One Nite In Mongkok and it all goes very wrong for country bumpkin Lai Fu (Daniel Wu). Leaving mainland China for the bustling Hong Kong district, he takes a job as a hitman to knock out a local crime lord but his plans are soon going to pot. Everything's there for some decent entertainment but those who've seen a few Hong Kong exports may experience a sense of déjà vu.
Ruthless gang members? Check! Bungling middle men? Check! Tart with a heart? You get the idea, not to mention the fact that Lai Fu is supposedly a novice assassin (his real mission is to track down his errant fiancé) but he's curiously adept at handling guns and avoiding the police. Director Derek Yee also allows the action to sag badly in the middle but it's to his credit that violence is used so sparingly throughout that, when it arrives, the tragic climax delivers quite a punch.
"MORAL WEIGHT"
Yee also has plenty of room to squeeze in some social commentary on the gulf between mainlanders and Hong Kong Chinese, not to mention lending the film moral weight with musings on what it means to be a killer, authorised or otherwise. All in all, it'll keep you entertained for a couple of hours and if you thought Infernal Affairs was the bee's knees, the chances are you'll like this too. But for new ideas you'll need to look further afield.
In Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles.