One Night Only

I ended up about 1/3 of the way through just ff parts as it seemed to drag on w/fairly predictable interchanges between a gambler & a hooker & the usual gambling problems along w/the usual baddies. But, there is actually an unseen relationship between the two that comes out toward the end which improves the storyline so pay attention as you watch. I think if hints of this relationship were woven in earlier it might have helped, that & earlier better character connection w/the viewer, but then that might lessen the ending. Oh well!

We've seen films like this already: Before Sunrise, Adrift in Tokyo... they're almost their own genre; we also know that everything hinges on how we come to feel about the characters upon having strolled around town with them for an hour and half. So then, shall we...?

Having serious gambling debts with the kind of scum who can never be paid back, Aaron Kwok's Gao Ye is desperate...then, Momo, a whimsical prostitute walks into his room, played by the adorable Zishin Yang. Apparently determined to spend time with him, Gao seeks to exploit her bizarre neediness to win what he owes, quickly getting her caught up in his mess.

As we follow Gao and Momo through a (nameless?) city at night, we're treated to excellent photography which - strange for the genre - doesn't really utilise its setting. We're also spared the preaching of how gambling is bad, yet at the same time, Gao Ye never seems to learn from his mistakes, making him a bit frustrating to watch. Their exploits and/or conversations never really managed to draw me in, while the warmth we're supposed to feel for their characters is almost devoid, instead being saved as a final punch to the gut, moments from the end.

And that's where One Night Only fails: it just doesn't draw the viewer in enough, so that when the final credits roll, we're left thinking a flat, "Oh..." rather than genuinely feeling the emotions the film tries to leave us with.

Decent acting and setup, story's quite interesting. Ending twist doesnt really make sense, though it already hinted in the movie, should be better ending before the last part.

another really good performance from Aaron Kwok, the female lead was really good too. overall all the acting was good or above. the director has a pretty good eye and captures some moments really really well, so well i would consider it world class. thats why the movie left me a little unfulfilled. the problem w most Chinese and korean movies is that they have situations in movies that are so improbable that it couldn't happen in real life. in there is the problem..you have a pretty good movie grounded in real life and then throw in a few improbable scenarios that couldn't happen in real life and for me, thats really annoying. i've turned off movies like that..but for some reason this movie wouldn't let me turn it off. if they didn't have the few dumb scenarios this movie would've have been somewhere in the 7 star range. but...what do i know...anyways...i still totally enjoyed the movie. overall...a fairly well done movie about redemption. i'm sure that there'll be people who will watch this movie and shed a tear or two. Fellinis' " Nights of Cabiria " gets a couple of minutes in this movie, so we know that the young director is also a movie buff and like i mentioned in the above...there's some gorgeous gorgeous shots in this movie...the scene where Aarons character is at an old moviehouse was my favorite...it was shot with such love. not a highly highly recommend but nonetheless i will still recommend it as there's a lot more good then bad in this movie.

When a gambling addict meets a prostitute, "romance" is not usually the first word that comes to mind. Yet, director Matt Wu manages to craft a beautiful story around two individuals who live on the fringes of society, each with their own tragic backgrounds in One Night Only.

Although One Night Only is set in the criminal underworld, the film is far from a crime thriller. Rather, One Night Only remains focused on the tragic romance between Gao and Momo. While at the surface, neither character seems particularly sympathetic, over the course of the movie it's easy to get lost in their struggles and start to empathize with them.

"The desperate gambler and the disgraced hooker live at the bottom of the city. They race through the underground world and get pushed by all kinds of unpredictable incidents to their extremes. But behind these dramatic conflicts is a brief and genuine love story."

Kwok and Yang's acting do justice to the "genuine love story" between Gao and Momo - especially Yang's portrayal of Momo between playful moments, and more romantic and sorrowful interludes.

Without giving too much away, One Night Only hardly gives the audience a comforting closure to the story between Gao and Momo, but it's in the film's tragic ending that One Night Only reminds us that, in real life, couples don't always end up happily ever after. Sometimes, people meet only for a fleeting moment, but even fleeting moments can have a lasting, lifetime impact.

This message was one of the motivations for Matt Wu to shoot this story.

"The integrity of Gao and Momo's love is not determined by how much time the two spend together and how different their living conditions are. Darkness and brightness are not two opposites. Instead, they support each other. The darker the night gets, the brighter the stars look.