re:mote voices

Title: One Nite in Mongkok [Wong Gok Hak Yau]
Cast: Cecilia Cheung, Daniel Wu, Alex Fong, Anson Leung, Kar Lok Chin
Director: Tung-Shing Yee

One Nite In Mongkok is one of those films that you tend to get coming from Hong Kong, a mix of styles and plots, that progresses and hangs together in a way you don't really get from anywhere else. Starting in one genre, flipping to another, then working back again. The film starts with a group of police officers sitting around on Christmas Eve after a hard day. The film then flashes back to days previously, working forward to Christmas Eve - providing the events that lead to the brink of gang war, and the chaotic rush to prevent things from getting out of hand.

Mongkok is the densest part of Hong Kong, the densest population on Earth the film suggests. Where two rival gangs try and sell bootleg goods - seeing who can sell the fake Rolex for less. A clash over a sale escalates, leading to fighting and the deaths of members of each gang. Unfortunately, one of the gang members killed is the son of the gang leader. He wants to take revenge by killing the leader of the other gang.

Christmas Eve. Mongkok. Things are strangely quiet. The police are watching the tension, wondering how it can last, when they find out that a killer has arrived from mainland China. If the killer succeeds in killing the gang leader then war will erupt - the police must at all costs find the killer and the gang leaders and prevent violence.

To a degree the initial set up has similarities to the successful Infernal Affairs - the tensions between gangs and police, and trying to out guess each other. But then we switch to follow the hit man, just a regular guy who has come from a poor village in China, looking to earn some money for his family. While there he is looking for his childhood sweetheart, who came to Hong Kong before to make money, and has most likely become a prostitute. Instead he meets another girl, who comes from a similar background to him, who has also come here, sold her body, made her money and is hoping to go back home now. This brings us more into territory reminiscent of Fruit Chan's Durian Durian with a slice of the Pang Brother's Bangkok Dangerous.

One Nite In Mongkok has a variety of things going on. To a degree we are contrasting the affluence of Hong Kong versus the small towns of China. With that we have the contrast between two young men - the son of a police officer who has just joined the team looking for the killer, trigger happy and youngly naive, versus the killer himself, who is also a young man with a gun, though he is more reluctant to use it, and comes from an entirely different background. With that we have the exploration of killing - the man who is paid to arrange the killing, who is interested in nothing but money; the man being paid to kill, who wants the money to help his family, but is happy to help the girl he meets with it as well; the police officer in charge of the team, who is wracked by guilt from having killed in line of duty; the young officer who is killed without thought and will happily kill again without thinking.

For me the most enjoyable parts of this film are those with the killer and the girl he meets. The interaction and characterization of the two. His dour seriousness, mixed with a cleverness that keeps him ahead of the police. Contrasted by her bubbly gushing nature, her glee at the glories of Hong Kong, and her savvy pushiness arising from trying to get the most of her money before she goes back home to her family. Here there is humour, humanity and warmth, the kind of thing that makes a film worth watching sometimes.

One Nite In Mongkok is showing in the UK at the moment as part of the Asia Extreme season 2005 - one of six films from Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Thailand that are shown each year. As a film, this isn't a particularly extreme one. There is a moment early on, where someone hallucinates, which suggests that there is going to be a more experimental approach to the film, but that is the only scene, and it is of course referenced in the trailer to affect your perceptions before seeing the film. For the most part the film isn't especially violence, though there is one scene late on, which would likely be categorised as being "extreme". Of the first three films in this year's Asia Extreme season, all showing at once, I would say that One Nite In Mongkok was the one i enjoyed the most - particularly because of the interaction between the killer and the whore.