“Nightfall” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Roy Chow
Cast: Nick Cheung Ka Fai, Simon Yam Tat Wah, Janice Man Wing San, Kay Tse On Kei, Michael Wong Man Tak, Gordon Liu Chia Hui, Ken Lo, Mike Leeder
Running Time: 107 min.
By HKFanatic
“Nightfall” opens in a prison shower with actor Nick Cheung engaging in a brutal brawl – a sort of slow motion’d, abstractly-directed take on “Eastern Promise’s” infamous fight scene. The violent scuffle sets unrealistic expectations for the rest of the film’s action quotient as “Nightfall” settles in to become your standard police procedural.
The movie performed solidly at the Chinese box office, earning Nick Cheung (“The Stool Pigeon,” “The Beast Stalker“) kudos for his performance as a mute murder suspect. Cheung does what he can with a role that robs him of any dialogue but, ultimately, “Nightfall” feels too routine for what’s supposed to be a pulse-pounding thriller.
As it turns out, Simon Yam is actually main protagonist of the film. Yam is one of Hong Kong’s most reliable character actors, having played his share of crazy villains and gigolos over the past twenty years, but sometimes he turns in a performance so subtle you can barely tell if he’s acting. Such is the case here with Yam portraying a burnt out detective. We’ve seen this character before – the maverick cop with a passion for digging up cold cases everyone else has overlooked, whose commitment to his job leads to a strained relationship with his teenage daughter.
And his latest case isn’t helping any: a famous concert pianist (Michael Wong) has been murdered with nary a suspect in sight. It feels like ages since Michael Wong has shown his face in a Hong Kong production; one gets the impression he agreed to appear in “Nightfall” just for the chance to chew the scenery as an unhinged stepfather. Wong takes to his role with zeal but his blatant over-acting doesn’t help the entertainment factor of the movie at all.
Yam’s beleaguered cop tries to uncover the clues behind Wong’s death while Nick Cheung lingers in the shadows, constantly throwing suspicion on his involvement in the case. The truth is the audience will likely have the murder solved long before Simon Yam’s character puts all the pieces together, so the film often moves at a crawl while the viewer waits for the police to catch up to their theories. There’s not much action to keep us entertained in the meantime, despite the opening prison brawl and a later scuffle on a skytram, which leaves “Nightfall” about as exciting as your standard TV cop procedural.
In reality, this is the kind of movie that Hong Kong used to churn out en masse during the 80’s and early 90’s – a serviceable crime thriller – except now it has the added novelty of being an incredibly rare occurrence in today’s HK film industry and the glossy production values that come as a result. The allure of old-school Hong Kong cinema might be enough to convince some viewers to purchase a copy of the film, but “Nightfall” fails to make good on its promise.
HKFanatic’s Rating: 5.5/10
This one caught me by surprise. Very tense and strong film. 7/10.
This is one of my favorite films ever. I loved it from beginning to end. This film l could watch over and over, seen it 3 times already. What an ending. You feel everything, from fear to love and sadness and a tiny bit of humour.
Wow! Clearly from the comments on this review, other people have enjoyed this movie much more than I did. Granted, summer 2012 was a long time ago; perhaps I’m due for a rewatch to see if I can anything new from a viewing. As a big fan of Simon Yam, Nick Cheung, and Hong Kong crime thrillers in general, I was surprised that this film didn’t make me fall head over heels.
I will say I thought a little bit higher of director Roy Chow’s newest movie, the straight-ahead wuxia flick Rise of the Legend. Have you seen it yet?
Saw it last year. Pretty good. 7.5/10
Yeah this caught me by surprise too very recently, really enjoyed it, tense and taut little thriller with some great set-pieces.
I’m going to rail against the comments section here and say I agree with the 5.5/10 review. ‘Nightfall’ has a promising premise, but its execution is sub-par. The script is overly talky to the point of containing dialogue that explains absolutely everything, even stuff which has already been shown, including an epilogue that consists of Simon Yam reading a ridiculously long text message that explains everything again just for the record. I was wondering what the deal was with it being so exposition heavy, and then I realised – this was the follow-up flick from the director and writer duo of Roy Chow and Christine To after 2009’s ‘Murderer’, a movie so ludicrously bad it actually makes for passable entertainment.
Speaking of ‘Murderer’, while there Chow unleashed Aaron Kwok to overact like he’d never overacted before, here he gets to let Michael Wong loose. Considering Wong’s scenes are supposed to show the trauma his character inflicted, ironically the only trauma they leave is on the audience as a result of uncontrollable laughter. Wong shouts and yells at such a high decibel level that his voice frequently breaks, and in one scene he literally goes red in the face from his ranting. Combined with his usual absurd mixing of Cantonese and English, it’s almost like Wong is playing a caricature of himself, and it’s a shame that he’s really not onscreen that much.
Instead, we get a snoozy police procedural with Simon Yam and Nick Cheung (the only character who doesn’t suffer from the script, since he’s mute). The opening scene promises some brutal action, however the closest we get is a green screen scuffle on a cable car that’s artificialness is just noticeable enough to be bothersome. Overall, this one was a dud.
Hmm, maybe I need to rewatch, but I enjoyed Nightfall a few years back. I even liked the fight between Simon Yam and Nick Cheung, and thought it was a good showcase for grappling.
I used to hate Michael Wong until I saw Beast Cops and Enter the Eagles. I think certain roles fit him better than others. In Nightfall, I thought he was somewhat disturbing and I thought he tried his best to get into the role. Who knows? Maybe I’ll hate the movie after I watch it again.
I never would have thought my review of “Nightfall” from 2012 would be my evergreen contribution to City on Fire. This review is like the gift that keeps on giving! Ha. But I still remember this film fairly well and feel justified in giving it a 5.5/10. It’s not the worst Hong Kong thriller of the 2010’s, far from it, but it also might be one of the most unremarkable, aside from the physical transformation that Nick Cheung went through in order to get buff for that prison fight scene. I’m glad Paul is here to back me up on this. The jury rests!
LOL You planted a seed. =)