Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Po-Chih Leong
Starring: John Sham, Timothy Zao, Lung Chan, Hoi-Lun Au, Amy Kwok
Po-Chih Leong's 1985 thriller The Island is a belated Hong Kong attempt to replicate '70s American movies like Deliverance, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, where city slickers are terrorised by yokels in a remote corner of their own country. It's also a Far East cousin of grindhouse thrillers like Trip with the Teacher and the Ozploitation classic Fortress, in which teachers are forced to become heroes to save their students from murderous thugs.
The teacher who finds himself in this position here is Mr. Cheung (John Sham, or "Shum" depending on your source). He decides it would be a good idea to take six of his students for a two day trip to a remote island he once visited 14 years earlier. What Cheung doesn't realise is that the island is now home to a deranged clan.
The Island departs from tradition by introducing us to its redneck villains before we meet their sophisticated would-be victims. In a prologue we find the "Fat" brothers - Tai Fat (Lung Chan), Yee Fat (Jing Chen) and Sam Fat (Billy Sau Yat Ching) - who have abducted a young woman whom they plan to wed to the mentally disturbed Sam. When their mother inspects the potential bride's nether regions she discovers the girl isn't the virgin she was hoping to marry her son off to, and so she calls off the wedding before promptly dying.
Enter the hapless Cheung and his dopey kids, who are stuck on the island until a boat returns to collect them in two days' time. The Fat brothers introduce themselves in an initially gruff but friendly manner, but things turn dark when they select one of Cheung's pupils, Phyllis (Hoi-lun Au), as Sam's bride. When Phyllis predictably turns down the proposal the brothers react with violence.
Leong's film briefly seems like it might be a more nuanced take on this trope, as we watch Cheung's students humiliate their yokel hosts during a night of drinking on the beach. Had we not already seen the Fat brothers abducting and terrorising a young woman we might have some sympathy for them at this point. That Sam is clearly mentally challenged also muddies the waters, making it uncomfortable to view him as a villain. While Cheung is merely a bumbling oaf, his students are largely an unlikeable bunch of immature and snobbish idiots, so it's difficult to care about whether they make it off the island or not.
Had Leung played his premise straight it might have made for a suitably gritty Hong Kong take on this well-worn narrative, but The Island suffers from too many disastrous attempts to lighten the mood with goofiness. There are a few moments that would be more at home in a Scooby Doo cartoon, and they're especially jarring when contrasted with the film's icky undercurrent of sexualised threat. On the other hand there's a surprising lack of violence despite the number of potential victims. This could have been a Hong Kong rival to Japan's later cult classic Battle Royale, with a bunch of asshole college kids getting offed in inventive fashion, but Leung spurns this chance. Things eventually amp up in the final 30 minutes, and there are a couple of briefly suspenseful moments, but The Island will likely test the patience of anyone expecting the sort of grindhouse thrills its setup teases.
The Island is on UK bluray from October 13th from Eureka Entertainment.