Director Derek Yee’s One Nite In Mongkok

August 2005 – Feature Bios
Director Derek Yee’s
One Nite In Mongkok



Derek Yee Tung-sing, a two-time Best Director winner at the Hong Kong Film Academy Awards, is famous for his topnotch direction even among non-movie buffs in Asia. The realism portrayed in his cinema often draws audiences into his stories, as they always show strong sympathy for the lower classes of the society.

Born into a family of actors and blessed with good looks, Yee started his career as an actor as well. It was not until 1986, when he was armed with ample experience on the silver screen, that he turned his hand to directing films. His experience as an actor enabled him to exploit the actors’ potential by gaining their trust, communicating on the same level and understanding their fears. His many nominations at various award ceremonies proved that his strategies work.

One good example of his stylish direction is ONE NITE IN MONGKOK, a film that garnered critical accolades and 11 Hong Kong Film Awards nominations, plus wins for Best Director and Best Screenplay. It is a crime thriller about a group of cops attempting to stop a planned gangland hit in claustrophobic Mongkok – the most densely populated area in Hong Kong and a hotbed of illicit business. Alex Fong Chung-shun, chief inspector of Hong Kong's Criminal Intelligence Department, has just one night to track down Daniel Ng Yin-cho, a paid assassin from Mainland China. The killer encounters Cecelia Cheung Pak-chi (LOST IN TIME), a prostitute from his home province, and her life is forever changed by the encounter.

Yee picks up and turns the grotty streets of Mongkok over like a rock, filming what he finds squirming underneath: miscreants, creeps, pimps, hookers, lowlife informers, cops, black market racketeers, triad boys, whorehouse managers, pickpockets – an entire bestiary of food chain bottom feeders all trying to make a living, all bumping up against one another, all looking for trouble.

Apparently, the film does a lot more than just telling a story. The plot takes an up-close look at the character and random genre situation. The path taken by Daniel Wu and Cecelia Cheung is just a part of the evening and not the means or the end of the film. Besides the leading actors’ flight, the director is equally intent on showing the procedural politics of Alex Fong's CID team, and the human attitudes and anxieties that pick up at every turn. Yee creates an unbiased standpoint and presents a remarkably humane picture of villains and good guys alike, and skilfully balances the story's raw violence with a very human tale.

Director Yee uses handheld camerawork, intimate spaces, and a rapid rhythm to place viewers within the film, and the result is alive and immediate. It is a tense thriller that is both a genre tale as well as a compelling study of character and theme. The energy and dark-edged humanity in every scene seem both true and sometimes frightening in their difficult honesty. And the construction and thematic territory of ONE NITE IN MONGKOK offers a perfect backdrop for breakneck tension and a pulse-pounding soundtrack. Check out the award-winning director’s work for this crime drama on STAR CHINESE MOVIES. Premiering Saturday, 27 August at 21:00.