Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Amateur movie with Big budget

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

ONE NITE IN MONGKOK, a Hong Kong cop thriller about an assassin about to carry out his first hit, sounds like the typical all-action thriller, but on watching it turns out to be something much darker, more subtle and mature in its developing themes. It's a highly effective cat and mouse thriller that prioritises character over action and is all the better for it.Daniel Wu is one of my all-time favourite Chinese stars and this is one of his top roles. His character, a would-be assassin starting out on his first job, sounds unsympathetic at first but he grows on you as the film develops, and as his growing relationship with Cecilia Cheung is handled sympathetically and with realistic emotion. By the end, you're rooting for him and his cause.The rest of the film is more familiar, but it all works and slots into place nicely. Alex Fong's bull-headed cop is a worthwhile adversary for our star, and the supporting cast of pimps and drug dealers, grasses and gangsters, is a well developed one. Although the film sometimes has shades of BOURNE it develops its own unique style as it progresses, gradually building to an ultimately devastating climax which took my breath away. It's an astonishing way to end a film, and one which has stayed with me days later.

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.

While long-time Hong Kong residents dismiss Dan Dan & Lai Fu as mainland country bumpkins, Dan Dan portrays herself as being a tough & sophisticated pro to Lai Fu. She mocks Lai Fu's sweetheart as a prostitute and at the restaurant she also brags about her own earning power where she claims she has already made $8,000 in 3 weeks. Of course all the while she is showing what a gold digger she is too. However after the purse snatching incident when Lai Fu says that he will pay Dan Dan for her trouble and time as his guide in Mongkok, she asks for $3,500 and is promptly paid. Dan Dan later suffers cramps during that fateful night and asks Lai Fu to buy Panadol at the drugstore and to get some smaller bills in her purse, Lai Fu goes to get the money and sees that she doesn't have a huge wad of $8,000, only the small bills and what money he had previously paid her. At the end of the movie when she departs HK territory, she looks in her purse and realizes that Lai Fu had given her all the money that he had. It basically raises the possibility that Dan Dan had never even turned a trick while in Mongkok, that she was exaggerating her own past history, or that at the very least she may have prostituted herself but never made any substantive profit to take home to her village.

One Night in Mongkok stands out in one particular aspect: it's treatment of the subject of shooting to kill, particularly by the police.Granted, you see many things in this movie. There is the 'West Side Story' style opening of small skirmishes escalating into big brawls. There is the 'Godfather' style development of gangster warfare. There is the familiar-looking pair of fugitive from both the police and the underworld: hit man with cool head and prostitute with good heart. Betrayals, violence and generous supply of blood. Yes, we have all that. However, the most important element in the movie, at least the way I see it, is a subtext that is perhaps more than a subtext – what shooting and killing someone do to a policeman. While the act of putting a bullet through someone thereby ending his life is made commonplace in some movies and glorified in others, it is treated with earnest seriousness in ONIM. Instrumental to this treatment are two policemen: old hand and leader played by Alex Fong Chung-sun and bright young protégé. Although a seasoned veteran, the officer played by Fong is forever shadowed by an experience of shooting someone dead in the course of work. The young officer, on the other hand, although still relative green to the force, had already had a similar experience, but polarized reactions – he is proud of killing. The most memorable scene in the entire movie is when a group of policemen, led by Fong, breaks into a room occupied by a suspect. Once the door is open, trigger-happy young officer fires at the suspect, killing him instantly. This is a scene that provided Fong with the opportunity to put up his 4-star performance.While the other police officers are furious and petrified at this reckless folly, Fong is cool as ice although he must be filled with disgust. Calmly and resolutely, he orders everyone away to guard the entrances, giving them clear instructions to say to anybody asking that they are not present at the shooting. Then he tells his second-in-command to go to look for something 'useful'. With no luck such as finding guns on the victim, they at least find a kitchen knife, which they place in the victim's hand. THEN, he finally turns to the young officer and in icy coldness, instructs him to say that as soon as the door opened, the victim rushes out and attacked the policemen with the knife. They get away with this one because by a stroke of luck, they turn up hidden in the room drugs that worth a huge fortune. So a bungled up blunder turns into a big hit while the shooting is easily forgotten. There is disgust written all over Fong's face when he is surrounded by flattering congratulations. The young officer is easily forgiven by his comrades although it remains to be seen if he emerges as a sadder and wiser man. This, however, we never see. The biggest irony is that in the next confrontation just a few hours later, the young officer's momentary hesitation (undoubtedly because of the effect of the earlier shooting on him) costs him his life.