Full Alert

Director: Ringo Lam

1997 / 99min / DCP

Filmed in the immediate lead-up to the Hong Kong Handover of 1997, Lam’s last bona fide masterwork—made after a not-entirely-satisfactory sojourn in North America—is not so much a eulogy to the action cinema of his hometown as a blazing funeral pyre for it, pitting canny cop Sean Lau Ching-wan against embittered ex-architect (and convicted murderer) Francis Ng; his lover and co-conspirator, Amanda Lee; and the ruthless gang of Taiwanese criminals they’re in league with. Among other things, an insider’s tour of a city that soon will be altered almost beyond recognition, including cars caroming their way between moving trams—the vehicular action, believe it or not, was shot without permits—and a visit to the vaults at the Jockey Club race track.

Distributor: Mei Ah Development

Part of Ringo Lam on Fire