An undercover Chinese detective is placed in a Cambodian prison, where the corrupt warden hires men to hunt down the prisoners in The Prey. Xin (Gu Shangwei) is an undercover Chinese detective in Cambodia, who is arrested an placed in a prison run by a brutal warden (Vithaya Pansringarm). Xin is one of many prisoners taken from the prison and released into the jungle, where they become the human prey for a group of hired hunters, with Xin specifically being the hotheaded new recruit Ti (Nophand Boonyai).
With The Prey, Cambodian director Jimmy Henderson (Jailbreak) utilizes a “hunter of humans” narrative that has been previously used in everything from The Most Dangerous Game (1932) to Hard Target (1993) to most recently Big Game (2014). The Prey doesn’t really add too much to the table, as the film is a typical story of survival. That said, I will say that Vithaya Pansringarm (Only God Forgives) is memorable in his villainous role of The Warden, with Nophand Boonyai also doing fine as the secondary antagonist Ti. Ultimately, The Prey doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression for me, though it does make for a fine enough viewing experience.