“School on Fire (學校風雲)” Location: Forever Changing Hong Kong

Last month, I came across Daniel Thomas' great blog “Hong Kong On Film,” which is all about filming locations, locations and locations of various Hong Kong films. He has a “Help Me!!!” page where he lists screen captures from various films for which he cannot figure out actual locations. Out of curiosity, I tried and managed to find some of the places listed on the page, and the process was so much fun!

One of the films in question was “School on Fire (學校風雲),” a 1988 release directed by Ringo Lam (林嶺東). One of its filming locations I figured out was the junction of Portland Street (砵蘭街) and Prince Edward Road West (太子道西). Wah Lok (華樂) restaurant, where Roy Cheung (張耀揚)’s character Brother Smart (瀟洒哥) frequented, and the nearby brothel where poor Fennie Yuen (袁潔瑩)’s character Chu Yuen-Fong (朱婉芳) was forced to work, were aptly situated on Portland Street, Hong Kong’s infamous red light district. Ringo Lam is well known for his realistic approach to film making, and I suppose it is reflected on this selection of location as well. (On this film, you can see the windows of the brothel are coated with paint. I don’t know if the work was done for the film or an actual brothel was used…could be the latter…)

"Prison on Fire (監獄風雲)" New Digitally Remastered DVD

On 13 April 2012, Paramount Pictures in Japan will release a digitally remastered DVD of "Prison on Fire (監獄風雲)" and "Prison on Fire II (監獄風雲II 逃犯)". Its retail price, JPY 1,500 each, is much lower than versions that have been previously available in the country. (It'll be even cheaper if you buy them from Amazon Japan.) The DVDs will feature the original Cantonese language with Japanese subtitles.

"Prison on Fire" is a 1987 classic directed by Ringo Lam (林嶺東) and starring Chow Yun-Fat (周潤發), Tony Leung Ka-Fai (梁家輝) and Roy Cheung (張耀揚). Unlike Blu-ray, DVD versions of this film have not been widely available or affordable in the Asian market for the last few years...it' a welcome release!