A petty conflict between youth-triads Franky (Sam Lee) and Tiger leads to a fatal car crash, with the latter as the casualty. The boss of Tiger, Tim, in a confrontation with Franky's head Carl (the film's producer Henry Fong), not only wipes out Franky but also contacts Liu (Lam Suet) to employ a Mainland killer to take out Carl. The one choosen for that job is Mainlander Lai Fu (Daniel Wu). Through circumstances occurring at the same hotel as his, Lai Fu hooks up with fellow Mainlander Dan Dan (Cecilia Cheung), a prostitute that leads him around Mongkok in search of the actual primary target, his girlfriend Sue, also one that's ended up as a street girl. Catching wind of this plan to take out Carl is the Mongkok stationed police force, led by scarred cop Milo (Alex Fong) and the hunt is therefore on...

Setting his 36-hour narrative right smack in the middle of the busy area of Mongkok, Yee brings us a building piece. A tale of chance and reluctant characters but ones that in Yee's world exist, night after night in Mongkok. This is just one night. There is a difficulty to One Nite In Mongkok, most likely because Yee opts to build all throughout and introduces various small but crucial characteristics and themes which takes their time to fully set in. Having said that, I welcome subtlety and obviously coming from Yee, the production was bound to hold more complexities than your average triad/cops flick.

Describing why One Nite In Mongkok is a building piece, one has to examine structure, one that isn't particularly noteworthy for the genre. It really begins and stands well on its own as a rather straightforward chase-thriller for the longest of time. With the handheld, yet calculated camera style, Derek furthers the portrayal young triads in Hong Kong cinema, and probably does so in a realistic manner, as snotty punks with bad fashion sense but is quick to establish that the actual danger exists among the older triads heads, a point that will ring true later on. It's really Young & Dangerous plus cops but more professional and somber, with thrills in the form of chases amongst the actual people and locations around Mongkok, set against Peter Kam's pounding music cues.

This genre stuff is obviously beneath Yee but he suitably builds on that somber and downtrodden feel, which applies mostly to the cops. Obviously anyone having to engage in a hunt for a Mainland killer, in Mongkok, on Christmas eve, is going to feel a little reluctant approaching the task but there lies a certain aura here that everyone's rather worn out. This exact scenario isn't probably what the police faces every night but one can easily imagine a hopelessness having to deal with this densely populated area night after night despite. Yee definitely is back in some pessimistic trains of thoughts akin to The Lunatics and his opening dialogue between Alex Fong and Chin Kar Lok is certainly something that speaks to that pessimism.

One gripe that one have to set aside is the lack of larger amounts of character arcs. Because, as with Johnnie To's Breaking News, we only see these people for the 110 minute running time time. This means that One Nite In Mongkok is not a full on character drama but one where characters continue on a path they've already walked on for some time. Some may end that path, some may progress and some may find it that hope and dreams can not really be found, at least not in Hong Kong. The movie brings up the point that that Hong Kong is translated as sweet-scented, which during the course of the movie the outside characters will find out is a bleak, bleak irony.

It's here that a potential danger is splendidly avoided by Yee thanks to careful writing and correct casting. Take for instance Alex Fong's Milo who we clearly see is scarred emotionally. It's shortly explained, much within the flow of the film, that he changed after a death shooting of a suspect and that selected depth to the character still takes on much weight since it heavily concerns itself with the night at hand. Milo has to face his demons and also the subsequent portrayal of the entire band of cops concerns lawlessness. Reason being the avoidance of the bureaucratic hassle but more having to do with letting the younger, still opportunistic rookies to have some sort of path to walk on. Events are random, rarely fair but it's very powerful how Yee manages to handle his arcs in a scattershot way and still come out on top in terms of the character depth for these guys.

For Lai Fu, Daniel Wu's character, the visit to Mongkok surprisingly holds another priority over his assassination task and that is to bring back his only hope, his girlfriend, now prostitute Sue. A savior if you will, his journey is further proof that Yee is pouring out some of his darker thoughts on screen as we know early on that Sue has already fallen victim to the sweet-scented Hong Kong. Yee thinks that little saving can be done tonight and the results are both unflinchingly brutal and heartbreaking. On the acting side of things and in regards to how Yee directs, you could draw a slight parallel to how Sammo Hung made people look when action-directing them. Same can be applied to Yee directing actors as he's shown again and again that there are untapped resources waiting to be brought out. Daniel Wu is not the best example of that even though this is a serviceable performance. First of all, not being an expert on Mandarin or any Chinese for that matter, he doesn't sound much like a Mainlander but Yee has written a calmness and righteousness to Lai Fu that plays better Wu's wooden nature. It also makes the outbursts of violence in his character more believable but on the whole, now a few years after Daniel's breakthrough turn, critically, in Purple Storm, we may have reached the peak of his ability? On the other hand, I'm also willing to give him more time to develop.

One narrative aspect where Yee seems to falter is when concerning himself with Cecilia Cheung's Dan Dan. She is certainly very clear in intent when looking at how Yee has scripted her but there's nothing here that seems interesting enough to go alongside the mentioned Milo and Lai Fu. She's obviously a mirror of Sue for Lai Fu but it strangely ends there in terms of depth. That and coupled with an awkward nature to Cheung's delivery of Mandarin (which is, even though it surely is Cecilia doing it, distractingly post-synced), the film loses something which obviously in intent wanted to be crucial. Sharing billing with Daniel and Cecilia, I'm not confident that Alex Fong will finally be recognized by a larger group of the fan community but his performance is another sign of him building on his already established skills. Skills that most predominantly are that of emoting true dignity and volumes of depth through presence rather than dialogue.

The supporting players also add colour to the mix, in particular the comic relief of the film in the form of Lam Suet, playing the goofy, ill-dressed, Mainland triad (with too many phones) Liu. Chin Kar-Lok (who also supervised the action), playing Brandon, the second in command after Milo and also the role of mentor to a trigger happy rookie cop Ben (Anson Leung), is terrific to have as he has developed a rather good presence, at least for supporting roles since given the opportunity by Yee in Full Throttle.

Derek Yee, much part of a great past Hong Kong cinema, a present Hong Kong cinema and the future of Hong Kong cinema but that word misstep or falter when discussing a movie of his definitely does and should ring of disappointment. The end result that is One Nite In Mongkok is still evidence that it takes a skilled director to get this much depth out of a chase-thriller structure. The film holds thoughts, although bleak ones, and the opening quote about both fate and sin placing you in the midst of bad things will not prepare you, but assure you that you're in for ALMOST consistent quality throughout.

In the movie, Daniel Wu plays a mainlander hired by Lam Suet to settle the score between two competing street gangs by knocking off one of the "big brothers". However, a team of cops led by Alex Fong knows what's going on, and look to put a stop to the planned killing -- after all, no one wants a gang war on Christmas Eve. During the course of the night, loyalities on both sides of the law are put to the test as the assassin tries to carry out his job while staying one step ahead of the cops and the Triads.

As with one of his previous movies Task Force, director Derek Yee shows a great touch for fleshing out the characters in what some might see as a standard Hong Kong crime drama. There are really no scenes which scream "exposition", yet Yee manages to tell us a lot about the characters in a relatively small amount of time. I especially liked the way the interaction between Daniel Wu and Cecilia Cheung (who plays a sympathetic hooker) was handled. Enough was done to show their deepening relationship, but there wasn't any out-and-out "I love you" types of moments.

Along with the solid story-telling and acting, there's also some good action as well. It's nothing of the John Woo or Jackie Chan variety, but there are several brutal scenes -- especially towards the end, where some beatdowns on Daniel Wu frankly left me a bit unsettled. But that's one of the great things about One Nite in Mongkok. It doesn't try going for the easy way out or the happy ending. It's a complex and challenging film that should satify both new fans and long-time connoisseurs of Hong Kong crime pictures.

It began when a fight broke out between two gangland leaders sons. The result of the fight was the accidental death of a son, and, accident or not, the mourning mob boss is out for blood and has put a hit on his rival. Enter hired killer Lai Fu (Daniel Wu- Purple Storm, Naked Weapon), an imported mainland bumpkin seizing one of lifes few opportunities for a simple country boy to make some much needed money. He is befriended by a hooker, Dan Dan (Cecilia Cheung- Tokyo Raiders, Legend of Zu), who he saves from a rough lowlife customer and thus becomes his escort through the city streets. The two sides spend a frantic day or two working parallel to one another, facing many stumbles along the way, and, eventually, they will meet in a tragic outcome.

Director Derek Yee (Full Throttle) has crafted a likable crime drama. The camerawork is largely handheld and gives a greater sense of realism as it digs through the gritty criminal dens and Mongkok’s overcrowded markets. The style is very reminiscent of other HK crime films, like Infernal Affairs, that obsess over both sides of the underworld. You could also make comparisons to Michael Mann’s Heat, though One Night in Mongkok (2004) lacks the deeper examination of the cops and robbers personal lives that made Heat stand out. For the two sides, it is a bleak struggle. The cops are largely lacking resources and have to browbeat and manhandle in order to make any strides forward. For Lai Fu and Dan Dan, while they money helps in the short term, they must carry the weight of their actions for a lifetime.

One Night in Mongkok is the kind of film that is completely solid, a workable but not exactly revolutionary crime pic, with one big fractured flaw that goes against the rest of it’s assured parts. I genuinely liked everything about the film- the story was interesting, the performances were (mostly) quite good, the setting was perfect, the direction was gritty- but they had to throw in a hooker with a heart of gold. And, as if that cliche wasn’t enough, it had to be a chipper hooker with a heart of gold in the often cute and goofy HK female lead vein. So, here you get cliche on top of cliche. While you can typecast any number of HK actress’ in this, often grating, role and put them in different genres from straight comedy, to romance, to light action films, amongst the streetwise setting of One Night in Mongkok it feels not only out of place but down right pandering to some commercial appeal.

To be completely fair, Dan Dan and Lai Fu's relationship could have been more contrived- they could have injected some romantic element into it. Luckily that is not the case. Their relationship is believable. At first she is thankful for his help but still sees him as another mark, another means of money. When she learns that he is a killer, she wants as far away from hm as possible, which he cannot allow. Their relationship builds because she recognizes their similarity, that they both have come to the big city to do things they are ashamed to do.

Daniel Wu does a convincing job. He invests Lai Fu with a small town innocence as well as a sort of empty/vague quality and temper that makes you believe he is capable to perform the violence he has been assigned. Likewise, actors playing the police have an ease that makes you feel for their comradery and the helplessness in the face of a tight-lipped underworld. There isn’t any glamor to be had in either avenue of life, crime-stopping and crime-committing, and the prospects are equally dim.

I had to do some searching in other reviews/forums to confirm another little misstep. I don’t speak a lick of Cantonese or Mandarin, though I’m sure by now I’ve heard enough to have a good ear for it. You don’t always have to speak a language in order to recognize someone having problems with it. I thought that, at times, Daniel Wu and Cecilia Cheung might be having problems with their Mandarin, and I ran across some other complaints about this (including that Cecilia had to re-dub a lot of her lines). Of course, for me, the non-Mandarin speaker, there was only the vaguest feeling they weren’t convincing mainlanders, so it wasn’t a big problem

Conclusion: If you consider yourself a fan of new wave crime dramas, especially those that HK seems to be hooked on, this is a very entertaining film. I won’t say it rises to classic status, but it has several admirable aspects...