|
||
|
Screened at Golden Shadows 22 April 2001 & 23 June 2002 For the uninitiated, Full Contact is a violent crime thriller set in the underworlds of Thailand and Hong Kong, and has charismatic screen superstar Chow Yun-Fat at the height of his Cantonese career. Chow plays Jeff Ko-Fei, the linchpin to a gang of close knit Hong Kong criminals living in Thailand. In between armed robberies, Jeff works as a bouncer in a Bangkok girlie bar where his gwailo fiance, Mona (Ann Bridgewater) is an exotic dancer. Sam Shum (in a typically greasy performance from Anthony Wong), a twitchy gambler on a life long losing streak, and Chung, a Canto young gun with a hair trigger temper, make up Jeff's circle of dubious friends. In an effort to help Sam with a gambling debt, Jeff becomes involved with an ambitious robbery of a Thai military arsenal, which is being organised by Judge (in a truly, over-the-top scene stealing performance by Simon Yam), who enjoys flaunting his homosexuality nearly as much as he enjoys killing people. Judge is backed up by Virgin (Bonnie Fu) and Deano (Frankie Chin), two iron age throwbacks who share an insatiable need for rough sex and serious violence. Only during the robbery does it become murderously clear that Jeff and his gang have been set-up by Judge. After much criminal, military and civilian bloodshed, Jeff is left to die in a burning farmhouse. Judge and his cohorts, plus the treacherous Sam, then move to Hong Kong. Ko-Fei is saved by Buddhist monks, and after a torturous recuperation, he also heads towards Southern China where his plans for Judge and Sam's futures are anything but Buddhist-based...... Director Ringo Lam's cinematic skills elevates Full Contact way above the run-of-the-mill HK action pic......and it works beautifully as a dark and visceral tale, tinged with fleeting moments of razor edged surrealism. - JOHN SNADDEN (originally published in Reel Wild Cinema)
Totally cool, exciting thriller from 1992. Full Contact, so violent it plays
like a 96 minute Bosnia. |
|
|
