A Ferry Ride Into Folklore

Read Time:5 Minute, 54 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
The Island (Sang sei sin) [Limited Edition]
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Genre: Horror, Thriller
Year Released: 1985, Eureka Entertainment Blu-ray 2025
Runtime: 1h 33m
Director(s): Po-Chih Leong
Writer(s): The Dak Bo Creative Group, Kei Shu
Cast: John Sham, Hoi-Lun Au, Timothy Zao, Peter Chan Lung, Lap Ban Chan
Where to Watch: available October 13, 2025, pre-order your copy here: www.eurekavideo.co.uk, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: THE ISLAND centers on a teacher and his students, cut off from the mainland and confronted by a family whose way of life turns everything they believe in upside down. It’s a survival horror premise you’ve seen before—civilization trapped in the wild—but the way this 1985 Hong Kong film filters that scenario through humor, class friction, and a streak of maliciousness gives it a lived-in personality.

John Sham’s casting as Mr. Cheung is the film’s secret weapon. He’s not an action lead or a generic protector; he’s a good-natured educator suddenly forced into triage, leading teenagers who sway between fear and very human denial. That dissonance—adult versus escalating threat—grounds the film and turns small choices into real stakes. The story allows the characters to make hesitant, sometimes incorrect decisions, which makes the eventual panic feel earned.

Early moments play lighter than expected, with class dynamics and bickering setting an almost breezy tone. That ease isn’t a mistake; it’s bait. When the island’s residents enter the picture—three feral brothers and their domineering mother—the air changes. The family’s world is small and absolute, and their desires are not negotiable. The inciting insult, a refused proposal that barely counts as conversation, is all it takes to expose the gulf between the visitors’ assumptions and the islanders’ rules. From that point on, the film pushes through stages of denial, bargaining, and finally, flight.

The brothers are over the top—swaggering, taunting, and theatrical in their cruelty. In a different film, that could have come off as cartoonish, but here it serves two purposes. First, it reveals a social order where intimidation serves as a form of language. Second, it amplifies the students’ helplessness; they’re not contending with a single predator but a clan that treats pursuit like sport. The mother’s presence pulls it together: she isn’t just enabling violence; she’s organizing it.

Performances among the students are intentionally uneven, just as panic is uneven. Some cling to decorum, some flare up, some freeze. That variance is honest; not everyone is built for crisis, and the film doesn’t pretend otherwise. If there’s a limitation, it’s that the script doesn’t give the girls much beyond terror and tenacity. The menacing family members are painted in thicker strokes, but the students, especially the girls, too often function as chess pieces to be threatened or rescued. When the film slows down enough to let them strategize rather than react, it gains texture; you want more of those moments.

John Sham’s physicality pays off here. Watching a non-athletic adult drag his fear behind a façade of calm is compelling; he’s constantly calculating, absorbing, and choosing between two bad options. When the film forces him into leadership, there’s no heroic swell—just the uncomfortable courage of a person who understands that no one else is coming. That fits the movie’s principles. THE ISLAND is not about extraordinary people tapped by fate; it’s about ordinary people scrambling to survive a pocket of the world that doesn’t care about their plans.

For fans of backwoods and siege horror, the pleasures are clear: the line from setup to catastrophe, the cat-and-mouse reversals, and a finale that pays off the dread with a series of confrontations. For viewers with a deeper understanding of Hong Kong cinema, the added interest lies in how a homegrown production translates a very American subgenre into local identity—pacing, humor, and a blunt sense of consequence—without losing its own. It’s recognizably a cousin to stateside survival shockers, but it speaks with a different vision.

The film is good—sometimes very good—especially once the trap snaps shut. It’s not redefining the genre, and the characterization can be thin, but its best moments are a tight, grim run that’s surprisingly tense for how stripped-down it is. The new remaster’s existence also matters for collectors: better translation, cleaner presentation, and renewed access allow the craft and staging to shine through rather than getting lost in the murk. But even without that, the core works because the scenario is elemental—put decent people in a place that rejects decency and see who adapts. THE ISLAND is a solid survival shocker with a distinctive local flavor—uneven in places, but it snaps to attention when the hunt begins.

Bonus Materials:
Limited edition of 2,000 copies
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Ilan Sheady
Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring an interview with Po-Chih Leong and revised introduction notes on The Island by film writer, producer, and film festival executive Roger Garcia
1080p HD presentation from a brand new 2K restoration
Original Cantonese mono
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
New audio commentary with East Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
New audio commentary with genre cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
Surviving the Shoot – interview with director Po-Chih Leong from 2023 courtesy of Frédéric Ambroisine
Trailer
* All extras subject to change

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[photo courtesy of EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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