AN interest in motorcycles is not a prerequisite for enjoying Full Throttle, but it helps. Concentrating on emotion as much as motion, director Derek Yee Tung-shing takes a conventional racing story and transforms it into one of the year's more heartfelt tales. Backed by a solid script co-authored by the director and Law Chi-leung, and featuring motorcycle action scenes under the auspices of Bruce Law Lai-yin, the movie has enough speed and passion to leave Jackie Chan's lacklustre Thunderbolt eating dust. The basic story is simplicity itself. Joe (Andy Lau Tak-wah) is torn between three loves: his bike, girlfriend Ah-yee (Gigi Leung Wing-kay), and father (Paul Chun Pui, the director's eldest brother). The trouble is, the motorcycle can prove to be a fatal attraction; dad has rejected his son since childhood; and Joe is too blinded by these two loves to pay adequate attention to his saintly sweetheart. While I am singularly unimpressed by motorcycle racing in general, the movie manages to make the action scenes palatable for three reasons: they are well-staged; there is not an over-abundance of them; and the script has the guts to indicate the social irresponsibility of drag racing. Lau comes across more teen idol than troubled youth, but it is still his best role in years. There is a stiffness in Gigi Leung's acting that, while proving deficient in the more histrionic scenes, lends Ah-yee a shy, demure air that sometimes works in the character's favour. The role is very politically incorrect - this is a young woman happy to cook, clean, nurse and make her life subservient to her man. But Full Throttle does provide a bright note on which to end one of the most disastrous years in Hong Kong film history. Full Throttle (Empire circuit)
