One Nite in Mongkok

Cast
Cecilia Cheung – Dan Dan
Daniel Wu – Lai Fu
Alex Fong Chung Sun – Miu Sir
Chin Ka Lok – Gwai Gor
Lam Suet – Ah Liu

Synopsis
Hot on the heels of ‘Lost in Time’ Derek Yee and Cecilia Cheung team up again in this action/suspense movie.

The movie opens in a black and white shot of the backs of Miu Sir (Alex Fong) and his second-in-command Gwai Gor (Chin Ka Lok). It’s Christmas Eve and they are tired. Miu Sir comments upon the movie’s slogan: ‘You will always meet the person you are destined to meet… but you could always bump into someone you're never supposed to see.’

After the credits, we are taken into another black and white shot starting two days earlier in the busy market streets of Mongkok. A street trader (Tommy from Ekids) gets into a fight with another street trader. They both run off to their respective bosses to complain and they are rival bosses: Tiger (Eddie from EO2) and Leng Fai (Sam Lee Chan Sum). A fight ensues and eventually Tiger and Leng Fai end up in a car crash and Leng Fai kills Tiger.

This causes a meeting in a café the next day. Tiger’s dad happens to be crime overlord, Tim Gor and Leng Fai’s boss happens to be his biggest rival Ah Kao (Henry Fong Ping). Tim said he was willing to let the matter slide as long as Ah Kao left Leng Fai behind for him to deal with. Ah Kao refuses and another fight ensues.

This has two consequences. The first one is that the depressed Miu Sir and his team (made up of lonesome cop Chin Ka Lok, the violent cop Ken Wong Hap Hei and rookie cop Anson Leung as Ban Jai) get involved.

The second consequence is that Tim, unsatisfied that Ah Kao managed to get away, puts a bounty out on Ah Kao. He calls in a dealer in ‘dirty rats’ (hitmen) Ah Liu (Lam Suet). Ah Liu and his wife are greedy so-and-so’s who will do anything for money. Ah Liu rings his hometown and tells his contact to send him a hitman down. He wants a professional this time because he was still reeling from the legal fees of the last hitman who eventually got sent down for two years.

Lai Fu (Daniel Wu) is the man that gets sent to him; he wants to go to Hong Kong to look for his long lost lover Su Er. Lai Fu gets put up in a hotel, is given money and a gun by Ah Liu. However, the police get wind that Ah Liu has brought in a ‘dirty rat’ and force him to confess where he is hiding. Lai Fu finds out that Ah Liu has betrayed him and goes on the run. On the way, he befriends prostitute Dan Dan, a girl who gets tricked into prostitution by her boyfriend when she followed him to Hong Kong. He finds out she is from the village next to him. He saves her from a violent customer when she tells him that she is closed for business (excuse the pun). Dan Dan is pretty desperate for cash and seeing that Lai Fu has a lot (his payment for his job) she tells him she will be his guide around Mongkok to look for his girlfriend.

So begins the cat and mouse chase between Lai Fu and the police, which builds up to a climactic ending. The police get a tip off as to where Lai Fu is and they end up in a hotel. They surround the door and they burst open, they are faced with a man and rookie cop Ban Jai accidentally shoots him dead. Miu Sir begins a cover-up operation, Ban Jai doesn’t agree and voices his displeasure. Miu Sir tells him to shut up and get on with it, but they discover the guy has a stash of cocaine in the room so there was no need to cover up anyway. The guys decide to take a break from searching for Lai Fu and Dan Dan, considering it is Christmas Eve and their big success in catching the cocaine guy.

They go to a café that is right opposite the actual hotel where Dan Dan and Lai Fu are hiding. By now they have bonded as much as you possibly can in a day and Dan Dan gets period pains. She sends Lai Fu to the 7-11 (which, coincidentally is next to the café where the cops are eating) to get Panadol for her and tells him to dump the gun. He dumps it in the bin in front of the 7-11 and he notices in the newspaper that his girlfriend Su Er was terribly injured in the car crash. He runs back to the hotel to tell Dan Dan but finds that the violent customer is back, angry and with reinforcements.

So Lai Fu gets the beating of his life and Dan Dan gets raped in front of him. He gets really pissed off and chases the guys out into the street. The cops' attention have been caught and they are wondering what he is doing when he goes searching through the bin. Lai Fu grabs the gun out of the dustbin and points it at the guy. He shoots him in the hand and eventually the cops come running at him trying to apprehend him. Lai Fu can’t see properly because blood is seeping into his eyes from the wound on his head and he accidentally shoots the rookie cop Ban Jai in the throat. The cops chase him and they shoot him dead.

A devastated Dan Dan returns to her home the next day, vowing never to return. She asks, “Why is Hong Kong called Hong Kong?” (This is the reference to the irony of the name as Hong Kong means Fragrant Harbour and considering the place has such a nice name, the experiences she has had there have been far from pleasant.)

Review – Cinematography
Well, another cinematic great from director Derek Yee Tung Sing. "Lost in Time" contained some dragging elements and "One Night in Mongkok" contains some excellent, pacing scenes which reinstates my faith in Derek Yee once again. The elements of gore and the macabre is back and you definitely see the director behind gory epics such as "Young and Dangerous" again.

It’s a bit lacking on the storyline side, but this is very much a film driven by the characters. It’s not one of those glamorous films where the killer is gorgeous and the cops are mindless machines. It was beautiful and reflective in the sense that this is unlike most other cop films because it takes an unbiased approach to the portrayal of the plight of characters. Derek Yee decides to let the audience see for themselves who is the bad guy and who are the good guys, which is a very difficult situation to make. Yee moulds his characters into a certain pathetic cast: Lai Fu is the dopey mainlander, who although a bit on the naïve side, does have a sense of right and wrong. He uses his trip down to Hong Kong to gain revenge on Ah Liu, who put his brother behind bars for 22 years after dropping him in it as a hitman. And he’s a pretty sympathetic guy to Dan Dan – he genuinely cares for her. He is also a man of loyalty as he pines for Ah Su and he doesn’t believe that she is a prostitute. Yee creates a hitman that the audience empathises with, rather than hates.

Similar situation with Dan Dan, she is moulded from your average 2-D flirtatious prostitute into a destitute young woman who has deep and meaningful thoughts (e.g. Why is Hong Kong called Hong Kong?) Audiences have pre-conceived notions concerning prostitutes, but Dan Dan becomes a marker away from them. However, one would think if you are made to feel for the bad guys, then the cops become the bad guys. Not true. As mentioned earlier, Yee creates an unbiased standpoint and presents the team as a likeable group: Miu Sir as the surly, once-bitten-twice-shy inspector, Gwai Gor as the loyal second in command, and Ban Jai as the loveable rookie cop. You genuinely like all the characters in this movie and you truly empathise with them.

Yee further hots things up with mixing the use of shots and frames. Long, drawn out shots are reflective and add to mood and the occasional still frame adds to the ambience of the film. When action scenes come along, Yee makes use of short, staccato frames that are shot in real-time to add to that genuine effect of being plunged into the action.

"One Nite in Mongkok" definitely restores my faith in Derek Yee after the tame, lukewarm "Lost in Time". Look out for him on the director’s nominations at next year’s film awards. The panel would be crazy not to put him on it.

Review – Acting:

Lai Fu: Daniel Wu.
Let’s be honest, Daniel Wu can’t speak Chinese at all. And bless him for trying, but his Mandarin really sucks. You can tell that he’s an American trying to speak Chinese. To be quite frank, it’s not really that bad and you can sort of see why Derek Yee made him speak in mandarin, because he sounds better. It’s a common fact that Westerners learn Mandarin and speak it better because it has fewer tones and fewer inflections than Cantonese. So when you compare his Mandarin to his Cantonese, he does sound better.

Right, his acting. He has the dowdy mainlander act down to a T. I don’t know whether this is due to natural talent or good direction, but Daniel Wu can pull off the drabness of Lai Fu. He’s totally believable in his fight scenes, not over the top and he doesn’t underact either, which can be just as bad as the former. My only real complaint is his grasp of Chinese. Considering he’s decided to make a living and habit out there, he should spend some money on elocution lessons. Must make more of an effort Daniel, on the language front. Will he get a nomination next year at any film award show? Possibly, but considering competition from greats such as Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, and Tony Leung, it seems unlikely he’ll get anywhere.

Cecilia Cheung: Dan Dan
She won a Hong Kong Annual Film Award for Best Actress for previous work with Derek Yee in "Lost in Time". She’s good in this. Believable, but still far from the Yeen Hau (Queen of Acting) status that she covets. She’s not good enough yet. She has to have life experience and work on her expressions from her eyes. Her voice had to be dubbed because her Mandarin is atrocious, but that is forgiveable because she makes up for it with a good performance. I’ve always said that she’s holding back with something and it’s evident in this film too. She really needs to let go and embrace the entirety of a character to give an excellent performance. A decent performance from Cecilia, but not her best. She has the potential to do more, if only she would.

Alex Fong Zhong Sun: Miu Sir
He’s in a typical role again, as the strong silent type (Why don’t people cast him in more fun roles like that of TVB drama ‘Life begins at Forty’? He was fun and it was a role that suited him?). Alex Fong is a great actor, but he’s often typecasted and is always in this kind of role; the silent morose type. Come on! The guy has more span than that! Use it! A good performance from Fong, which is consistent with previous performances. He’s not really being used much here and his acting skills aren’t really being pushed to the limit but even for a middling effort on his part, a good performance is given out. Well done Alex! I really hope he gets a different kind of role in his next movie.

Lam Suet: Ah Liu
This guy gets a special mention because he gives a mind-blowingly amazing performance. He’s always had supporting roles ("Sound of Colours", "Good Times, Bed Times", "Diva Ah Hey!") and he never really gets recognition for the consistently amazing performances he gives and this is no exception (other than this is probably his first major serious role for a long time). The disgusting Ah Liu, gets your stomach churning in this film, but you still sympathise with the guy because he’s trying to make a living and the police are grabbing him by his wotsits, trying to squeeze information out of him, which, if he gives, will seal his death. He loves his wife, speaks excellent Mandarin and he makes Ah Liu come alive. Very rarely do you see an actor who gives their all for a supporting role. Lam Suet is an amazing actor and if he doesn’t get an award for best supporting actor I’ll eat my hat.

Conclusion:
See it, if only for the amazing cinematography and Lam Suet’s acting. The rest of it is pretty much standard self-reflective stuff and Cecelia’s half-baked acting is nothing special. Good performance from Daniel Wu though, if only Alex Fong had been pushed a little bit more, I think it would have made this film a must see for everyone. As it turns out it’s a film that you only want to watch for the director’s take on it, rather than the actors.