Film Review: Atonement 阿龍 - Hong Kong
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critic Circle of Australia)
I rated it 6.5/10
Rating: ★★★
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A Vessel Overflowing with Vengeance, Seeking Dry Land - Seven years adrift in the uncertain waters of production limbo, Hong Kong directing duo Ronald Cheng and Mark Wu’s “Atonement (阿龍)” finally washes ashore. This is no sun-bleached relic, however. It’s a gritty, rain-slicked Hong Kong thriller freighted with paternal anguish and moral corrosion, marking a startling, almost violent departure from the directors’ previous collaboration, the breezy 2015 comedy “Undercover Duet”. That tonal whiplash isn't just a gimmick; it's the film's beating, bruised heart.
We meet Lung (Cheng) as a man clinging to optimism like a frayed life preserver. Burdened by debt but buoyed by the love for his eight-year-old daughter, his belief in "good karma" is a fragile shield. That shield shatters horrifically during a trip to Thailand, when traffickers snatch his child. What emerges from the wreckage isn't the Lung we knew. Optimism curdles into obsession. He becomes, as the film starkly frames it, "a vessel for vengeance." His desperate gambit? A strategic marriage to Lan (Chrissie Chau), a woman etched with her own profound sorrows, granting him the right to remain in Thailand and hunt.
The film’s power, its worthy core, resides squarely in this transformation and the raw humanity Cheng and Chau unearth. Cheng, having physically morphed – gaining significant weight, sporting a severe buzz cut that feels less like a hairstyle and more like a self-inflicted wound – delivers a career-best dramatic performance. His descent isn't just physical; it’s etched in the weary slump of his shoulders, the haunted vacancy that occasionally flickers behind his eyes, even in moments of brutal action. His scenes with Chrissie Chau are the film’s soul. Chau’s Lan isn’t merely a plot device; she’s a mirror reflecting Lung’s grief with her own silent, resonant pain. Their connection, born of shared tragedy and necessity, provides the film’s most genuinely poignant moments. You believe their fragile, desperate alliance.
As directors, Cheng and Wu (Mark Wu Yiu-fai) wisely understand that the engine here is character, not just carnage. Comparisons to Wilson Yip’s “Paradox” are inevitable, given the Thailand-set child-rescue premise, but “Atonement” carves its own niche. It’s less about the relentless mechanics of the hunt and more about the heavy, suffocating cost of obsession. The action is competent, often brutal, but occasionally betrays its long gestation and reported battles with censorship through uneven pacing and sequences that feel less polished than the top-tier actioners of recent years. Yet, they deliver one undeniable showstopper: an ambitious, prison brawl captured in a tense, bloody long take. It’s a bravura moment of pure, co-directorial vision, showcasing Lung’s terrifying, almost feral commitment.
The film isn’t without its stumbles. The journey feels occasionally uneven, likely a casualty of its stop-start production and re-edits. The villains, particularly secondary ones, often feel like thinly written caricatures, mere obstacles lacking the depth that fuels Lung’s own darkness. They serve the plot but don't resonate as genuine threats beyond the physical.
“Atonement” is more than just a revenge thriller finally seeing the light of day. It’s a surprisingly soulful excavation of a man hollowed out by loss and rebuilt with hate. It thrives on the crackling, mournful chemistry between Cheng and Chau and the audacious creative pivot of its directors. While its technical execution occasionally falters under the weight of its history, and its antagonists lack bite, the central question lingers long after the credits roll: Can a man consumed by vengeance, who has reshaped his entire being into a weapon, ever truly find atonement? Cheng and Wu argue it’s the only fight left worth having. The answer, like the film itself, is complex, messy, and ultimately, deeply human. (Neo, 2026)
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