It is no secret that Jimmy Wang Yu, with his connections had helped Jackie Chan, then a young actor to settle his dispute with director Lo Wei. So in returning the favor, Chan appeared in a few movies produced by Wang and this is one of their collaborations. Interestingly, even though he only showed up briefly in support roles, these movies still get marketed as him being the main lead. As Chan became more popular in the West, and on DVD, this production became “Jackie Chan is The Prisoner”, which is misleading.
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Set in Taiwan, this prison drama has quite an impressive ensemble cast of supporting Hong Kong actors besides Golden Horse Awards winner, veteran Taiwanese actor Ko Chuen Hsiung as the prison superintendent. Nevertheless, Tony Leung Ka Fai plays Andy Wang Wei, a cop who, upon his return to Taipei, witnesses his father-in-law gunned down by an assassin who in turns gets blown up by a car bomb. Further investigating later, he discovers that the assassin is a recently executed and deceased felon from a local prison. Intrigued by the possibility that the penitentiary is into some kind of killers recruiting business and determined to find out the truth, he gets himself arrested and thrown into the same prison where he can go undercover and investigate further.
It is here that he gets into trouble with Lucas Kui, a local crime boss played by Jimmy Wang Yu. On the other hand, he also strikes up some friendships with fellow inmates Charlie Chiu (Tou Chung Hua) and Fatty (Sammo Hung). Before long, Da Chui (Jackie Chan) a pool player who accidentally kills a card player arrives at the scene. As it turns out, the dead man has a brother called Boss Lee/Iron Ball (Andy Lau) who accordingly gets himself thrown into the same prison so he can seek revenge for his death by killing Da Chui.
This is basically the plot and each actor gets their chance to shine but Sammo Hung stands out the most. His breaking out of jail frequently to bond with his young son provides the emotional and tender moments of this otherwise gritty and violent story. We don't get to see him in action but he does flex his acting skills here. In contrast and as expected, Jackie Chan plays a serious, moody character displaying his martial arts skills in a more brutal and realistic way. Gone are those goofy and well-choreographed graceful long fights, the arrangements here are short but still quite impressive.
Being the main protagonist, Tony Leung Ka Fai has the most screen time but the script seems to have forgotten his investigating purpose when he is in jail. Despite the fact, he carries the movie just fine. Poor Andy Lau, the script doesn't give him much to do except look cool and dashing in his well-tailored suits in his more or less a quick walk in job while reading his lines. Nevertheless, we do get to see him in a brutal knife fight with Chan. Even though spotting heavy tattoos and a facial scar, producer Jimmy Wang Yu doesn't look as scary playing the almost untouchable prison kingpin. In fact, all the supporting roles are not that challenging and considering their status, the actors seem to be doing it for a favor.
At any rate this is a typical prison drama with all the clichés mined from other jail related movies, for example pet mouse, dining room fights, cruel and corrupted officers, as is becomes obvious Chu hasn't given us anything original. However, he does give the ending an unexpected heroic bloodshed twist and turns it into a John Woo movie. Apparently the Taiwanese version runs about thirty minutes longer with more character development concerning Charlie Chiu, Wang Wei's cellmate.
Though bleak and brutal at times, “Island of Fire” is quite an entertaining watch and the four supporting actors are undoubtedly a draw card. Besides, in a totally unrelated scene, we get the pleasure of watching a voluptuous girl in a wet shirt bouncing along trying to change her flat tire in the pouring rain.
