First Option

The SDU, special forces of the Hong Kong police, are forced to cooperate with customs in the hunt for an unusually heavily armed drug ring. Group chief Don Wong is constantly at odds with his superiors and the female customs officers.
Gordon Chan has left behind the yuppie comedies that started his career. Instead he is now breaking new ground in the SDU film subgenre (Special Duties Unit - Hong Kong's equivalent to America's SWAT team). His breakthrough came with the action film Thunderbolt with Jackie Chan playing the lead. ”First Option” , and his previous film, ”The Final Option” , secures his position as one of Hong Kong's steadiest directors.
The core of the film is comprised of the preparations and the storming of buildings where it is suspected that the criminals are holding out. In typical Hong Kong style, these scenes are extremely well choreographed, realistic and captivating. No one-man shoot-'em-ups here. Also in typical Hong Kong style, we at times become disoriented. Who's a cop and who's a crook? Who's shooting at whom? The hero Wong, however, and the actress who plays opposite him have adopted a bit of an American style. Speaking English in over half the film, and also coming out with a few ''smart'' lines, Wong sometimes seems more like Keanu Reeves in ”Speed ” than a typical Hong Kong film cop. The female customs officer's pale and quiet role, on the other hand, is nothing like the resourceful, bold sort of women you see in The Heroic Trio , for example. The rather odd result of all this, is that the film's two chief officers, in the SDU and customs, come across as the most likable characters in the film. At the same time, there is little or none of the moral stature and pathos that is so distinct in the characters in John Woo's films, for example.
Now that Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and the aforementioned Woo have moved to Hollywood, and the domestic film industry is finding it more and more difficult to compete with American movies, perhaps Gordon Chan has found the solution: by taking on some of the qualities of the American action film one can increase the popularity of the film at home, and at the same time improve the chances of exporting it.
Jakob Abrahamsson

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Orig. titel
Fei-Fu: Medverkande
Michael Wong, Gigi Leung, Damian Lau: Producent
John Chong,Ip Kwong-Kim: Manus
Chan Hing-Kai: Foto
Horace Wong: Musik
Chan Kwong Wing: Talat språk
Cantonese/English with Chinese/English subtitles