Prison on Fire on AllMovie

Ringo Lam delivers this two-fisted gritty thriller written by his brother Nam Yin. Timid Lo Ka-yiu (Tony Leung Kar-fai) is thrown in the clink for a three-year stint after being convicted of manslaughter. Possessing none of the requisite instincts to survive in a maximum-security prison, Lo looks like he's going to be easy prey. Yet before you can say, "You dropped the soap," he befriends Chung (Chow Yun-fat) a charismatic con who has charmed every prison guard except security chief Hung (Roy Cheung), a psychotic whose brutalized visage inspired the moniker "Scarface." When Lo snitches on crime boss Micky, the don conspires with Scarface to rub out weedy stool pigeon. When Chung stands up for Lo and tells the warden of Scarface's nefarious acts, Micky gets transferred to another prison and Hung vows revenge. Later, Micky and Scarface frame Chung for a prison protest. Pushed to his psychological limits after days of torture, Chung soon is out for blood.