School on Fire (1988)

A harrowing and intense drama about triad gangs in a Hong Kong high school, School On Fire qualifies as yet another Hong Kong Cinema classic from master director Ringo Lam! Chu Yuen Fong (Fennie Yuen) is a student who witnesses a triad beating, and is pressured by cops and teachers into testifying against the attackers. But this is just Fong's initiation into the dark and disturbingly corrupt world of Hong Kong triads. The lead triad Brother Smart (a menacing Roy Cheung) terrorizes Fong into playing an obscene protection fee, and she becomes too frightened to tell her parents or the teachers. Her friend Siu Chun (Lee Lai Yui) comes to her rescue, but she can only do so much. As Fong's world begins to crumble, a righteous teacher (Damian Lau) and a just cop (the great Lam Ching Ying) do their best to help her. But can they do anything before the triads threaten to consume Fong, Siu Chun, and ultimately even the school? Directed in compelling fashion by Ringo Lam, School On Fire is an intense and powerful action drama that affects with both gritty realism and heightened, desperate emotions.