With Prisoners

Description

A stirring exposé of Hong Kong’s juvenile justice system, With Prisoners uses real events to dramatize an institutional structure in urgent need of reform. The main character is Fan, a self-described “thug” who is working security when he gets into a fight with an off-duty cop. Having picked the wrong adversary, he is sent to a three-month program that emphasizes a “short sharp shock” to young offenders as the means to rehabilitation. At the Sha Tsui Detention Center, Fan encounters sadistic guards, inhumane treatment, and a depersonalizing curriculum that refers to inmates by number rather than name and subjects them to frequent strip searches. A welcome counterbalance to the cruelty Fan experiences and witnesses is a guard named Ho who treats the kids with compassion and a genuine belief in their potential to change. When the suspicious death of one of the juveniles throws the system’s grave problems into relief, it forces difficult decisions for both Fan and Ho. Combining professional actors with real-life survivors of the system (who bring to their roles a lived-in verisimilitude), Wong Kwok-kuen’s debut feature powerfully merges social commentary with moving emotional content.

Film Details