Reviews & Ratings for
Prison on Fire II More at IMDbPro »Jian yu feng yun II: Tao fan (original title)

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A pretty good sequel, 30 July 1999
Author: Alex Donleavy from New Orleans, Louisiana

Chow Yun Fat gives another energetic performance as Ching, a good-natured prisoner driven to the edge by a sadistic warden. The warden in this movie is more clearly a villain than in the first, since he enjoys pitting various prisoners against each other, as if for sport.

There is more emphasis on Ching's background than in the first movie, and more scenes take place outside of the prison. But despite the dramatic possibilities, one major flaw in the story line is that Ching never reaches an understanding with his wife.

But despite such a flaw, this movie is more about action, even more than the first, so it's not a big deal. This movie (as well as Prison on Fire, Part I) effectively conveys the futile and oppressive life inside a prison, and you can't help but feel happy for anyone who survives it.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The Cinema of Ringo Lam., 20 February 2005

Author: Miyagis_Sweaty_wifebeater (sirjosephu@aol.com) from Sacramento, CA

Prison on Fire 2 (1991) follows the life of an inmate that was introduced in Prison on Fire (Chow Yun-Fat). This time the story is all about him as he tries to survive prison life. Chow has two problems, the growing animosity between mainland China prisoners and the Hong Kong inmates. To make matters worse, a new prison guard (Elvis Tsui) has just transfered to the prison and tries to enforce his own law of discipline. Can Chow keep the peace between the gangs or will the prison yard fall into chaos whilst the new yard boss enforces his brutal brand of justice?

Ringo Lam pulls no punches in this docu-drama about life in prison. The characters are more fleshed out this time and we learn the truth about the reason why he's in prison and more about his only child. A deep moving film that's highly recommended for fans of Ringo Lam and Chow Yun-Fat. Stay glued until the end. A very nice surprise from Chow's past comes back into the picture!

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
No City on Fire, 28 December 2006

Author: afootman from United States

Fans of "City on Fire" (1987), Ringo Lam's earlier team-up with Chow Yun-Fat, will sorely miss the compelling storyline and dynamic action scenes that Lam delivered 4 years before directing Prison on Fire II. The fight sequences, despite their nomination at the Hong Kong Film Festival, were lackluster. The characters don't mean anything to me. Finally, through no fault of anyone but the distributor, the English subtitles are so bad at times that I really hadn't the foggiest what the characters were saying. Again, not Lam's fault. Chow Yun-Fat does his nice-guy thing, but sadly never gets an opportunity to display his martial arts talents; instead he spends a lot of time picking himself up after getting beaten up. He pairs really well with Danny Lee in 1987: the two play off each other's sense of humor and share excellent fight scenes. Chow Yun-Fat was on his own in "Prison on Fire", and the film suffers from the lack of acting talent. I can only hope that Lam was working on a more limited budget than he had for City on Fire, because this film lacks all the impressive effects and action that he deployed skillfully in the latter. There is little joy in this film.

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