Desperately mugging your attention, One Nite In Mongkok slaps the Hong Kong crime genre awake as assassin Lai Fu (Daniel Wu) arrives from mainland China all set to whack a local Triad boss in a revenge hit. Successfully eliminating his target, however, means all-out turf war in the densely populated Mongkok region – unless a harried police squad can apprehend Fu first. Writer/director Tung-Shing Yee admirably flushes One Nite with an unexpected realism which few HK productions even aim for. Delivering a well-rounded backstory, the director cleverly allows the audience to understand Fu’s motivation and also his tender relationship with bling-loving prostitute Dan (Cecilia Cheung). Although lacking John Woo-style theatrical gunplay, Mongkok takes the arsenal of Infernal Affairs to a higher calibre than ever before, with a conclusion that’s point-blank brutal.
NO VERDICT
