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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film
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Review | Atonement movie review: Ronald Cheng is an avenging father in bleak Thailand-set thriller

Ronald Cheng and Chrissie Chau star in this violent action film about a father chasing Thai criminals who have taken his daughter

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Ronald Cheng plays a father taking on Thai criminals who have taken his daughter in a still from Atonement (category: IIB, Cantonese), directed by Cheng and Mark Wu. Chrissie Chau co-stars.
Edmund Lee

3/5 stars

Ronald Cheng Chung-kei sets aside his laid-back comedic persona for an utterly grim role in this devastating Thailand-set action thriller, which sees the Hong Kong singer and actor buff up and play an anguished father on a deadly hunt for the evil locals who have taken his young daughter.

A co-directing effort by Cheng and Mark Wu Yiu-fai – Cheng’s director and co-star in the 2015 buddy comedy Undercover Duet – Atonement was shot in 2018 but shelved until now. It would almost certainly have been judged alongside the Louis Koo Tin-lok vehicle Paradox (2017) if not for the seven-year gap.
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Incidentally, both films follow a single father from Hong Kong who goes on an exceedingly violent rampage to punish the Thai criminals who have abducted his daughter.

While Atonement is arguably no match for that earlier film, especially in the action department, it does turn out to be a surprisingly poignant watch beneath its exploitative surface.

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Cheng plays Lung, a doting father who has been doing the best he can for his eight-year-old daughter, Ying (Fu Shun-ying, Little Big Master), after his ex-wife abandoned the family and saddled them with debt.
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