One Nite In Mongkok Review

A Hong Kong crime movie which mixes that both-sides-of-the-fence feel of Infernal Affairs, as opposing cop and crook factions scheme against each other and cope with their own loose cannons, with the innocent-in-a-bad-city-has-a-busy-night After Hours sub-genre.  When a gangster’s son is killed in a car chase, a hit-man (Wu) is hired in from the mainland.  Thanks to the gutlessness of a jelly-like criminal fixer, the cops are onto the killer from the start.  He turns out to be a decent youth looking for his lost girlfriend and allies with a perky hooker (Cheung) who is trying to finance a life back home.  It’s complicated, if a bit pat in its ultimate morality, but director Derek Yee expertly manages difficult segues from fish-out-of-water bittersweet comedy to very bloody bullet and battering action