Island of Fire (1990)

hyped garbage

good back-story, and good acting

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Personally, I liked this movie, when I was a kid. However, after rewatching it, as an adult. I can now say, this 1990 movie doesn't hold up! Its plot is all over the place. The film never chooses whether it wants to be a "comedy escapism movie", "life in a prison, gritty melodrama" film, a "smooth and cool hustle & con" movie, or a "over the top hit-man" film. You know that your movie is all directionless, when there is three different versions of this film!! That's pretty sad! First off, you got a 93-minute Hong Kong version, a 96-minute American version and then, 125-minute Taiwanese version which focuses more on character development and plot detail. The best one out of the three is the Taiwanese print. Yet, the version, I watch as a kid was the American version released by Columbia Tristar Home Video in 2000, under the title, 'Jackie Chan is The Prisoner'. Everything about this version was a big fat lie. Directed by Yen-Ping Chu as Lawrence Full, the films tells the story of an undercover cop, Wei Wang/ Andy Lau (Tony Leung Ka Fai) who goes into a deadly prison to infiltrate the establishment, because somebody in a prison is faking the deaths of convicts to later use them as expendable hit men for political targets. Without spoiling the movie, too much, though Jackie Chan is billed as the star of this film, he's actually part of a stellar ensemble cast, along some others including Sammo Hung & Andy Lau. The title is quite misleading, as Jackie Chan doesn't come into the film, until after the 15 minute mark and only stays for 30 minutes after that. It's pretty clear, that Chan is just appearing as a favor to the director, who was in dire financial trouble with some 'dodgy types' as his character clearly serves absolutely no purpose as his story as a pool hustler turn prisoner named Steve Tong really goes nowhere. Even his feud with Mob Boss, Lee/Iron Ball/Lau (Andy Lau), whom brother is accidentally killed by Steve is forgotten, during the middle part of the film. Nor does any of his story get resolve, even in the end. Does his girlfriend ever get the liver transplant?? Who Knows!? The movie never tells us. Also, what is with the out of place, 1986's 'Platoon', downer ending!? After all, I was rooting for comedy relief, Fatty Liu Hsi Chia / John Liu (Sammo Hung) to see his son, again. It's felt like if 1963's 'The Great Escape' kill off, Steven McQueen's character. It's a big mistake, even if the fat jokes don't mesh well with the rest of the film. I kinda like his character. Nevertheless, I also hate that the focus of the film keeps shifting from one character to another, sometimes even focusing too much on minor characters like prison leader, Lucas/ Ki (Yu Wang) or Chiu/ Charlie (Tsung-Hua Tuo) It took nearly half of the movie to establish, why each character was in prison. It really ate a lot of screen time. No wonder, why this movie has pacing issues. Added to the fact, that most of their sub-stories doesn't add much with the overall plot. It's pretty serve as filler. Another thing, why was this movie, even called 'Island of Fire' in Taiwan and Hong Kong and now U.S!?! Yes, I know, it was filmed in island nations of Taiwan & Philippines, but it has little to do, with nationality patriotism themes. Even, the film's theme song, 'The Last Gunshot' by Cui Jian has nothing to do with the plot. As it was written as a response to the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing, China. Honestly, if this movie was a political thriller, maybe that title and song would be logical, but here, it makes no sense. Even the brutal action and escape attempts scenes are a bit too unrealistic. Jackie Chan & Sammo Hung's silly scarce elaborate martial arts stunts don't mesh well, with the grittiness, this movie is trying to pull. Surprising, it's was very jarring to see Chan & Hung with guns, later in the film, fighting in an all-out-gun battle. I really don't see them, having to resort to armed weapons, before. It's also odd, that they take out a large amount of heavily armed soldiers with a few handguns, while the police and military oddly mostly miss them. This mindless scene was really unnecessary. Even the prison scenes don't make much sense. After all, what type of prison allows, a known escape-attempt convict, so much, access to material that would help him, escape!? It doesn't add up! Also, what type of prison, allows the brother of a murder victim to hang out with his brother's murderer!? Add to the fact, that this movie thinks that every inmate is a ballsy assassin in the making. Another problem, this movie has, is the English dubbing. Unfortunately, the film does no attempt or effort in matching the actor's lip action. Sometimes, I wasn't even sure, which character was even speaking, since the mouth was closed most of the time and the tone of voice did not match the character's demeanor! Overall: 'Island of Fire' is highly clichés, lost, and dated. I really can't believe, there is a loosely based-sequel to this film, 1997's 'Burning Island 2'. It's also not the best prison movie out there nor martial art film. I really can't recommended watching both of these movies. It's capital punishment.

Rated R for Violence and Language. Quebec Rating:13+ Canadian Home Video Rating:18AI saw The Prisoner yesterday night on Showcase Action.I'm surprised at the low rating.It should be in the 6's or 7's.Now I am going to say this now.This is not a Jackie Chan film or a Martial Arts film.The VHS's and DVD's have Jackie Chan's face on the cover and the film is called Jackie Chan's The Prisoner.But Jackie Chan is definitely not the main star of the film.He is a supporting actor who does have some fairly memorable scenes.This was the third film Jackie Chan had to do for actor Jimmy Wang Yu.The first was The Killer Meteors in 1976,then Fantasy Mission Force in 1982 and this film.Out of those three Jackie Chan films I must say that this was the best.Also the film is not a martial arts film.It is a gritty and violent prison film with profanity and violence but it does have some small traces of humor in it.The US release has some obvious scenes cut out.The film has a fairly good storyline.The film is about a man who'se girlfriends father got killed by some thugs.To find out who he must go to prison and explore the prison underworld.He does so by beating up a pimp.While he is there he meets and makes friends and enemies with the prisoners.That is one of the stories of the film.There are three stories related to the film.The second story is about another prisoner(Sammo Hung) who tries to escape from prison to see his son at boarding school.The third story is about a pool hustler(Jackie Chan) who gets into a fight with some triads for not losing.His girlfriend then gets stabbed by one of them.She needs a liver-transplant in 24hrs.So Jackie Chan tries gambling but after th others want to win back their money he gets into a fight with them and he himself ends up in prison.The Prisoner is a very underrated and good prison film with a fairly good storyline.The ending sort of came out of nowhere but whatever.The prisoner is a very good gritty and violent prison film which Jackie Chan is not the star of and I recommend it!Runtime:96min 10/10

Island on Fire (1990) was released in three different version, the Hong Kong theatrical run, the badly dubbed nonsensical U.S. version and the original two hour plus Taiwan cut. The best one out of the three is the Taiwanese print. This film was a "charity" film that was made to help the director who was in some real "financial" trouble with some shady characters.The director's best friend "Jimmy" Wang Yu called up some actors who "owed" him some favors. The top flight actors did the work for little or no pay. They were making a movie that was going to make some money, not a classic or anything like that. Just a quick film that'll make some fast bucks. Let's take a look at the different prints shall we?1.) The Hong Kong cut is a fast paced action film. Only the bare bones are left. Little plot is left in the way of seeing some of the actors on the screen. The story is simple, someone is hiring dead criminals to whack important people. Tony Leung Ka Fai get's involved when his fiancée's father get's whacked by the "dead" assassin. After snooping around he finds out that they're coming from a Taiwanese prison. So, old Tony gets himself arrested and his buddy pulls a few strings to get him inside the "big house".2.) The United States print re-dubs a lot of the scenes making many of them nonsensical. The dialog is drastically changed and some scenes are just re-dubbed (i.e. Jackie Chan is thrown in prison for accidentally killing Andy Lau's brother). Whilst in prison Andy Lau tries to have some of his inside men try and kill Jackie. Wang Yu doesn't want the prisoners killing each other or stupid things like that. He wants it civil inside. So to placate Lau's men he slices his arm and squeezes out some blood whilst telling them, "Let Lau know that I have bled for his brother, there will be no violence in my prison." Well, to that effect any way.In the U.S. version he just cuts his arm to show the two how "crazy" he can get. "You wanna see crazy! I'll show you crazy!!" he tells the two as he cut's his arm?! Doesn't make any sense. It goes on like this for ninety minutes! The DVD is horrible, not only is it badly dubbed but the "commentary" is worthless. Hell I know more about the movie than the guy they put on it.3.) The Taiwanese cut is over two hours long and it fleshes out the characters. Unlike the Hong Kong version, the film is fully subtitled in English (the subs disappear during the last eight minuted in the Hong Kong print). What I like about the Taiwan version is that the true motives of the characters are revealed. The movie makes a lot more sense and you call feel for them. It's also not as jumpy and confusing.The rest of the movie is real interesting. You'll be in for a surprise by the wild ending and the shocking conclusion!Highly recommended!Taiwan print: A+H.K. print: BU.S. print: F-

this is not what you would call an original jc film, the plot alone may turn some fans away. id say watch it before you judge.in some sense it still has some of chan's trademarks. helping defending and honesty,at first the film seems quite boring but after a while i was starting to enjoy it*****not one for the weak hearted*******