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ISLAND
OF FIRE
AKA:
Island On Fire ||
The Prisoner || The Burning Island
Year:
1992 Reviewer: Tony
Ryan
Originally
(and more correctly) titled 'Island On Fire' to echo the
titles of earlier Ringo Lam movies 'Prison On Fire' and
'School On Fire' Jimmy Wang Yu called upon numerous favours
to bring together such an illustrious cast. Most notably
Jackie Chan who appeared as a result of being helped out by
Wang Yu earlier in his career when triads had threatened him
during the making of 'Dragon
Lord'.
This
film has been almost disowned by Jackie, as he hates it,
probably due to the shocking finale, but this does not stop
the film being entertaining or powerful despite its numerous
flaws. The story appears (and was) hastily prepared which does
not allow the narrative to flow smoothly and issues appear to
be hastily glossed over. Each characters individual tale would
probably have been enough to fill a movie by themselves, but
the need to utilise each star actually works against the film
by not linking them together well enough until the end, making
it difficult for the audience to get fully involved.
Essentially
a dark tale involving a
few desperate men, each incarcerated either harshly or
unfairly, the characters themselves actually make you feel
sorry for them, especially Sammo, and help the film reach out
at more than the shallow level dramatic HK action movies often
suffer from. The least amount of screen time is actually with
Jackie, who is mostly there to provide a few short action
sequences. Each was quickly put together but still impress
more than other 90’s films such as 'City
Hunter' or 'Project
S' being more akin to the brutal style of 'Crime
Story' than the graceful moves in 'Drunken
Master 2'.
Best
performance, as is so often the case, goes to Sammo, who again
shows his acting skills are far superior than he is credited
for, fleshing out what would otherwise have been a shallow
character. How often can he make you want to both laugh &
cry in the same film? Obviously not to the same level as 'Pedicab
Driver' or 'Heart
of Dragon' he still brings true emotion to the screen.
For
a low budget, rushed production, the emotional content of the
film and the quality of its cast save the day providing us
with a kung fu influenced 'Shawshank Redemption' wannabe.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see Jackie in
one of his rare serious performances, but also to those
originally put off by bad reviews from the cast. It scrapes
into the 4 star category due to its decent action and Sammo's
powerful performance.
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