This lustrous, gauzily shot tribute to old-time Cantonese nightlife looks at times like a Wong Kar-Wai film – but is actually closer to something like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Hong Kong comedy stalwart Dayo Wong stars as Foon, manager of EJ Entertainment, the last nightclub standing in the fading East Tsim Sha Tsui district. A corporate takeover suddenly means his ex-wife Dame V (Cantopop diva Sammi Cheng) is in charge and intent on replacing the regular hostesses there to schmooze clients with her “fighter jet” upgrades.
No sooner do Foon and V start sparring about how the joint should be run, then they discover there’s a takeover within the takeover: playboy Prince Fung (Chun Yip Lo), V’s partner on the original deal, does the dirty on her and pulls out. As the contract’s guarantor, either V stumps up the $80m needed to buy EJ, or she is liable for the cancellation fee – when Fung plans to swoop in for a pittance. So the perennial soft touch Foon agrees to team up with his no-nonsense ex, all for the sake of saving nostalgic razzle-dazzle.
Directed by Jack Ng – also responsible for 2023’s smash legal drama A Guilty Conscience – Night King feels unfortunately retrograde in its parading of what the tabloids once called a “bevy of beauties”; they are only slightly individuated and mostly foils for catty comedy served up by Foon and his right-hand man Turf (Yeung Wai Lun). Compared to the likes of Hustlers, it’s also strangely coy and sanitised about what this courtesan work entails. The absence of rawness and chemistry carries over into V (the only truly proactive woman here) and Foon’s rekindled relationship; their spats about past disappointments and sharing “woes, not wealth” are nearly as contrived as the hostesses’ chat-up patter.
The film juggles a number of plotlines – the race for Foon and the girls to up their numbers, a love triangle between him, V and a spare-wheel hostess (Fish Liew), and a late-breaking Ocean’s 11-style scam that is a foregone conclusion – without satisfactorily closing any. There’s the odd sharp line: “Bring them there and back again, like hobbits,” says Foon of the punters. But in terms of getting into the nitty-gritty of the hospitality and sex trades, this lounge-lizard glass-tip to bygone Kowloon feels behind the times.
