One Night In Mongkok [DVD]

I have been a fan of Hong Kong cinema for some time and have worried at the rapid decline in the general output of this once great cinematic region. Thats ok though, things are now on the up.

The Infernal Affairs trilogy has been the recent jewel in the crown, and rightly so, but now there is another contender.

One Night in Mongkok just blew me away on all fronts, acting, storyline, cinematography. You are sucked into the dark alleyways and crowded streets and taken along for the ride with characters on both sides of the law, Triad and police, who are scarily similar.

The acting is also of the top level, each character interesting, engaging and definitely 3 dimensional. I think special mention must go to Cecilia Cheung who effortlessly skips from comic to tragic while always remaining beautiful. Her fish out of water mainlander in HK is at times hilarious as she demands all courses at once in a restaurant while mispronouncily her words and continually shouts for discounts (might not sound funny, but is).

The feel of HK is definitely real, the lights, the crowding the noise. You can almost taste the dim sum. This is the closest depiction of Kowloon I have seen on film and steers well away from the overly styled and dramatic, but hugely entertaining HK films of the 90's. The scenes however remain dramatic, I think that the realism actually exentuates this.

Plotwise, this film is fairly straightforward. A tragic altercation between warring Triad families leads to one hiring an assassin. This proposed killing will lead to all out chaos in Mongkok, something the police want to avert. This leads to an isolated mainland rookie assassin who teams up with a hooker with a heart of gold, trying to avoid both police and Triad, and complete his own mission. Character and setting raise this story above the average, by far.

I would urge nearly everyone to see this film. It is stylish, gritty and gives a real feel of HK, most of all it is hugely enjoyable and thrilling. It is also easily accessible for those new to HK cinema.

If you like this I would also advise the triumphant return of Jonny To with Election.

On the eve of the Christmas celebrations in Hong Kong, a gang war erupts. As the violence escalates one of the gang leaders orders that an assassin called Lai-fu be sent from mainland China, to eliminate the rival gang leader. Liu, the man who hired the killer, to save his skin tips off the whereabouts of the assassin to the police, but he has already departed the scene. Lai-fu then joins up with a prostitute called Dan Dan, who he saves from her vicious pimp. And thats only the beginning.
This not only works as a hard edged crime thriller, but as a story of friendship between two lonely lost individuals. The story moves at a breathless pace, and engages the viewer throughout. The performances are all top notch. To name but a few we have Daniel Wu as the assassin with morals, Cecilia Cheung as the outwardly cocky Dan dan, who might not be everything that she says she is, Alex Fong as the world weary Officer Milo desperatly trying to stop events from spiralling out of control, and Suet Lam as the greedy backstabbing Liu.
This is a wonderful film, one of the very best of its kind. As I've mentioned before its far more than just another cops and criminals film, as the multi layered plot also adds tragedy, loyalty and love into the equation.
What can I say apart from buy it right now, and sit back and enjoy. 5 out of 5

Its been a long time since Hollywood has thrown up a genuinely interesting thriller, concentrating as it is at the moment in retreads of old TV shows, light weight horror and big on budget but low on plot blockbusters. So once again, it is to the Far East that we must turn, and in One Night In Mongkok they have delivered an absolute gem.
The plot is a staple of the genre. In Mongkok, a district within Hong Kong itself, two rival gangs hold an uneasy truce. When a simple street scuffle between low level members of each gang escalates into out and out violence and death, the head of one of the gangs hires an assassin to kill of his rival. Into this mix are also thrown the cops, tipped of by a local informer as to what is going on and caught in a desperate race against time to find the killer and stop the war.
So far so what you might be thinking, but this film is so much more than its simplistic plot. As the killer for hire Lai-Fu, Daniel Wu gives a quiet and highly introspective performance as the country boy offered more money than he can possibly earn legitimately, who then must fulfil his obligation whilst at the same time attempting to carry out his own personal mission. After an act of kindness forces him into an unlikely partnership with Dan Dan (Cecilia Cheung), a girl from the country who has come to the big city to make her fortune but has found herself working as a prostitute, this unlikely pair must stay one step ahead of not only the cops but one of Dan Dan's vengeful clients. Cecilia Cheung is great in this role, at first coming across as worldly wise and a little bit of a gold digger, but as the couples relationship grows she is revealed as a fish out of water just like Lai-Fu, and pursues money in order to help her family back home.
And then of course there are the cops, as well realised a group of characters as I have ever seen on screen. A team of officers led by Milo (Alex Fong) is the main focus of our attention, and each one of them seems to be a real human being, with interpersonal relationships that are established without fuss during the film, little snippets of information revealed as the team track Lai-Fu. Of particular note in the team is Brandon, played with laconic charm by Kar Lok Chin (and bearing more than a passing resemblance to Chow Yun Fat), and Ben (Anson Leung), the new boy on the team and keen to prove himself. However, the real star here is Alex Fong as Milo, a man who quietly goes about the business of chasing and catching bad guys. Dedicated to his team and his job, he cuts a lonely figure even when surrounded by people and it is obvious without being hammered home that his job has cost him his private life.
On top of all this, writer/director Tung-Shing Yee has fashioned a taut and at times claustrophobic movie that is never less than compelling, especially when he dwells on the human relationships between the cops, the assassin and the hooker. However, that is not to say that the film lacks tension, and is driven forward by a fast moving screenplay that literally keeps the film running at a dizzying pace as the characters constantly move from place to place, whether the pursued or the pursuer. The cinematography cannot be faulted either, with the look of the film conveying both the crowded, dangerous streets of Mongkok, and the palpable sense of urgency as the cops race against the clock whilst the killer tries to stay one step ahead of them. Beautiful to look at, virtually flawless in its direction and utterly riveting.