3 of the best Hong Kong crime movies of the 2000s and how director Derek Yee created them

Former actor Derek Yee injected a gritty realism into his crime films, not glamorising criminals and gang life. We recall three of his best

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(From left) director Derek Yee, Daniel Wu and Cecilia Cheung on the set of One Nite in Mongkok in 2004. We unpack this crime film and two others he made in the 2000s, Protégé and Triple Tap. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:45am, 1 Sep 2024

Derek Yee Tung-sing made his name as a director in the 1990s with romantic dramas like C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri. Yee was a Shaw brothers wuxia (swordfighting) star before moving into directing.

In the 2000s he won acclaim for his crime films. Yee’s crime films managed to retain his humanity. “He attempts to invest even the most conventional genres with grit and meaning,” the Post said in 2007.

We recall Yee’s best three crime films from the 2000s.

1. One Nite in Mongkok (2004)

One Nite in Mongkok - Full Hong Kong Trailer

Yee’s foray into the world of triad crime films isn’t a genre work – it’s a deeply thought-out drama about the ugliness of criminal life.

The characters, both police and criminal, are naturalistic and express the worries of real people, and the violence avoids any stylised forms of beautification – it’s brutal and nasty.

The triad films of the 1990s were criticised for glorifying gang life, but One Nite in Mongkok does just the opposite. Criminal life is portrayed as grim and scuzzy, and Yee dispenses with all the triad “codes of honour” that usually permeate such works.

Yee’s underworld is a place where violence and fear are the go-to methods of control, friendships mean nothing, and the weak are physically beaten into submission.