Watching Dragon, Hidden Growler

INDEX

Many Chinese and East Asian films are very successful due to their fantastic creativity and innovation.

Here are a selection that deserve your attention.

This article was also featured in Chinatown - The Magazine.

Rawle Austin presents...

ONE NITE IN MONGKOK (Wong Gok Hak Yau)

Set in urban Hong Kong, Mongkok is one of Kowloon’s most prosperous commercial districts and the most densely populated place in the world. We are immediately flung into a busy marketplace where two rival triads (criminal gangs) compete for sales of pirated goods. A squabble between two opposing gang members soon leads to a spiral of violence and revenge. The son of one of the triad leaders is killed and in revenge he orders a hit on his opposite number.

He commissions a middleman to hire Roy (the Rat) a cross-border killer from Mainland China.

Director Yee Tung Sing (Derek Yee) has put together a compelling study of modern day life in Hong Kong.

Raw and gritty, he doesn’t pull any punches and this film is certainly not for the faint hearted.

Yee is also an actor and cinematographer as well as a director.

As an actor he was signed by the Shaw Brothers studio straight after graduating from High School and appeared in over 40 films in 9 years.

His directorial debut was The Lunatics in 1986, which won acclaim at the 1987 Hong Kong Film Awards and at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards in the same year.

One Nite in Mongkok saw him nominated for Best Director at the 2004 Taipei Golden Horse Awards.

He went on to win Best Director at the 2005 Hong Kong Film Critics Awards and the 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards. True talent always rises to the top and the world had finally acknowledged his film making genius. Casting in this film is impeccable. All actors involved deserve praise for their performances. Daniel Wu has a smouldering presence on screen. He’s just perfect playing the hitman, Roy, from Mainland China hired for a major job in Mongkok.

He knows his fiancée lives in that area so it’s a great chance to see her. On arriving in Hong Kong he is a fish out of water.

Wide-eyed and innocent of the city life that is miles away from his humble upbringings on a small farm Mainland China.

The numbers of Mainland Chinese moving from the countryside to the city to find better-paid work is in fact massive and Wu gently captures the general character nuances of this huge event.

Displaying the right amounts of curiousity and naivety to make his role believeable. This is balanced by his cool and focused side when plying his deadly trade.

Daniel Wu was born in San Francisco, USA and is a keen martial arts enthusiast.

His film career took off shortly after 1997 whilst travelling in Hong Kong and Jackie Chan introduced him to his agent, Willie Chan. Cecilia Cheung is proof that the future of the current stable of up and coming Chinese actresses is bright. She plays Dan Dan, a streetwise hustler in the so-called oldest profession. Bullied by gangsters she meets Roy who saves her and the two strike up a friendship.

This relationship is at the heart of the film and is expertly scripted. Cheung’s bubbly, sophisticated take on Dan Dan provides many humourous moments but she covers all other emotions well.

Effortlessly breaking from Cantonese to Mandarin this added authenticity to the whole piece and provided some of my favourite scenes in the movie.

The police learn of this assassination plot and are hell-bent on finding and catching Roy. They name their operation ‘One Nite in Mongkok’.

Alex Fong Chung Sun plays Inspector Miao, a hardened police chief looking for promotion.

He portrays the father figure aspect of the role to great effect and his team has a strong bond. From the rookie cop whose family has a history of serving in the police force to a cynical character that doubts the new boy’s ability. Despite the internal rivalries you get a sense that these guys protect each other with vigour when out on a case. Alex Fong entered into the movie business in 1986 and his first film was ‘Escape from the Coral Cove’.

This was directed by Terence Chang Ka Chun, a partner of John Woo. Fong was nominated as the best supporting actor in 1998 for the film ‘Your place or mine?’

The cat and mouse between the cops and Roy the hitman gives us some great chase scenes and thrills on every level.

Very exciting and dramatic with an excellent score to match composed by Peter Kam.

Wo hen xi huan kan zhe ge dian ying (I enjoyed watching this film).

One Nite in Mongkok grabs your attention from the very beginning and builds to a crescendo of roiling emotions at its conclusion.

An edgy, thoroughly modern thriller that is well worth your time.

Running Time: 109 minutes, Certificate:18

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