The Prisoner

Island Of Fire aka The Prisoner is a Chinese language prison actioner. I have the American version and usually US companies butcher Chinese movies to make them more marketable for action audiences, taking out important plot points and terrible English overdubbing. This movie is no exception to that, however I did find this reasonably entertaining. Tony Leung Ka Fai( who starred in Prison On Fire, The Lover,etc) is the lead here as an undercover cop that goes to prison. He is joined by Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Andy Lau and Jimmy Wang Yu. This ensemble cast did the movie as a favor and out of respect for Jimmy Wang Yu, who was also produced the film as well. The movie comes across a bit clunky as a poor man's Death Warrant, but with much better fight scenes. The movie rips off seemingly every prison movie ever made and the plot seems to drift off and end with a John Woo style shootout at the end. I'm sure the Tawainese version is better and makes more sense, but for action this is not a bad time passer at all. However, if you consider the combined talents of the cast, it was a wasted opportunity to do something great.