Full Contact: Hong Kong Cinema Classics – Shout! Factory (UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Hong Kong, 1992
Director: Ringo Lam
Writer: Nam Yin
Cast: Chow Yun-fat, Simon Yam, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Ann Bridgewater, Bonnie Fu, Frankie Chan

Release Date: July 14th, 2026
Approximate Running Time: 99 Minutes 3 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / HDR10 Dolby Vision
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Cantonese, DTS-HD Mono Cantonese Alternate Mix, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region A (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $44.98

"In an effort to get his buddy out of a gambling debt, Gou Fei agrees to join forces with his friend Judge in a weapons heist. The job goes bad and Judge betrays him. Gou Fei plots the ultimate revenge on Judge and his followers and sets forth a plan of violence and deceit." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD), 4.5/5 (Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "4K Scan from the Original Camera Negative."

Full Contact comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 68.3 GB

Feature: 68 GB

This is another solid transfer from Shout! Factory: the source looks excellent. Flesh tones and colors look correct, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image retains an organic appearance.

Full Contact comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 43.6 GB

Feature: 28.3 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc.

Audio: 5/5 (All Audio Tracks)

This release comes with three audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Cantonese, an alternate DTS-HD mono mix in Cantonese, and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. All tracks sound excellent; dialogue always comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced and robust when it should. Included are English subtitles for the Cantonese tracks, English SDH for the English-language track, and English subtitles for Cantonese text when watching the English-language track. It should be noted that subtitles and audio can only be chosen via the audio setup menu, and they cannot be turned off while watching the main feature.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include an audio commentary with James Mudge, Hong Kong Film Critic at EasternKicks.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a poster and lobby card gallery (16 images), a then-and-now image gallery, a theatrical trailer (5 minutes 2 seconds, DTS-HD mono Cantonese with removable English subtitles), an interview with martial arts director Ridley Tsui titled Full Combat and Full Contact (16 minutes 50 seconds, DTS-HD stereo Cantonese with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Simon Yam titled Fully Fantastic (35 minutes 1 second, DTS-HD stereo Cantonese with removable English subtitles), an interview with Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng titled Full Fledge Classic (17 minutes 46 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English with removable English subtitles for Cantonese film clips), and an audio commentary with James Mudge.

Other extras include a slipcover (limited to the first pressing).

Summary:

Ringo Lam directed Full Contact. He rose to prominence in Hong Kong cinema in the latter part of the 1980s after directing films like City on Fire, Prison on Fire, and School on Fire. Even though he has made three films in Hollywood with Jean-Claude Van Damme, unlike most of his contemporaries, he has also managed to stay active in Hong Kong cinema.

When one of them offends a loan shark, three friends are forced to flee, and needing money, they team up with a trio of unscrupulous criminals.

Ringo Lam is one of a handful of filmmakers who excelled in the Heroic Bloodshed genre, with City on Fire being his most celebrated film. Though Full Contact has all the core elements of Heroic Bloodshed cinema, the result is an askewed version of this genre. Where his earlier forays into Heroic Bloodshed cinema had social commentary and were political, Full Contact is a film that drops all subtext in favour of style.

A key component to Ringo Lam’s most celebrated films, they all feature Chow Yun-Fat, an actor who he worked with for the sixth and final time on Full Contact. Chow Yun-Fat portrays Gou Fei, a bouncer who wears a vest and rides a motorcycle. Though there is a cool aspect to his character, it is not the same King of Cool-type character that he’s known for. That said, he delivers another superb performance in which he dominates every moment he’s onscreen.

Cast in the role of the bad guy is Simon Yam (Naked Killer); he portrays a flamboyant character named Judge who is openly gay. There is a song and dance going on between Judge and Gou Fei, in which the former flirts with the latter, who always rejects him. Judge is a cunning character who uses a handkerchief to disguise his surprise ambushes. He’s a versatile actor who portrayed a range of characters, including a few memorable turns as psychopaths.

Besides these two characters, there is a crew of colorful characters like Deano, a muscular madman with no impulse control, and his slutty girlfriend, who is aptly named Virgin in the English language version. The most surprising performance is Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, who, more than any Hong Kong actor, is known for portraying psychopaths. In Full Contact, he portrays Sam, a meek character who evolves into the type of character that Anthony Wong Chau-Sang is known for.

One thing you can say about Full Contact is that it never skims when it comes to its action sequences. In its opening moments, Judge and his two sidekicks rob a jewelry store. This opening sequence perfectly sets the tone for what follows; it is a bombastic moment of excessive carnage and destruction. When it comes to action sequences, they will not disappoint. That said, the action is more Gung Fu than hand-to-hand combat.

From a production standpoint, Full Contact is a film where everyone involved is clicking on all cylinders. The narrative moves briskly to an explosive finale that somehow tops all the earlier action set pieces. Though Ringo Lam lets his actors take center stage, there is never a shortage of stylish moments. Ultimately, Full Contact is one of the high-watermarks of Heroic Bloodshed cinema and one of this genre's last hurrahs.

Shout! Factory gives City on Fire an exceptional release that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of insightful extras. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer