Yun fat chow not

"Love and Death in Saigon." Series staple Mark Gor returns to Vietnam to rescue his uncle, with help from a beautiful guerilla fighter.

With FULL CONTACT director Ringo Lam established his reputation, along with John Woo (A BETTER TOMORROW) and Wong Kar-Wai (CHUNGKING EXPRESS), as one of the premier directors of the Hong Kong subgenre known as heroic bloodshed. In these films, which are an outgrowth of Kung Fu films, the hero has both deadly fighting skills and a small army of heavily armed cohorts and adversaries. After a few reels of bullets and bloodshed, the hero, usually a man of honor--although he can be seeking revenge, as in FULL CONTACT--has a climactic one-on-one battle with the head of the evil gang he's fighting against. Set in Bangkok, this film stars Chow Yun-Fat as Jeff, a bouncer at a nightclub who rescues his friend Sam (Anthony Wong) from a beating by a gang led by Judge (Simon Yam), a particularly stylish and viscous gangster. To pay back the money Sam owes, they agree to go in on a robbery with a couple of his gang members, a super-sexually charged vixen, ironically named Virgin (Bonnie Fu), and her musclebound boyfriend, Deano (Frankie Chin). After Jeff is betrayed during the robbery and left for dead, he manages to escape to a Buddhist monastery, where he recovers until he's ready to return to settle the score with Judge. Both Chow Yun-Fat and Simon Yam give terrific performances in this action drama that is perhaps most famous for the bullet-cam shot of a shoot-out from the bullet's point of view.