School on Fire
Reviewed by YTSL
At one point in this movie, we do hear the announcement
and see the sight of a "school (being) on fire". However, I think that
it would be well for the (potential) viewer to bear in mind that the literal
English translation of the film's Chinese title is a much more descriptively
apt "School Turbulence".
The school in question is one which is a crowded one building affair, many
of whose teachers are past caring (one of them (Damian Lau) seems content
to just instruct his students to conduct "self-study", another's punishments
seem to consist solely of asking her students to write a particular sentence
out a thousand times) and quite a few of whose students are not only academic
under-achievers but fledgling Triad members, prostitutes and pill-poppers.
In such surroundings and circumstances, it is easy to see how idealism can
be not only a luxury but also dangerous for those who possess it, and why
a life of crime can seem to be such an attractive opportunity or natural
option.
SCHOOL ON FIRE focuses on the trials and travails of a "good" girl (well
played by Fennie Yuen) who cannot help but get involved with the Triad,
what with her: best friend at school being a prostitute (Sarah Lee,
who won a Hong Kong Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in
this movie) with a Triad member boyfriend; attracting the attention of an
out-of-school Triad member colleague of her best friend's boyfriend; and her
father (Victor Hon) being a Triad member himself (albeit an inactive one).
Though it is obvious from when we first meet her that her life is already
hardly a perfect one, her troubles really start in earnest when a fight breaks
out between members of two rival Triad gangs in large part because of her
and she naively does the "right" thing by identifying to the police (Lam Ching
Ying and Tommy Wong) the perpetrators of a killing that occurred in the midst
of the brawl. A very nasty Roy Cheung then begins to turn her life upside
down.
I have read somewhere (probably on the internet!) that director Ringo Lam
took pride in creating -- and went to great lengths to ensure that he did
succeed in producing -- realistic, if gritty, portraits of Hong Kong in
his "on Fire" series. If there is any modicum of truth to this assertion
and his depiction, then this film of his can be seen as a damning indictment
of Hong Kong schools and the British rulers of the then Crown Colony -- a
fact which the viewer is reminded of by the film's musical score prominently
featuring the mournful wail of bagpipes -- who allow(ed) the existence of
such schools.
My rating for this film: 9.