Fatal Contact
January 21, 2008
Rated: Unrated Runtime: 106 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Martial arts movies are kinda like porn, the story exists only to get to the next action scene. In that light, Fatal Contact is an above average porn movie, but it’s still porn.
Kong (Jacky Wu Jing) is a nice guy, a nice guy who is also on the Chinese Olympic kung fu team. When he’s not training for the Olympics he keeps himself limber by performing in low budget acrobatic shows, think Cirque du Soleil without the huge cast and stage. OK, he twirls stuff on stage, but he does it really really well! After one of his shows, some guys that run an underground fighting organization approach him and offer him $2000 to fight one match, win or lose. Kong is a nice guy though, and underground fighting is illegal, so he declines.
Enter Siu (Miki Yeung), a cute girl who shows an interest in Kong after he says no to fighting. Unfortunately for Kong, this girl is the definition of a controlling girlfriend. Not only does she encourage Kong to fight, but she keeps jumping in to the negotiations to get him more money.. though I suppose it’s a good thing, since he’s far too nice to handle business on his own.
Anyway, Siu talks Kong into trying out a fight, he does, and he wins easily. They want him to come back the next week, and with her encouragement he says yes.. and wins again. At this point his skills are obviously far above anyone he’s meeting, so the guy running the show starts to raise the stakes, getting better fighters and more money involved. After several rounds of this Kong starts to change.. a little. During the fights he’s getting meaner, but only when really provoked. And even when he does get “meaner” he doesn’t totally come unglued.
There’s other stories involved of course, the guy running the fights is trying to expand his territory, Siu is obviously trying to get Kong to make more and more money for her own reasons, she’s got a friend who’s a hooker that she gives life advice to, there’s “The Captain” (Ronald Cheng) who helps look after Kong and Siu and who has his own story of course.
But it’s all about the fights, and the fights are excellent. Yes, there are wires used on occasion, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. The battles look realistic and there’s no “let’s jump on the roof and run up and down walls” crap here. Picture martial arts street fighting, and this delivers that picture. I really like the way Jacky WuJing moves, he seems to act fairly well judging from his facial expressions (I don’t speak Cantonese so had the English track playing) and I could see him one day becoming a star in Hollywood assuming he learns English.
The story doesn’t suck (except the ending, which just blows) and there’s some good humor to go along with the action. It’s a solid 3 star movie, might have been 4 if the ending were different.
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?
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