R E V I E W :    Full Alert  

Reviewed 12/30/00 | Background | Movie Review | DVD Review | Recommendation

Background 

Mei Ah / 1997 / 93 minutes
Directed by Ringo Lam Ling-tung
Written by Lau Wing Kin

It must have seemed a natural move for director Ringo Lam Ling-tung to go to Hollywood. After all, he had built a solid career as an action director (notably City on Fire and Full Contact) in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan and John Woo had experienced their first successes, and the handover of Hong Kong to China was imminent. The resultant film, Maximum Risk (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), however, was a disaster, and Lam could not have been pleased when the studio recut the film. He returned to HK and made this movie.

It was released theatrically in Hong Kong in July 1997, right after the handover. Since then Lam has directed The Suspect and Victim. Undaunted by his past negative experience, he is currently completing Replicant (again starring Van Damme).

Movie: plot, performances, production, rating

Former engineer Francis Ng confesses to the murder of an architect. But police inspector Lau Ching Wan suspects that the murder is only the tip of a criminal iceberg. He is soon proved right, and becomes obsessed with the case.

This is not light entertainment. Director Ringo Lam elicits excellent performances by Lau Ching-Wan and Francis Ng. The two actors add dramatic weight to the proceedings. As cat and mouse, though, they are not portrayed as loners - the police inspector has a wife and young son, and the criminal has a devoted girlfriend. This aspect, too, lends the action of the main characters added poignancy, as do the fine supporting performances by Monica Chan Faat Yung and Amanda Lee Wai Man as the wife and girlfriend, respectively.

The action is gritty and tough, filmed without an ounce of sensationalism. For example, an extended car chase highlights the dangers involved and hurries along with a sense of urgency and danger. No one with the thought of pursuing a glamorous profession would become a policeman after seeing this movie. The plot keeps racing forward and a rising level of tension is developed.

The film is rated Category IIB - some explicit gunshot violence and one bloody "aftermath" scene.

DVD: look, sound, subtitles, and features

The transfer quality is uneven. At times it looks quite decent, with a sharp picture, deep blacks, and so forth. In other places, it looks dull and washed out. To some extent, however, this may be a reflection of the intentionally quasi-documentary look of the film.

Cantonese and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks are provided. I listened to the Cantonese track and it sounded fine - the surrounds got a decent workout. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Bahasa removable subtitles are provided in addition to English; the English titles are large and white with no backing, which makes them difficult to read at times.

Twenty chapters are provided on a simple menu that just lists numbers, with no descriptions. No time coding is available on the disk. No features are included.

Buy, rent, or pass?

Rent. Both absorbing and draining, Full Alert effectively ruminates on the consequences of enforcing the laws of the land, both on the criminals and the police. Highly recommended.

 

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