Review | Night King movie review: Dayo Wong, Sammi Cheng lead enjoyably fluffy nightclub comedy

You cannot blame Jack Ng Wai-lun for trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. The veteran screenwriter made history as the first Hong Kong filmmaker to gross over HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) locally – with his directorial debut, A Guilty Conscience (2023) – and the temptation for an encore must have been irresistible.

Ng’s strategy is to revisit the golden formula of his previous hit. He once again depicts Dayo Wong Tsz-wah as a slick professional losing his footing in a rapidly changing society, only to stage an improbable comeback in a thrilling third act. But in Night King, the battlefield shifts from the judiciary to Hong Kong’s nightclub scene of the early 2010s.

Wong plays Foon, the stubborn manager of Club EJ, one of the last bastions of old-school luxury in Tsim Sha Tsui East, standing defiant as his rivals fold or pivot to sleazier business models. Trouble mounts when a hostile takeover installs Foon’s ex-wife and competitor, Madame V (Sammi Cheng Sau-man rocking her superstar power), as EJ’s new CEO.