''The Longest Nite'' (, Literal Title: ''Dark Flowers'') is a 1998 Hong Kong

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

film directed by

Patrick Yau Patrick Yau Tat-Chi is a Hong Kong film director and assistant director best known for making independent films for Milkyway Image, the production company owned by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai. Career Yau joined TVB when he was 21 and became Johnni ...

and

Johnnie To Johnnie To Kei-fung (born 22 April 1955) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and film producer. Popular in his native Hong Kong, To has also found acclaim overseas. Intensely prolific, To has made films in a variety of genres, though in ...

, starring

Lau Ching-wan Sean Lau Ching-wan (born 16 February 1964) is a Hong Kong actor who has acted in both films and television series. He won Best Actor in the 2007 and 2015 Hong Kong Film Awards and in the 2000 and 2007 Golden Bauhinia Awards. Career Lau was born ...

and

Tony Leung Chiu-wai use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = , burial_place ...

. The film was produced by To and

Wai Ka-fai Wai Ka-Fai (born 21 September 1962) is a Hong Kong screenwriter, producer, film director, and former TV screenwriter and producer. Wai is best known for his frequent collaborations with Johnnie To, another former TV turned film director and pr ...

along with their

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

, Milkyway Image.

Plot

Caught in the middle of a fierce gang war in Macao, a corrupt cop named Sam (

) handles negotiations between two Triad leaders who plan to join forces. He meets a suspicious bald man named Tony (

), who keeps following him around and disrupting his personal business. But when Sam finds out he's a suspect in a nightclub owner's murder, he's sure his stalker has something to do with it.

Production

re-wrote most of the script of ''The Longest Nite'' with

. To and Wai had the film take place in Macau based on the chaos the area was experiencing at the time of filming. Wai Ka-fai has stated that most of ''The Longest Nite'' was directed by To. To took over directing the film after Patrick Yau had shot five scenes with Wai Ka-fai re-writing the script as they were shooting. Large portions of the film were shot in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

.Teo, 2007. pp.231 The Hong Kong title of the film translates to ''Dark Flowers'', a slang for an underworld contract.

Release

''The Longest Nite'' was released in Hong Kong on 1 January 1998. The film grossed a total of HK$9,562,090 on its release. ''The Longest Nite'' was not a box office success in Hong Kong, which led to Milkyway Image developing more commercial films such as '' Needing You...'' (2000).

Reception

In ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'',

Derek Elley Derek Elley (born c. 1955) is an American film and music critic and author, best known as the resident film critic for '' Variety'' until his departure in March 2010. With over 1200 reviews to his credit as of December 2014 on ''Rotten Tomatoes'', ...

referred to the film as "at the very least an attention-grabbing movie that puts a new spin on Hong Kong crimers" and "the movie has something of the risk-taking spirit that first drove the H.K. New Wave almost 20 years ago."

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Longest Nite, The Hong Kong crime thriller films 1998 crime thriller films 1998 films Police detective films 1990s Cantonese-language films Milkyway Image films Films set in Macau Films about contract killing Films with screenplays by Yau Nai-hoi 1990s Hong Kong films