UK Edition
Feeds
Starring: Daniel Wu, Cecilia Cheung, Alex Fong, Lam Suet, Chin Ka Lok, Anson Leung
Running time: 110 mins
One Night In Mongkok tells the story of assassin Lai Fu and the group of cops who try to prevent him from killing his target and starting a gang war.
When a gang dispute escalates out of control with the killing of a gang leader’s son, Mainlander Lai Fu (Wu) is given his first task as an assassin, namely to kill the head of the rival gang. However, since the middleman who hired the killer is unable to keep his mouth shut in front of the cops, they are given a hot start and are hot on his tale.
Simple as the plot may seem, it actually gets very intricate. The movie’s plot is effectively split into two – half of the time we are following the exploits of Lai Fu and Dan Dan (Cheung), the prostitute whose companionship he acquires after saving her from the clutches of an overbearing customer, whilst the remainder of the time is spent watching the police inch ever closer to their goal.
Writer/director Yee expertly juggles the focus between the two camps, keeping the pace going and increasing tension with some interesting unpredictable twists of fate along the way. However, despite the fast pace (and a lot of ground is covered within the 36 hours over which the film is set), the characterisation in the film is truly excellent. Refusing to allow stereotypes and caricatures to run wild, every character is painted in varying shades of grey. Lai Fu is far from being a cold-blooded killer, and for the vast majority of the time nothing seems to be further from his mind – he is more concerned with tracking down his girlfriend from back home. Hooker Dan Dan is neither the epitome-of-morality despite-her-profession cliché nor is she the opposite, but a refreshingly complex character.
Equally, the police are portrayed as being morally flawed and not incomparable to those they endeavour to bring to justice – they too look out for their own with ethics being given little consideration. This characterisation, coupled with truly wonderful performances for all, provide a real empathy of the audience towards the characters, which makes the frantic ending, when all parties collide, extremely effective and tragic.
There really is little to complain about regarding One Night In Mongkok. Atmospheric, expertly constructed and performed and with an underlying sense of humour to lighten what could have been a very depressed mood, the film is a must-see experience.
