Full Contact

Jeff, working in Bangkok, joins a robbery to get his friend Sam out of trouble over a debt. Judge, who set the job up, splits it down the middle: he traps Jeff, and Sam abandons him. The rest of the film is the planning and execution of revenge. Ringo Lam's film belongs to the hardest period of Hong Kong action, and the shots that ride a bullet out of the barrel and the cutting that slices time at the moment of fire spread from here. Chow Yun-fat is the hero and Simon Yam plays Judge as an openly queer character to a degree unusual for the period, supplying most of the film's energy. The story is plain and the execution is savage. Who it is for: viewers who like Hong Kong action and hard revenge stories. Who it is not for: anyone with no tolerance for graphic violence.