Une nuit à Mongkok

A simple street fight over a girl turns into a car chase which leaves one of the drivers dead. The dead driver is none other than Tiger, son of criminal gang boss Tim. Tim sits down with rival gang leader Carl, who's men caused the accident that killed Tiger. However a parley turns violent as Tim strikes out in revenge – killing Carl's man but letting him escape in the confusion. The police are called into the middle of the investigation as a dangerous standoff between the two gangs commences. Meanwhile Tim calls in fixer Liu to bring in a hit-man (Lai Fu) to take out Carl. The police get word and it is a race against the clock to stop Lai Fu as they know that another death will spill the standoff over into all out gang war.

Although it benefits from praise and high voting from users who have mostly probably sought it out and thus have likely voted with the air of "everything foreign and little seen is cool", this thriller is still a solid proposition that is worth a look. The plot is a little messy perhaps but the layers of action are interesting as we follow hit-man, cops and criminals all living out slightly different parts of the same story. This creates a strong foundation as I found each character interesting and I was as taken by Lai Fu as I was by Milo. Likewise the film keeps a relative tension as the clock ticks down and the net tightens around Mongkok and Lai Fu.

The downside is that both aspects take away from one another. It is not totally a character driven film because it is making sure that it remains a cop thriller; but conversely it isn't as tight a thriller as it could have been because it has the characters forming part of the narrative and does break up the flow and the urgency. This means it is not as good as it could have been but the two aspects do still work well together and it is engaging enough even if it does occasionally fall short of the mark. Director Tung-Shing does a great job in the delivery, shooting everything in a stylish fashion as well as using music (and silence) to good effect. The cast are mostly strong as well with Fong, Wu and Cheung tending to be the strongest turns. Lam's Liu is amusing while Milo's men are mostly well played.

Overall then, perhaps not as strong as the praise here would have you believe but I suspect that the nature of it being foreign and not that well known has bought it some good will and forgiveness from those that have seen it. The mix of thriller and characters give it a good balance but one does detract slightly from the other, preventing the film from reaching its full potential in either aspect. Still good as a whole though and I found it a solid, if not brilliant, thriller.

Set over the course of three days and two nights, One Night In Mongkok sifts through several stories weaving together the joint themes of fate and sin coupled together with the violence that is inevitably associated with the genre. While being heavily praised, and winning various awards at the ever increasingly dubious Hong Kong Film Awards, One Night In Mongkok is a pretty timid affair, which sacrifices continuity, gripping characters and more over a worthy plot for pretty cinematography and an over inflated sense of self important philosophy.

Throughout the duration of its two hour course, Mongkok shows promise sporadically as it never maintains the gritty integrity that it does eventually manage to capture in varying moments. The distaste for the film derives from an extremely languishing start which crescendos into a severely incoherent plot that will make the most ardent Tartan Asia Extreme fan scratch their heads in bewilderment. That's not to say the plot is incomprehensible, merely that it jumps around from scene to scene veering off at random tangents away from established story lines to eventually, and only just, making 'a' point of sorts, but never arriving at the destination from which it set off from in the first place. The director does show that he has a penchant for framing a shot, and indeed highlights his ability to create stirring and gripping moments which do provide something fresh to the crime thriller genre. However, fifteen minutes of footage is not sufficient enough to compensate for a severely Luke warm story which sets itself out as a different prospect from its contemporaries, but comes across as severely generic.

That which is most infuriating about the film, is the fore-mentioned sense of self importance. While ostensibly a crime drama, Mongkok quickly descends into a morality tale of quite obvious proportions, and chooses to opt for brashness instead of subtlety when it comes to sledgehammering its point across. What point you ask? Again, the point is fairly well devised to an extent, but is extraordinarily generic, as it claims that 'good guys' are not always righteous as they appear, and that nor are the 'bad guys' as unemotional as they may be perceived to be. It also throws around a sense of karmic justice as the "it's fate would have it....and so would sin" line resonates off key throughout the films latter stages, therefore providing a justification for the director to cram home the 'twists' and 'turns' (the apostrophe's denoting a sarcastic appraisal of the terms).

The director, Tung-Shung Yee comments on the social failings of the police force in Hong Kong, which culminates in a wonderfully constructed scene involving a bungled arrest turned cover-up by the police. Unfortunately his spoken text, the passing down of 'wisdom' from senior police officer to his junior proves to be a double edged sword, as it provides for the irony in the films closing moments. The problem with Mongkok is that Yee wishes to have his cake and eat it. He cannot decide whether or not he should be praising the police, or condemning them, making the audience sympathise with Lai Fu and then be forced to feel little for him. It's indecisive cinema which aims high but punches well below its weight.

The main problem with Mongkok lies in that it does try to be a successful piece of cinema, it tries to be a blistering affair, and to be fair it does succeeds, but to the annoyance of the viewer only momentarily. There are unnecessary moments throughout this film like the battering ram philosophical approach or the unnecessarily chrome start to the film when the cinematography throughout is crisp and well composed. Its chopping and changing story is severely unrefined, and while the story itself can be perfectly understood it provides for rather static viewing when the story need be flowing. One Night In Mongkok sets its aims high, and that cannot be taken for granted, for rather a failed film with noble intentions than a profitable success which will forgo the integrity. But what really grates is the incessant comparison by Film Review, lower brow newspapers and certain IMDb reviewers with the simply brilliant Infernal Affairs. Having been swayed initially by the extract on the front which compared Mongkok to Infernal, I find myself not disgusted just severely disappointed with the effort. I steadied myself for a rip-roaring epic, a film worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as Infernal, and I got an Infernal Affair for all the wrong reasons. To be frank there are much grander films in the Tartan Asia collection which supercede this effort, A Bittersweet Life springs instantly to mind, and while the film may appeal to some it lacks the longevity to truly compete with which it sets out to emulate. By all means have a look but you'll be checking out once you realise that one night truly is too long a stay in Mongkok.

ONE NITE IN MONGKOK (Wong Jiao Hei Ye)

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)

Sound format: Dolby Digital

(Color & black and white)

A frazzled police squad searches the Mongkok district of Kowloon for a hired killer (Daniel Wu) whose latest assignment - the targeting of a drug lord responsible for another criminal's death - could ignite a horrendous Triad turf war.

Terrific crime drama, filmed in near-documentary style by director Derek Yee (PEOPLE'S HERO, LOST IN TIME), and featuring Alex Fong (FULL THROTTLE) and Wu (ENTER THE PHOENIX) as characters on opposite sides of the law, each drawn in shades of grey by Yee's gritty script. In something of an ironic twist, Yee paints a remarkably humane picture of villains and good guys alike, using Wu's sympathetic character (and his fraught relationship with Cecilia Cheung's unlikely 'tart with a heart') to portray a world in which people are driven to dark acts by circumstances beyond their control, an approach which serves to highlight the thin veneer of 'respectability' separating the police from those they pursue on a daily basis. This being a HK film, however, tragedy is never far away: Fong pursues his quarry with relentless dedication and Wu flees for his life, but Fate throws them together for one of the most devastating finales in recent memory.

Combining action, drama and character development in equal measure, the narrative moves at a rapid clip (except for a brief lag in the middle) and explodes into frenzied activity at regular intervals. Production values are immaculate, and there's a stunning transition from black and white to color during the first ten minutes. Yee draws strong performances from a superb supporting cast, including Chin Kar-lok (the film's action director) as Fong's right-hand man, and Anson Leung (AB-NORMAL BEAUTY) as a trigger-happy rookie whose inexperience leads to a terrible disaster.

(Cantonese and Mandarin dialogue)

When I placed 'One Nite in Mongkok' in my DVD player, I was pretty sure that the film would be an above average cat and mouse thriller. However, like my 2005 Oscar ballot, I was far from hitting the nail on the head. The film is a very effective film that succeeds in doing what very few films can: keep you guessing.

Daniel Wu is very convincing as a rookie assassin from Mainland China looking to reunite with his long lost love and help in raising her grandmother. His journey in the film mirrors that of Tom Cruise in 'Collateral', yet in this instance, we are rooting for Wu's character to succeed in goals as he decides not to go through with his assignment. Cecilia Cheung is very good as the prostitute/guide/conscience, although she is too gorgeous for me to fully accept her in the role. When the two characters meet, it starts a chain of events that have ironically tragic undertones. Alex Fong is excellent as the cop who is the common link to every character in the film. The supporting cast is very appealing, most notably Lam Suet as the seedy handler Liu and Anson Leung as the trigger-happy and tragically compulsive cop Ben.

The film, overall, is a study into what happens when people don't think twice about their actions. I recommend it to anyone looking for a film that doesn't subject the audience to unbelievable circumstances and entertains and as well as informs.

The tension building is quite successful. The direction is suspenseful, atmospheric, and assured. The audiences just keep wondering what would happen next from start to finish. There are four acts. The first act is a slow setup. There are three enthralling action sequences in the rest three acts, each of which has its buildup and climax.