''Prison on Fire – Life Sentence'' is a 2001 Hong Kong

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Edmond Yuen and starring

Ben Wong Ben Wong Chi-yin (born 20 October 1967) is a Hong Kong actor best known for his roles as Yung Heung-hoi in the long-running drama series '' A Kindred Spirit'' and Spicy Ginger in the crime drama ''Lives of Omission'', the latter garnering him ...

, Iris Wong, Tommy Wong, William Ho, Lee Wai-kei,

Chapman To Chapman To (, born 8 June 1972), born Edward Ng Cheuk-cheung (), is a Hong Kong actor. He is best known for his roles in films such as ''Infernal Affairs'' and '' Initial D''. He is also the founder of his own multimedia platform known as "Chapman ...

and Bill Lung. Despite the title, this film is not related to the 1987 film '' Prison on Fire'' and its 1991 sequel.

Plot

A group of prisoners were doing a variety of activities on the courtyard. Big Fool ( William Ho) and Crazy Bill (Tommy Wong) were playing basketball where Bill kicks the ball towards Tung (

), who kicks it away. Bill felt humiliated by it and stars a fight with Tung where Tung ends out hospitalized. During hospitalization, Tung thinks about the time when his family moved to another house and opened a food stall nearby. However, their stall was burnt by triad leader Sing (Bill Lung), who constantly bullies Tung's family and also raped Tung's girlfriend, Sau (Iris Wong). Unable to tolerate Sing's bullying, Tung kills Sing by chopping him to death, which leads Tung to being imprisoned.

Cast

as Ho Sun-tung (何順東) * Iris Wong as Sau (秀) * Tommy Wong as Crazy Bill (傻標) * William Ho as Big Fool (大傻) * Lee Wai-kei *

* Bill Lung as Brother Sing (大哥成) * Wong Hok-lam * Tony Chiu

Reception

Critical

Hong Kong Film Net
'' gave the film a score of 6.5/10 noting the unoriginal plot, but also praising it as a decent triad film that makes a good contrast to the Hollywood inspired Hong Kong films coming out that period despite its low budget.

Box office

The film grossed HK$18,240 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 8 to 14 March 2001 in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

References

External links

* *
Prison on Fire – Life Sentence
' at

Hong Kong Cinemagic Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The websi ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prison on Fire - Life Sentence 2001 films 2001 crime thriller films 2000s crime drama films 2001 action thriller films Hong Kong crime thriller films Hong Kong action thriller films Triad films 2000s prison films 2000s Cantonese-language films Films set in Hong Kong Films shot in Hong Kong 2001 drama films Hong Kong prison films 2000s Hong Kong films