Full Contact
Jeff: Chow Yun-Fat
Judge: Simon Yam
Sam: Anthony Wong
IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0105851
other links: special feature: Guest review by Brad Crain.
Version reviewed: DVD
Ratings:
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DVD Audio: 7 of 10
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DVD Video: 7 of 10
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Subtitles: 7 of 10
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Story: 4 of 10
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Performances: 6 of 10
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CYF: 5 of 10
I will say right off the bat that I resent the apparent basic
premise of this film, that of creating a new iconography for Chow
Yun-Fat.
One of the main intrigues about the violent characters which CYF has
played in action films over the years has been the juxtaposition of the
sophisticated intellect of the "killer with a conscience" and the
brutal nature of the acts the characters commit. With Full
Contact that intellect is stripped away, and all we are left
with are bad people doing bad things because, basically, they're
just rotten human beings.
The downgrading of the Gentleman Assassin to just another bad-ass
punk is disappointing. It doesn't take an actor of CYF's talents to
portray an essentially mindless character and with this in mind it
seems that Ringo Lam's direction was aimed at damping any displays
which might disturb the stone-faced graven image he was trying to
create. There are actors aplenty for roles such as this, and it is
a shameful waste of CYF. One could argue there are enough bad-ass
punks already, why do we need another one? Especially one as
tiresome as this.
Vulgar and sensational, the storyline is sparse and relies on a
never-quite-achieved suspension of disbelief on the part of the
audience to limp along. There is no more going on here than in
The Replacement Killers as far as development of motivation
or character; there is more blood, explosions and snarls of
machismo so if that is what you find entertaining, then you'll
probably like this film.
There has been much talk about the unusual level of sexuality
displayed in the film, but I do not agree. I didn't see very much
sexuality at all, though I did see a lot of pandering which happened
to include people grinding away at one another (or themselves).
Even the most raw forms of sex call for some sort of involvement on
a gut level between the parties, and there was none of that here.
These people could just as well have slapped one another or played
Parcheesi for all the difference it made to giving any glimpse into
their world. The level of misogyny was higher than usual, on that I
will agree; I have never seen so many references to women's mouths
being "toilets" as I have in this film.
I see this film in the same context as Hard Boiled, John
Woo's celebrated paean to lower brainstem activity. Just as Woo kept
one eye on the viewfinder of his camera and one on Hollywood options
when he made Hard Boiled, so does Ringo Lam seem determined
to make a Hollywood-style film with Hong Kong symbols, for whatever
reason. Perversity, maybe.
I didn't care about the characters, I found the settings trite in
their imagery and the "money shot" of the bullet cam became tiresome
VERY quickly. If it had been done only ONCE, that would have been
startling and powerful, but with each repetition the novelty was
worn away until the entire effect was one of silliness instead of
power.
Trying to downplay CYF's good looks by making him some uber-butch
is not a smart idea, I think. Part of his appeal in ultraviolence
movies is that the blood and death is balanced by his angelic face.
Making him ugly and soiled is either the director underestimating
his audience (perhaps he thinks we have to be hit over the head as a
reminder that this is an ugly and soiled individual living in ugly
and soiled Bangkok?) or a misguided conception that real men don't
use soap.
After being shot in the heart, Our Anti-Hero roars off on his Harley
to live another day. The only thing missing was the stirring
sentiment "Coming Soon! Full Contact 2!" in big friendly letters
over it all. Thanks, but no thanks.
Simon Yam's character was mildly interesting but it wasn't the stellar
performance I had been led to expect, then again he didn't really have
that much to work with. Maybe a lot was left on the cutting-room floor.
I did like the sleight-of-hand though, even though it wasn't done as
well as by the magician-villain in the finale of Once A Thief.
Ann Bridgewater portraying Mona gave us someone who was weak and pale,
not someone who could conceivably be a biker's woman; her role as
an exotic dancer seemed to make her more ill-fitting in the Mean
Streets of Bangkok than ever (not to mention that in the second half
of the film she is given some laughably bad choreography to perform,
perhaps that accounts for her reticent performance - she just wanted
it to be over and hopefully never have to think about it again).
The character of Virgin was a fantasy cut-out from a comic book, and
was played in an equally cardboard manner by Bonnie Fu. I haven't
heard a laugh like that since the local Little Theatre trotted out
one of my neighbors as Gertie Cummins in Oklahoma.
This film is bad, really bad, and not Bad with a capital 'B', either.
For CYFanatics you'll want to watch it just so you can see how he can
be misused in a film and hope that he never makes another one like
it. If you thought The Replacement Killers was bad, watch
this one. You'll go back to thinking TRK wasn't so bad after all,
now was it.
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