inside the big house, poor Wei is terrorized by every prison cliche imaginable and discovers that the truth behind the madness goes deep into the penal system. Can Inspector Wei survive the horrors of prison, find the people behind the shadow government and keep his sanity?

The Prisoner Play trailer

The Prisoner Photos

The Prisoner Torrents Download

The Prisoner Subtitles Download

The Prisoner Movie Reviews

Brutal and raw Chinese prison movie…

“Island of Fire” is a fairly average prison-type of movie in regards to the story, but there is just something captivating about it.

Andy (played by Tony Leung Ka Fai) goes undercover to infiltrate a rough prison run by corrupt officers using the prisoners to run fights and do their dirty work.

As a prison movie, of course you have all the standard stereotypical characters here; the mafia-type overhead in charge of the inmates, the ruffians serving the overhead, the innocent prisoners rising up when cornered, the prisoners fueled by a fight for righteous. There is nothing grand or new to the characters, and truth be told, there is very little room for character development in the movie, and you hardly get to sympathize for any of them or dig into their stories.

The movie is driven by the story and the raw action, though. And I must admit that it was nice to see Andy Lau actually play a bad guy for a change. And even more of a surprise towards the end to see both Steve (played by Jackie Chan) and Boss Lee (played by Andy Lau) getting gunned down and presumably die. And another plus is that you actually see Jackie Chan in a violent role and is killing people!

There are some pretty heavyweight Hong Kong movie stars in “Island of Fire”. You have Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung Ka Fai, and of course Jackie Chan.

I bought the Hong Kong Legends release of the movie and it has Jackie Chan on the cover, so I was under the impression that it was a regular Chan movie. But it turned out not to be the case, and he actually only have a minor role in the movie. But of course, his name and face sells, so why not put him on the cover? Although names like Sammo Hung, Andy Lau or Tony Leung Ka Fai would sell equally well (perhaps not to the Western market, though).

And whatever you do, do not watch this movie with the English dubbed soundtrack, it is just awful. Watch it with the original Mandarin language, I switched to that upon hearing the first English being uttered. I just hate dubbed versions, especially badly dubbed versions.

“Island of Fire” is a great movie, despite it being from 1990. It is driven by a captivating story and some good acting performances actually. And if for nothing else, watch it because of the Hong Kong heavyweight stars that are in it.

Island on Fire

These comments are based on watching the English language US version of the film.

After his friend is assassinated policeman Andy Lau is surprised to discover that the killer’s fingerprints match those of a convict who had apparently been executed recently… either something is wrong with the computer records or something is very wrong at the prison. As it doesn’t appear to be the former he agrees to go undercover in the prison to uncover the truth. The prison is a brutal place and Andy has nobody to go to if he gets in trouble. In the prison we are introduced to other key characters; John ‘Fatty’ Liu, who keeps escaping to visit his son; Steve, who is marked for death because he accidentally killed a crime boss’s brother and Lucas, the unofficial leader of the convicts.

I don’t know if it was just the version of the film I watched but it certainly seemed rather lacking. The most obvious weakness is that once in prison Andy barely bothers to investigate; he asked a few questions about the late assassin, got in trouble with Lucas, then he was just another prisoner who gets caught up in a few scrapes. Jackie Chan is sold as the lead actor but in reality he plays a secondary character; we do get to see some of his trademark action, which is rather fun, at least. Sammo Hung provides some of the film’s more amusing moments as John. There is a reasonable amount of action; the regular fight scenes are pretty good but the shootouts are a bit unrealistic to say the least. The acting looked good enough but the dub is pretty poor; none of the voices really went well with their characters making them hard to believe in. Overall I’d only recommend watching this version of the film if you are desperate to see it and can’t find a Chinese version with subtitles.

Exemplary Taiwanese prison thriller

I actually enjoyed this strangely-edited, meandering prison drama movie, which has about five different sub-plots involving a number of leading characters which weave in and out and develop in unexpected ways. This is a very unpredictable movie instead where you never quite know what’s going to happen next, and there are a fair amount of twists and shocks along the way. Unfortunately all the companies who released this film marketed it as a Jackie Chan movie. This is a lie; Jackie is in the film as a supporting character only. It’s really more of an ensemble piece with popular Chinese actor Tony Leung having the most screen time. The film shows the gritty side of prison life without resorting to the typical clichés, although many notable sequences are stolen from Cool Hand Luke (particularly the rice-eating scene and the girl with no bra).

This is a violent film with a ton of action in it. The martial arts content is pretty low. Chan appeared in the movie as a favour to producer Jimmy Wang Yu and spent about four days filming it; thus he is used in nearly all of the action sequences which are fast and frenetic, although not as well choreographed as in his own movies. There are some likable and surprisingly sympathetic characters here, from the nerdy guy with the pet hamster to Sammo Hung as a father, desperate to escape and see his son. Comedy is mixed in uneasily with the violence as Hung keeps escaping; there are the usual slimy villain types and corrupt and evil guards to keep things moving as well. Tony Leung is excellent as the lead, an undercover cop in prison pushed over the edge, and Andy Lau is also fine as a villain.

One-time martial arts legend Jimmy Wang Yu, who once had a career that nearly equalled the popularity of Bruce Lee’s, appears here as a prison boss with a tattoo all across his back. Although he doesn’t get to fight and is in the film all too little (must have been busy producing it as well) it’s nice to see the guy can still play a tough character with ease. Keep watching through the slow spots for the incredible conclusion which comes out of nowhere and offers a ton of violence and gunplay; it had me reeling and is something to be seen. Overall I enjoyed this movie, what with its ton of action, sub-plots, drama, suspense, and intrigue. Give it a go and you might be surprised.