Cambodia
2018 93 mins OV Chinese Subtitles : English
Undercover cops have to work hard to keep their cover. Case in point: Chinese cop Xin (newcomer Gu Shangwei), out to bust cyber thieves in Cambodia, is arrested as part of a police raid and is quickly sent to prison. But it's not just any prison he ends up in, its one at which the ruthless warden (Vithaya Pansringarm of ONLY GOD FORGIVES) sells prisoners as human prey for rich hunters looking for thrills in the Cambodian jungle. Thrown in with a mix of crooks and killers out to survive in any way possible, Xin must now outrun his hunters and stop them before they stop him dead in his tracks. He's tough, he's trained, he's ready to fight, and he just needs to run like hell and find his way out of this before they find him
There's a reason why Richard Connell's story The Most Dangerous Game has been adapted (both officially and unofficially, as is the case here) so many times over the years, and that's because it's a damn great story of survival and adventure. THE PREY continues this tradition of solid action movies that take this simple premise and run with it, as it were, and THE PREY runs pretty fast and hard. No surprise there, as it comes from writer/director Jimmy Henderson and the team behind the Fantasia 2017 hit JAILBREAK, and it continues their winning streak of rock-solid, high-quality action on a modest budget. Henderson and team have found an excellent new action hero in Shangwei, who is likeable and easygoing but also a total badass when the action kicks in, and Pansringarm continues his excellent streak of bad cops (hey, the guy's good at it), while Lucas Gath's terrific cinematography and the great Cambodian location work do much to make THE PREY so good. – Matthew Kiernan
