Joel
McCrae in the original 1932 Most Dangerous Game film was the exception. The
villains in every subsequent people-hunting movie always have a knack for
choosing the worst possible quarry, like Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard
Target, Michael Dudikoff in Avenging Force, and Ice-T in Surviving
the Game. Undercover Chinese cop Xin is cut from the same butt-kicking
cloth. When he winds up in an off-the-books Cambodian prison, he will have to
survive the warden’s special hunt in Jimmy Henderson’s The Prey, which
had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Xin
was working undercover infiltrating a gang of cyber-thieves targeting China when
he was swept up in a local bust. Justice is swift in Phenom Penh, so he soon
finds himself remanded to a remote jungle prison. Not surprisingly, his martial
arts skills earn him a spot in the latest hunt the warden organizes for carefully
selected customers. This time, his regular client Mat has brought along his
fabulously wealthy but ragingly psychotic nephew “T,” so good times are sure to
be had.
Of
course, Xin will be gosh-darned difficult to kill. As a further complicating
wrinkle, his Chinese colleagues will follow the tracking device in his confiscated
Rolex, but they are definitely out of their element. Essentially, Xin will have
to rely on himself—maybe getting a small degree of help from the thief who also
survives the initial culling with him.
Yes,
this kind of story has been done many times before. Some films have offered
more interesting twists, but Henderson keeps it simple, preferring to rely on
the action chops of newcomer Gu Shangwei. Fortunately, he has the moves and the
grit, resembling a cross between Tiger Chen and vintage Jimmy Wang Yu.
Gu
should earn himself a lot of attention for his work in Prey, but as of
now, Vithaya Pansringarm is probably the best-known cast-member. Recognizable
to western audiences for portraying the corrupt warden in A Prayer Before Dawn and the corrupt warden in Mechanic: Resurrection, this time
around Pansringarm plays—the corrupt warden. It’s like he has become the
Strother Martin of Southeast Asia.
Byron
Bishop and Nophand Boonyai also make strong secondary villains, so viewers can
anticipate plenty of cathartic payback. Italian expat Henderson never gets too
fancy, but the legit rain forest settings definitely give it a humid atmosphere
of authenticity. The Prey has been billed as Cambodia’s first million-dollar
action movie, but its charms are really more that of grungy old school beat-downs.
Easily recommended for straight-up action fans, The Prey had its
Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.
