One of the premier action directors of the 1990s, Ringo Lam was a man well-known for his intense, blistering thrillers – and FULL CONTACT is a film that helped establish his reputation. It's a taut thriller that delivers an engaging plot packed with twists and turns, and of course the high velocity shoot-outs that Hong Kong gangster movies are famed for. Rather than delivering John Woo-style imitation stand-offs and mass gun battles, Lam is a director who always focuses on the intimacy of action – the small scale violence delivered to its participants. As such, FULL CONTACT is a very violent film and indeed it is a film all about violence.
Things kick off in high gear as we join a jewellery store robbery. Chief robber Simon Yam soon turns out to be a thoroughly nasty piece of work, stabbing an innocent victim through the heart. He's flamboyantly gay, too. Then we join a second story strand involving Chow Yun Fat as a low-rent criminal who we meet standing up for his buddy Anthony Wong, in a role that encompasses both good and bad this time around. Chow Yun Fat kicks backside with a butterfly knife in scenes that were initially censored in the British release before becoming embroiled with Simon Yam and his cronies in an attempt to hold up a truck carrying a ton of gold.
Double crosses, back stabbing, and mucho bad taste ensue. This is a film where the majority of the cast are sleazy, stupid or just plain evil. There's moronic muscle man called Psycho, a hooker who spends half the film engaged in sexual situations, and even the hero's girlfriend is a stripper in a sleazy club. Chow Yun Fat himself is clearly a bad guy, and yet he's the one we're rooting for, the one man with morals in a world seemingly devoid of humanity.
There's not quite as much action as I'd anticipated, but when it comes the violence is very, very well handled and completely stylish. The nightclub shoot-out uses 'bullet time' slow motion to great effect years before THE MATRIX came out – who said Hollywood was original? Lam is at home detailing hold-ups, shoot-outs, executions, and pyrotechnic effects, and of course it all climaxes with a final bout between hero and villain. I won't spoil it, other than to say it doesn't disappoint. While I wouldn't call this a genre classic in the same league as something like HARD-BOILED, but it is a highly entertaining film. I look forward to watching it again some day to see how it holds up.
Things kick off in high gear as we join a jewellery store robbery. Chief robber Simon Yam soon turns out to be a thoroughly nasty piece of work, stabbing an innocent victim through the heart. He's flamboyantly gay, too. Then we join a second story strand involving Chow Yun Fat as a low-rent criminal who we meet standing up for his buddy Anthony Wong, in a role that encompasses both good and bad this time around. Chow Yun Fat kicks backside with a butterfly knife in scenes that were initially censored in the British release before becoming embroiled with Simon Yam and his cronies in an attempt to hold up a truck carrying a ton of gold.
Double crosses, back stabbing, and mucho bad taste ensue. This is a film where the majority of the cast are sleazy, stupid or just plain evil. There's moronic muscle man called Psycho, a hooker who spends half the film engaged in sexual situations, and even the hero's girlfriend is a stripper in a sleazy club. Chow Yun Fat himself is clearly a bad guy, and yet he's the one we're rooting for, the one man with morals in a world seemingly devoid of humanity.
There's not quite as much action as I'd anticipated, but when it comes the violence is very, very well handled and completely stylish. The nightclub shoot-out uses 'bullet time' slow motion to great effect years before THE MATRIX came out – who said Hollywood was original? Lam is at home detailing hold-ups, shoot-outs, executions, and pyrotechnic effects, and of course it all climaxes with a final bout between hero and villain. I won't spoil it, other than to say it doesn't disappoint. While I wouldn't call this a genre classic in the same league as something like HARD-BOILED, but it is a highly entertaining film. I look forward to watching it again some day to see how it holds up.