One Nite in Mongkok

Year:2004
Director:Derek Yee Tung-Sing
Cast:Daniel Wu, Cecilia Cheung Pak-Chi, Alex Fong Chung-Sun, Chin Kar-Lok, Ken Wong Hap-Hei, Anson Leung Chun-Yat, Lam Chi-Kok, Ng Shui-Ting, Cynthia Ho Mo-Si, Sam Lee Chan-Sam, Lau Shek-Yin, Lam Suet, Henry Fong Ping, Elena Kong Mei-Yi, Bau Hei-Jing, Eddie Peng Wai-On, Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Monica Chan Fat-Yung, Cha Yuen-Yee, Tommy Yuen Man-On
Description:
Finally,
a good梡ossibly even great�004 Hong Kong
movie. Derek Yee's One Nite in Mongkok gives
the Lost in Time director a two-for-two record
in the 21st Century, and bragging rights to the title
of Hong Kong's best storyteller. One Nite in Mongkok
fits a genre description rather neatly: it's a crime
thriller about a group of cops attempting to stop
a planned gangland hit over the course of a 36-hour
period in claustrophobic Mongkok. But the film does
a lot more than just tell a story梚n fact, it
seems to eschew story in favor of a widening look
at character and random genre situation. The result
is a combo product: a tense thriller that possesses
both a wide-ranging genre tale and a compelling, laser-precise
focus on character and theme. There are some missteps
along the way, but One Nite in Mongkok jumps
right to the top of Hong Kong's best films for 2004.
Alex Fong Chung-Sun
is Officer Milo, a dedicated CID officer who gets
involved in a deepening case on Christmas Eve. Rival
crimelords Tim and Carl get into an argument over
the death of Tim's son, who was offed in a car accident
by Carl's lackey Franky . Tim's
men off Franky, but they're unable to get Carl, who
scurries into the crowds and is promptly lost. Enter
Liu , who brokers deals with mainland
hitmen. The assigned shooter: Lai Fu ,
a bespectacled neophyte killer who arrives in Hong
Kong to perform the hit on Carl梐s well as chase
a few personal demons. Meanwhile, Officer Milo and
his crew are on the case every step of the way, and
after surmising that Liu is the handler, they try
to beat the bushes for Lai Fu. But thanks to luck,
circumstance, and the fact that he's hiding in the
dense urban jungle of Mongkok, getting to him isn't
going to be easy.
Lai Fu has his own issues,
some of them unexpected ones. He befriends Mainland
prostitute Dan Dan , who
hails from a neighboring village back in China. She
becomes his personal Mongkok tour guide when he saves
her from a violent john, but she's unaware that he's
planning on killing someone. What she does know, however,
is that Lai Fu is carrying a boatload of cash, and
is willing to spend it freely. He's also pretty damn
handsome ,
so Dan Dan has no problem spending extra time with
him. The two take to the streets to escape her violent
customer, but the cops are suddenly after Lai Fu,
too. As the crowds teem and the night grows older,
the two weave in and out of Mongkok's streets and
alleys, finding rest and maybe even romance in each
other's company. Meanwhile, Officer Milo and his crew
tighten their resolve to find Lai Fu, unless something
terrible happens first.
Which it does, though
only through the most believable of coincidental circumstances.
Derek Yee's screenplay sets up a "hitman and
hooker go on the run" storyline that seems like
it'll be the main story, except it's not. The path
taken by Lai Fu and Dan Dan is just a part of the
evening and not the means or the end of the film.
One Nite in Mongkok is about exactly what the
title suggests, a night in Hong Kong's most densely
populated city blocks, where myriad people and circumstance
crop up every two or three feet. Yee spreads his focus
to all characters and situations. Besides Lai Fu and
Dan Dan's flight, Yee is equally intent on showing
the procedural politics of Milo's CID team, and the
human attitudes and anxieties that crop up at every
turn. The cops have to work on Christmas Eve, which
pisses them off. The team has a new rookie, Ben , whose itchy trigger finger is both his strength
and ultimate weakness. Milo has his own personal issues,
as do Dan Dan, Lai Fu, and even Liu. Each and every
character and situation is given unbiased attention,
and stuff just seems to happen. Events occur, characters
act in individual, believable ways, and the night
and its seemingly random circumstances moves towards
a compelling and bleak end.
The screenplay of One
Nite in Mongkok is obvious, but the way it's presented
makes it seem like it's not really there. Derek Yee
adds minutiae for every character and inch the film
covers, and it's all most definitely planned. Details
get bandied about, from common Mandarin-Cantonese
misunderstandings, to the individual personalities
of even the most minor people in Officer Milo's squad.
But the details are handled subtly, and not overtly.
Dan Dan may look like a hooker with a heart of gold,
but her eyes show that she's a little over-concerned
with the bills Lai Fu carries. Lai Fu is ruthlessly
violent, but seemingly righteous when it comes to
those he cares for. Ben is a rookie greenhorn, and
a rather typified character, but juxtaposed with his
older, more grizzled partners , his wide-eyed innocence seems to carry
its own life. Derek Yee uses handheld camerawork,
intimate spaces, and quick-cutting rhythm to place
us within the film, and the result is that it feels
alive and immediate. There are a number of cinema
shortcuts present, but the overwhelming feeling that
One Nite in Mongkok carries is one of spontaneity.
This is, quite simply, exciting, vibrant filmmaking.
As mentioned earlier,
the film does take a few shortcuts, and the genre
situations and characters are part of them. Nothing
that occurs in the film really sets off the originality
meter, but really, that's just fine. If good film
is about how a story and emotions are conveyed, then
One Nite in Mongkok easily qualifies as good
film. It's stylish without being over-directed, intimate
without being cloying, and powerful without being
bombastic. The situations presented have been seen
before, but the energy and dark-edged humanity in
every scene seem both true and sometimes frightening
in their difficult honesty. If One Nite in Mongkok
has a major audience deterrent, it would have to be
that it's not the happiest film around. Justice is
in the eye of the beholder, life holds no fairness,
and there is good and bad in everyone. Evil is just
a word, and people do what they have to do simply
to hold onto what's dear to them. The construction
and thematic territory of One Nite in Mongkok
almost seem to indicate a slice-of-life film, but
the mounting tension, pulse-pounding Peter Kam soundtrack,
and the final connection of events and characters
is pure cinema. But hey, it's pretty damn good cinema.
Performance-wise, the
cast does generally well, and manages to smooth over
most of the rough spots. Sadly, some of the rough
spots are pretty noticeable. Daniel Wu, while turning
in a pitch-perfect emotional performance, does not
sound like a Mainland Chinese, and Cecilia Cheung
is too glamorous to be completely believable as a
Mainland hooker. She hits the right emotional notes,
but the post-production Mandarin dubbing is distracting.
It certainly sounds like her, which indicates that
she probably did her own dubbing in post to attempt
a better Mandarin accent, but she sounds like someone
trying to speak Mandarin, and not someone who really
speaks it. Attention to accent may seem like nitpicking,
but in a film with such authentic-feeling situations,
even lousy accents can hurt matters. However, Lam
Suet and Chin Kar-Lok are excellent, and even Anson
Leung is effective as the rookie cop. If anyone stands
out, though, it's Alex Fong, whose Officer Milo is
low-key but emotionally felt. It's a great role for
the actor, who should probably be remembered when
year-end awards roll around.
One Nite in Mongkok
does end on somewhat of a forced thematic note. When
it's all over, there seems to be an effort to impart
defining truth, as if the two hours leading up to
the end credits could be summed up in two sentences
of extraordinary depth. It would be disappointing
if Derek Yee really wrote and directed this film with
the idea that he was trying to say something specific,
because he really didn't have to. The stuff that One
Nite in Mongkok is about is wide-ranging and fascinating,
and is plainly dispensed from minute one all the way
up to minute one hundred-and-twenty. The characters
and situations, while obviously written, still create
their own life, and the actors inhabit them with believable
emotion. The stylish direction, attention to genre
and character, and uncompromising narrative make this
simply terrific, compelling stuff. In the pantheon
of great Hong Kong Cinema, One Nite in Mongkok
may not break the highest echelon, but as of this
summer, it can have 2004's top spot.