School on Fire, City on Fire, Prison on Fire: seems like Hong Kong was a rather dangerous place to be in the '80s, a veritable inferno thanks to top HK action director Ringo Lam, who directed the aforementioned trio of movies, and who returned to briefly reignite the series in the early '90s with this sequel to Prison on Fire.

In Prison on Fire II, Asian superstar Chow Yun Fat reprises his role as convict Ching, who must stay on his guard after he is wrongfully accused of identifying gang leader Boss Dragon (Sung Young Chen) as the killer of a fellow prisoner during a riot. Ching must also keep a wary eye on sadistic prison guard Officer Zau (Elvis Tsui) who would like nothing more than to see him beaten to death by Dragon's men.

The first 40 minutes or so of this prison drama is rather uneventful, with little in the way of action or tension as Lam sets up his characters and plot, injecting a little too much not-very-funny humour and maudlin sentimentality into proceedings for my liking. Fortunately, things pick up once Boss Dragon has been fingered for the killing (oo-err!) and makes a break for freedom by leaping into the sea from a cliff, with Ching following suit soon after, the two men forming a bond while on the run.

The latter half of the film is far more entertaining, thanks to better pacing and more action, the best moments being a tense chase through the jungle and across some rickety corrugated iron rooftops, the hilarious sight of Ching and Boss Dragon simultaneously suffering from a bad case of the squits, and a brutal finalé that sees treacherous inmate Skull (the man who framed Boss Dragon for murder) and wicked guard Zau finally get their comeuppance.

This is the sequel to Prison on Fire and is much more like Lockup than the original. There are a lot of differences between the two movies. The first was about a man going through prison and opened with him entering and closed with him leaving. Prison on Fire II opens with an escape and people placing bets on how long he lasts and then what is broken when he returns. Thus if one can pick it up, Prison on Fire II involves a prison break, but it is not the main focus of the movie.

Ching becomes the main character in Prison on Fire II and his makes a friend with a mainlander named Dragon. There is much more of a story to this movie and it builds on a foundation of racial tension. The Mainlanders feel that they are being oppressed by those from Hong Kong, and the form a gang to stand up against the Hongers. Ching, once again being neutral, befriends the leader Dragon, but there is a problem. A mainlander named Skull wants to be leader instead of Dragon so makes a deal with the new Security guard, Zeu. Zeu does not like Ching and begins to make his life really difficult. This begins with him knowing that Ching caused trouble before and thus refuses to allow him leave to visit his mother's funeral. Because his mother has died, he has to put his child in an orphanage but his child does not want to go. Thus the relationship between him and his child is strained and Ching feels that he must see him, but Zeu refuses and Ching is forced to escape.

The movie goes much deeper as it develops Ching's character and his relationship with Dragon, who is framed for killing another inmate named Snake. We feel immense hatred for Zeu and Skull as we see them conspiring to get rid of Ching. Ching, who prefers to remain neutral, becomes the main focus of the movie and we begin to fear for him. Prison on Fire II is much deeper and deals with racial disunity, using a very minor difference, such as place of origin, to cause tension. There is a lot of tension building up through the movie and we can see that Skull and Zeu are manipulating things to get themselves on top. Zeu, though, only cares from himself and the power that he can abuse and in the end it is his abuse of power that brings about his downfall. Skull is a coward and in the end he finds that once all of his support has been removed, he is nothing.

After watching Prison on Fire II I have come to appreciate Hong Kong Cinema much more.

This film follows on from the original with Ching still in prison. Tensions are high with prisoners from mainland China and those from Hong Kong constantly fighting. To make matters worse sadistic guard, Officer Zau, is determined to crush Ching. After Ching is refused leave to visit his son in the orphanage he escapes; he then turns himself in and back in prison Zau is determined to punish him further by letting it be known that Ching informed against a senior gang leader to protect his actual informant. Fearing for his life Ching escapes again and ends up on the run with the gang leader. Eventually he returns to prison and must confront his enemies; both the inmates and Zau.

This was an enjoyable sequel to the first film; Chow Yun Fat is on good form as Ching although anybody expecting martial arts action will be disappointed as the fight are ordinary scrapping. There is a degree of humour which is fun and doesn't detract from the main story. Elvis Tsui is suitably unpleasant as Officer Zau; a character who starts mean and only gets worse. The scenes in the jail are fairly tense, especially after Zau starts targeting Ching. The escape scenes were entertaining even if it was a little hard to believe that Ching got away more than once when almost surrounded by his pursuers. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the first film but suspect it can be enjoyed almost as much even if you haven't seen the original.

These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.