Largely viewing Action films in the ICM Hong Kong viewing challenge,I started thinking about what the final film would be.A fan of the Heroic Bloodshed sub-genre since seeing John Woo's The Killer,it felt like the perfect time to make full contact with Ringo Lam and see the end of an era.
View on the film:
Making Full Contact the same year fellow Heroic Bloodshed auteur John Woo did his final in the sub-genre with Hard Boiled, directing auteur Ringo Lam closes the peak era of the sub-genre which he had played a major role in since City on Fire (Full Contact bombing and Hard Boiled being a disappointment at the Hong Kong box office led to the end of big budget productions) Roaring into action with a shot in Thailand robbery, Lam continues building on his visual motifs with a magnificent eye for ultra-stylisation, following Gou Fei's ride for revenge in neon blue and a red-lit path to attack.
Referencing Val Lewton's Cat People (and a possible nod to the Giallo with glittering in rain knives) Lam composes the action with a sharp precision which takes the viewer to the "bullet ballet" via following each shot from the triggering to the target and the crunch of bones from hand-to-hand combat. Whilst giving the title an unexpected (but welcomed) sensuality from Mona and her occasional dance numbers (!) Lam goes back to the roots of the sub-genre with an intense, doom-laden Neo-Noir atmosphere that sees Fei's heroism be washed away in the rain.Reuniting with Lam and Chow Yun-Fat, the screenplay by Yin Nam delivers a coda to the era, as the Noir-style loyalty bonding Fei and his friends is torn by a gang with a more fractured Heroic Bloodshed belief in loyalty. Keeping the fuse between Fei and The Judge lit, Nam keeps a real heart within the action from quiet, tragic moments that crackle from the full contact gun-fu.
Grabbing the screen from the opening scene in a short green skirt, fittie Ann Bridgewater gives an enticing performance as Mona, whose playful sexuality as Mona and in the music numbers is held by Bridgewater as a force of power to have Mona rub shoulders with the guys. Teaming with Lam for the final time, Chow Yun-Fat goes out with all guns blazing by giving Gou Fei a simmering menace pinned down by a thoughtfulness towards his revenge plans of making full contact with heroic bloodshed.
View on the film:
Making Full Contact the same year fellow Heroic Bloodshed auteur John Woo did his final in the sub-genre with Hard Boiled, directing auteur Ringo Lam closes the peak era of the sub-genre which he had played a major role in since City on Fire (Full Contact bombing and Hard Boiled being a disappointment at the Hong Kong box office led to the end of big budget productions) Roaring into action with a shot in Thailand robbery, Lam continues building on his visual motifs with a magnificent eye for ultra-stylisation, following Gou Fei's ride for revenge in neon blue and a red-lit path to attack.
Referencing Val Lewton's Cat People (and a possible nod to the Giallo with glittering in rain knives) Lam composes the action with a sharp precision which takes the viewer to the "bullet ballet" via following each shot from the triggering to the target and the crunch of bones from hand-to-hand combat. Whilst giving the title an unexpected (but welcomed) sensuality from Mona and her occasional dance numbers (!) Lam goes back to the roots of the sub-genre with an intense, doom-laden Neo-Noir atmosphere that sees Fei's heroism be washed away in the rain.Reuniting with Lam and Chow Yun-Fat, the screenplay by Yin Nam delivers a coda to the era, as the Noir-style loyalty bonding Fei and his friends is torn by a gang with a more fractured Heroic Bloodshed belief in loyalty. Keeping the fuse between Fei and The Judge lit, Nam keeps a real heart within the action from quiet, tragic moments that crackle from the full contact gun-fu.
Grabbing the screen from the opening scene in a short green skirt, fittie Ann Bridgewater gives an enticing performance as Mona, whose playful sexuality as Mona and in the music numbers is held by Bridgewater as a force of power to have Mona rub shoulders with the guys. Teaming with Lam for the final time, Chow Yun-Fat goes out with all guns blazing by giving Gou Fei a simmering menace pinned down by a thoughtfulness towards his revenge plans of making full contact with heroic bloodshed.