Ringo Lam’s Full Contact Reviewed
There are a lot of movies that actually have the title Full Contact, so to be clear, we’re talking about the one with Chow Yun Fat, directed by Ringo Lam. The original title was Chivalrous Thief Gau Fei, and the film was essentially an attempt to bring old world, white knight chivalry to the modern action movie genre. It’s really one of the best of the Heroic Bloodshed films if you’re a fan of John Woo, so next time you want to watch movies online and you want some great action, give it a download.
Chow Yun Fat plays the lead role as a very pure action hero, a man of honor and loyalty. Interestingly, this is what doomed the movie at the Hong Kong box office while it has gone on to become a cult hit in the United States. In Hong Kong, Chow Yun Fat isn’t seen as an action star, he’s seen as a comedy star who does action flicks from time to time. HK audiences didn’t want to see Chow Yun Fat in such a violent action film.
So the film starts off with Gau Fei getting in deep with a local Triad loan shark. They kidnap his cousin and he comes to rescue him, only to make things worse for everyone involved when he beats the snot out of the bad guy’s thugs. So they flee to Thailand to pull of a big heist so they can return, pay off the loan shark and get everything in order.
The film follows him on a journey to Thailand where he hopes to pull off a big score to pay off the Triad loan shark menacing his cousin. There he is betrayed by his partners, and must find his way back to Hong Kong where he can exact revenge on the ones who set him up. However, he also must find redemption for himself and his friends along the way.
The film focuses on the colors of red and blue, representing fire and water, peace and violence, and creating a truly gorgeous sense of style. The film is really all about rainy streets and fire, creating a sort of dreamy, nostalgic sort of feel like some sort of colorful neo-noir film. It’s sort of the Hong Kong answer to Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire, which was actually pretty big in Asia, despite tanking here, just as Full Contact is a big cult film here despite tanking in Hong Kong.
The movie is relatively rare on DVD and never gets played on TV, so if you want to check it out, you’ll have to look on the internet to find it. It’s really worth a watch, though, if you’re a fan of action, and especially if you’re a fan of Hong Kong action.
The film is sort of a fond farewell to that era, actually, having come out in 1992, the same year as Hard Boiled. This was just before the director Ringo Lam and John Woo went to the United States to create Hollywood action flicks with Jean Claude Van Damme. Hardcore fans were a little less than excited about those films, but it was nice to see that they’d keep working after the Chinese takeover of HK.
The film really has a sense of nostalgia and sentimentality, and it really is beautiful to stare at. It may well be one of the very best of its genre.
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