User Reviews

This is a martial arts movie with a story that for the most part isn't compelling. Only the ending is a bit crude and brutal and come to think of it completely ridiculous. I think the director wanted to add some drama to make this movie more interesting. What the director seems to have forgotten that he doesn't need the drama, because he has Jacky Wu / Wu Jing (known from Tai Chi Boxer). When he does his thing, you are in for a treat. The man has some skill and he shows it whenever he can. The martial arts in this movie is great and that alone is the reason to watch this movie. The pace however is a bit slow. This due to the story. If they really wanted to make a interesting story they should have used "The Captain" more, since he was a great character. Instead we are confronted with some abstract fatalistic love story that does not make any sense. Who is to blame for that? Dennis Law , ladies and gentlemen. If you want more proof of his incompetence then go watch Fatal Move which was meant as a sequel to S.P.L. with Donnie Yen. Director Dennis Law is an example of a film maker who really shouldn't be in the business since he lacks vision and creativity. He basically copies and pastes stories and themes and combines them without adding something fresh or original and then thinks he is finished. Most of the time he is lucky that he is surrounded by competent people who more than once improve the film considerably. But it does beg the question why talented people like Sammo Hung, Simon Yam and Wu Jing would be involved with his productions at all.

In any case try to ignore the story and focus on the action. It's hard hitting and exhilarating.

This movie is beautifully shot with some of the greatest fight scenes of any film in recent years. Anytime there is a fight, even the brief ones, the film shines. However, the rest of the film is awful despite the excellent photography. This movie is plagued by bad acting and bad story. This movie is extremely stupid. Every non-action scene is terrible.

That being said it is still worth watching for the fight scenes. The fights go at a fast pace and are pretty believable. They are somewhat similar to Flashpoint and SPL.

This is an absurdly silly movie that expects the audience to be morons but the fights are well-done.

Wu Jing equals Jet Li, well not - just yet…

After last year's scene stealing performance as an assassin in the now acclaimed – Sha Po Long, Wu Jing is now the tiny territory's lone martial arts future. His skills and fluency are second to none and his reputation of training in the same school as Jet Li only furthers this compliment. With that being said, Wu Jing still have miles to go, before he should even be compared to the later superstar, as his acting is still stiff and lack any sort of emotional impact. Sure, his death stare role in SPL can do wonders, but this is a leading role that we are talking about and as likable as Wu Jing is, he does not have the on-screen presence of Jet Li – just yet. Luckily, whatever acting talents that Wu lacks, is duly compensated, by the comic presence of everyone's love and hate – Ronald Cheng and the increasing cuteness of his fellow female co-stars in Miki and Theresa. There are definitely moments of exceptionally well choreographed fight sequences that will make you – wow and wah, but ultimately the movie fails to connect as director Dennis Law resorts to a cliché filled end. Just like, most HK movies, it just doesn't finish off with a bang! The movie goes like this: Wu Jing plays a Peking opera actor and former national martial-art champion, who makes a short visit to Hong Kong and is lured to join in the underground boxing ring. While winning matches one after the other, he is also sinking deeper and deeper into the dangerous game.

Director Dennis Law is a strange newcomer, as he ventures into two completely different genres of film making one being Love @ First Note and the other being this one. The former one is obviously a sweet romantic comedy, about two not so-good-looking guy and girl - somehow getting together and somehow fitting a couple of promotional music video for Justin Lo, but here, Law moves to action and in displaying action, he is not afraid to show the full brutality of the punches and that alone is a success. There is potential in this lad, and hopefully, Law will be given more opportunities and freedom which can only head one direction - as he will only get better.

Fatal Contact isn't just a film about underground fighting, but Law attempts to show the darkness of the business and the fact that no matter whom you are, you are never in control of yourself. Winning might win you money, but the moment you enter into this black fist underworld, there is only one way out – death. It might seem a rather simple message, but at the very least it seems more realistic then most of the romantic comedies these days. There is a scene where Wu Jing was fighting Andy On, in a fight that almost met his death. It is this very moment that Wu Jing has transformed into a monster – no longer human and no longer humane. By entering this world, Wu have not only betrayed himself physically, but mentally and internally. Basically, Law is trying to say two words – dead end.

Having impressed Neo immensely in b420, Miki is a more than capable actress, and here, she is both convincing yet unconvincing, but that's partly for the director to be blamed. She engages the audience well in her scenes with Wu Jing, and even overshadowing his mainlander speaking canto accent. There are times where you feel you understand her character and then it all go downhill and eventually a forced resolution where the director preferred to take the route frequently taken. Ronald Cheng is funny and likable, but is wasted in a supporting that can be played by almost everybody and most notably Chapman To. You either love him or hate him, but here you just want to see more of him and his comic antics. Theresa appears here and there as a "chicken" and further emphasizing the darkness of the underworld.

All in all, Fatal Contact is a brutal, realistic and fluent fighting sequence and combines well with the deep yet simple message about the downfall of humanity and that anyone can be corrupted. However, like many other HK movies before him, director Dennis Law fails big time, by going the route of the clichés and the processes is destroying a movie that could have offered so much more. With that being said, both Law and Wu are still young and fresh talents and both have moments of greatness within the flick, even if it is not wholly consistent. Still, this is a credible effort and fights sequences that stand well alongside Sha Po Long and heck this isn't a bad movie after all. Let's hope that this movie will be remembered as the one that launched Wu Jing into a Jet Li and Dennis Law into a Corey Yuen – well at least we can hope… (Neo 2006)

I rate it 7.5/10

• www.thehkneo.com

The real reason anyone will see fatal contact is for the action. With that in mind, you may have to forgive a little bit of the jumpy and clichéd story telling.

The action sequences are frequent, and well choreographed. It's an interesting combination of brutal and flashy. Wu Jing will throw several jumping multi-kicks, but because the general rhythm of the fights are captured well, it doesn't look too far fetched. The choreographers throw in some pretty believable elements in the competition fights. You may see the fighters just hop around a it to psych each other out, and you'll notice, the more brutal the fights get, the less visible these sportsman like elements become. It's pretty interesting. There's no wirework and very little, if any, video speed up that is flamboyant in some HK movies.

Wu Jing really struts his stuff in this movie. I would say in general, he's very similar to jet li. He has this strange brutalness that jet li embodies in his roles with a modern setting. He looks wild, but clean at the same time. Wu Jing is younger, more vibrant, and he even has more flare than Jet Li. An actor like Donnie Yen has a different kind of appeal, but because Jet Li is getting old, and probably no longer doing action movies anymore, Wu Jing would make a superb replacement.

The story has almost no introduction, no time to familiarize a little with the characters, and the actual revelations about the characters are sporratic and placed in seemingly random places. It has a terrible and nonsensical love story, which luckily, isn't the focus. The whole setup is pretty nonsensical as well. Some guys walk into an opera performance, and somehow recognize skill in a performer. They ask him to fight underground for them, and they offer a lot of money. Of course, a lowly wushu performer is poor, and he eventually decides he neeeds the money. The setup is all a little fantastical to me, especially with the realistic setting. I feel it would be more at home in an aime than a live action movie with a modern day setting. It helped a lot to almost imagine Fatal Contact taking place in some alternate universe where the underground fighting scene is big money, and the scouters are like pimps. A world where performers are poor, but incredibly talented fighters. It's almost romantic if you think of it that way. So the setting is bearable and kinda interesting if you give it some of your imagination, but the story is still hampered by tons of cheesy dialogue and that oh so corny romance.

It's all about the action though, and that totally does not fail to disappoint. My favorite action movie in recent times is Sha Po Lang. The stories in both are at least a little cliché, but SPL had the cleaner, less sporratic story telling. It also had cinematography of a higher quality than Fatal Contact. Still though, Wu Jing and his action co-stars drive a really tough bargain. His moves are cleaner, flashier, and he's more vibrant than Donnie Yen. I almost can't decide of Fatal Contact trumps SPL or not.

I give it a 10.It's a movie full of soul.It starts pretty funny, gets into serious talking.But the ending and the characters make everything possible.It's about life, it's about priorities, it's about the human soul.If the soul is too damaged it will never survive happier times, it will crumble under it's own weight.Gives perspective on life....most people won't understand or appreciate it. The actors are playing a serious and simple act, they don't have fancy words or eccentric habits. The scenes are pretty simple and focus on the characters. I would not miss this movie if i like to see the unseen. The main characters are like children, they are in a pure form of existence, they are mortals, they are human.

After seeing Jacky Wu Jing in "Kill Zone", I was excited to see "Fatal Contact". That excitement died quickly when I realized it was a wire-fu movie. There's not one single fight scene that doesn't use wire work extensively. I'm not talking about a jump here or a kick there either, it's the whole fight scenes. Jacky is good. His fight with Donnie Yen in Kill Zone is classic. That's why I don't understand the overkill with wires here. Why not use the guy's real talent. I like realistic fight scenes and this doesn't have a single one. It's not impressive when a guy does a flip off of a stack of wooden pallets if he is using a wire. The same can be said for spin kicks. The rest of this movie is equally bad. Terrible dialogue, acting, story, and one of the worst endings in movie history.

Sure there where some rough spots but its a Kung fu movie after all. I would gladly choose this over any American Van Damme movie.

Great Kung Fu that almost never got boring and did not have the same lame win win win loose build up again and win curve that all the other movies have. Plus The "captain" was a great character that added to the movie a lot.

I don't see how martial arts lovers can look down on this movie, maybe I have missed something? I saw Flash Point yesterday (dubbed witch did not help) and that movie was a real kids movie compared to this one.

A very sympathetic protagonist. Great action and some funny moments.

I've watched a lot of HK action films... some are pretty amazing, many are guilty pleasures, and sadly a few are just plain awful. This one falls into the latter category.

Fatal Contact is terrible, and not in that "so bad it's good" enjoyable sort of way. The writing is awkward, the acting is hollow, and the direction is stiff and joyless. Every scene is miserable. It's like someone made a backyard-grade production with half a normal film's budget.

I don't speak Chinese, so I read the subtitles... which means I can be pretty generous with regards to the performances, especially in a martial arts film. When I can tell how flat and mechanical the acting is, even across the language barrier, you know it's pretty bad. The dialog is recited as if read from scribbled cue cards. Actors stare at nothing in particular, making nervous faces like they've just ad-libbed a bad line.. they even sometimes look at the camera. This may seem like a petty complaint for a silly action movie, but it really makes it impossible to enter into the film and feel any excitement.

The script is similarly weak...dull, fragmented, predictable, preachy, and at times painfully misogynistic. Even for manic HK genre film, the tone is inconsistent. It seems to hit a sour note at almost every turn. I might have praised this film for showing illegal underground boxing matches in realistically mundane environments like old train stations, fluorescent-lit rented hotel conference chambers, boat marinas, etc, but somehow the lack of interesting locations or presentation often robs the scenes of any drama they would normally have. Instead, it just feels cheap and unimaginative.

So what about the action? Jacky Wu has always been a competent martial performer, if not particularly engaging on a personal level, and the action sequences should be the highlight of this film. Unfortunately, the impact is consistently killed by bad editing and unexciting villains. The choreography is pretty dull and unexciting. Every confrontation is a disappointment. Granted, Wu does pull off a couple of sweet moves. Unfortunately I mean that LITERALLY... I think I counted them and there are about two. Wu is a proved talent, but this film is strong evidence that having good screen fighters is not enough to carry even a fun action cheapie if every other aspect of the movie fails.

Notably Ronald Cheng DOES sort of portray an interesting character... I was hoping for him to become more significant in the story, but don't be fooled. NOTHING happens with this character. That goes Lam Suet and Ken Lo too, sadly. The familiar HK supporting faces in this film are no indication of its quality.

I was under the impression that a Dragon Dynasty release would at least be worth a look. Don't waste your time... or if you must, skip to the fight scenes just to relieve your curiosity. Nothing else here is even remotely worthwhile.

Wu Jing is Kong Ko, a Chinese kung fu champion in Hong Kong briefly for a theatrical performance. He is approached by some influential figures in the underground fighting league who recognise his potential but turns them down as he has honourable intentions and wants to be "the next Jet Li" without resorting to illegal or underhand means. However, the intoxicating Siu Tin (Miki Yeung) convinces him to take part, and a delicately nuanced and tense action thriller/romance ensues. Kong is an honourable and respectful fighter, and is taught to be more brutal and ruthless by the brilliant and thrifty Captain (Ronald Cheng) as his tactics can only get him so far. To the end however he remains true to his principles, no matter how far he strays from his path. An action packed, moving and in places, beautiful and well characterised Hong Kong thriller. Definitely worth a watch.

Hmm, the synopsis listed on this page made me wonder if I'd seen a different film.

Jacky Wu plays a kung fu champion whose skills are apparently performance only (i.e. all technical with zero combat experience), yet when he feels pressured by the girl wooing him to provide, he goes against his moral code of using his skills for violence to compete in an illegal street fight. Naturally, one easy win tempts another fight, for more money, and so, things quickly descend...

On the surface this is an above-average film (thanks to Jacky Wu's typically excellent fight scenes), but by the time the final credits roll, the subtleties of the way the characters acted and said certain things becomes clear and it's this aspect which lifts the script from something very enjoyable to something brilliant. Others may (quite foolishly) refer to all this as superfluous, or insult the writer for adding unnecessary dramatic elements, but for me, this screenplay involved more psychology than 90% of drama... and they're as boring as hell too!

In terms of action or great fight sequences this may not be Jacky Wu's best film, however, in terms of depth and entertainment, it rates up there with the best flicks released in the same year, all genres, all nations. My only problem was that a K1 fighter would very doubtfully engage in such a showy form and would be hardly likely to use kung fu techniques at all (karate, kickboxing or muay Thai would have been expected).

A good film well worth watching with a lot more to it than I've bothered to brush upon here. I'm personally now looking out for more Ronald Cheng (Captain) flicks as his acting and martial arts skills were impressive.

I can understand why some people didn't like this, but on the whole I think this was a far superior offering than a lot of kung fu (or however you feel better classifies this type of film) offerings I have recently watched.

(I have been a long time fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, and I am trying to put this review in the context of both 70s/80/s classics as well as more modern takes on the genre. Also I have a wide ranging preference in kung fu films - from the serious, the comedic, through to plush high end productions.)

This film does start slowly, and perhaps is more in keeping with Asian dramas for the 1st quarter of the film. And I can understand why that would not be rewarding for some viewers. But if you hold out a little, as time goes on is increasingly riveting.

The plot, which tends to be incredibly thin in many martial arts films, is relatively rich. While, there are some guessable twists long the way, equally there are some surprising ones.

Perhaps more importantly, the action is very well choreographed and it's lead a very strong fighter. I was really impressed by Jacky Wu's technique - I wouldn't have wanted to be on any of his punches or kicks, and it wasn't all fantasy fight (e.g. loads of wires) either.

It is the momentary lapses in sentimentality that, for me, mark this down from 9 to about 7 1/2 (ish).

In a nutshell: if you can get past the 1st part's (and occasional) lack of pace, this is a well put together, well choreographed film, with a strong lead and impressive martial arts.