Full Alert — Full Alert(Blu Ray)

Full Alert( aka Go Do Gaai Bei) is a 1997 action/ crime thriller from director Ringo Lam, the man responsible for the often imitated and rarely equalled City of Fire (just Ask Quentin Tarantino about that one).  The film stars Ching Wan Lau (Black Mask, Mad Detective and Life Without Principle) as Inspector Pao, who is trying to catch and arrest gang member Mak Kwan, played by Francis Ng (Infernal Affairs II, 2000AD and Bullets over Summer). This makes for an unoriginal, but well crafted and ultimately enjoyable crime thriller.

Bombs expert Mak Kwan is arrested by the police for murdering his partner, the police find all of the ingredients to make bombs in his home and hope they can use Mak Kwan to take down the criminal gang he works for. His girlfriend, Chung Lai-Hung, played by Amanda Lee (9413, School on Fire and Shanghai Grand) reports to his boss that he has been arrested and he sets out along with his sidekick, Chan Wah, played by Raymond Cho (No Sweat, Operation Billionaire and The Three Actors) to spring Kwan from police custody in order to protect their plans to carry out the heist they have been planning. The ensuing car chase around the streets of Hong Kong is stunning and represents one of the best set pieces in the movie, of which there are several. Much like Ringo Lam’s classic City on Fire, Full Alert is Hong King cinema at its best. The acting is of a very high standard, both of the film’s leads are particularly good here, the action scenes are, as already mentioned excellent, as one would expect from Lam. As an interesting aside, all of the action sequences in the film were shot secretly and without a permit on the streets of Hong Kong, a pretty astonishing achievement in itself, especially when you see the scale of some of them.

Overall, Full Alert is a great piece of cinema, the action is excellent, the dramatic sequences are well shot and feature some wonderful performances from a very strong cast, and while it may not be too original, the whole thing is so well constructed as a whole that you can forgive its formulaic game of cat and mouse type plot. Lam, makes good use of some classic plot devices, some of which you don’t always see coming. Lam’s direction is impeccable and the whole film flows perfectly from start to finish.

This new Blu-ray edition from Eureka presents the film in its original Cantonese language with English subs. It can also be watched with an audio commentary from Ringo Lam himself, and another from Asian film expert Frank Djeng. It is also worth noting that there is a rather significant interview with composer Peter Lam as well as the ubiquitous theatrical trailer. So, while the disc is not heavy on bonus materials it is at least worth a look/ listen.

Overall, the whole package is a 4 out of 5 for me. The film represents Ringo Lam re-establishing himself within the Hong Kong film industry after his brief and somewhat unsuccessful foray into the Hollywood action market with the Van Damme vehicle, Maximum Risk, and whilst it’s not quite as good as City on Fire, it remains a high-quality action film.