ATONEMENT (阿龙) (2025)

Genre: Action/Drama
Director: Ronald Cheng, Mark Wu
Cast: Ronald Cheng, Chrissie Chau, Philip Keung, Jiang Chao, Fu Shun Ying
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Sexual References)
Released By: Golden Village
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 18 September 2025

Synopsis: Single father Lung (starring Ronald Cheng) and his daughter – Ying (starring Fu Shun Ying) are each other’s only dependence. Despite the huge debt left by his ex-wife, Lung believes in good karma, until Ying wad kidnapped while they were travelling in Thailand. Lung abandons his faith. He marries a Thai Chinese – Lan (starring Chrissie Chau) and stars a new life in Thailand, but he never leaves the past behind. All these years, he has been gathering information of the kidnap syndicate and vow take justice in his own hands at any cost.

Movie Review:

At times poignant, perplexing and shamelessly exploitative, ‘Atonement’ is a tonally uneven drama that could benefit from a stronger director at the helm.

The draw here is Ronald Cheng playing against type as a vengeful father Lung, who is determined to hunt down the kidnappers who had taken his young daughter Ying. As the opening scene of Lung dragging one of the kidnappers bruised and battered down a busy road establishes, Lung is not afraid of breaking the law and getting caught for it, especially since landing in a maximum security prison is part of his plan.

Co-written by Mark Wu and Lam Fung, ‘Atonement’ spins a familiar but nonetheless compelling story that starts with a somewhat guileless Lung three years ago making the best of his circumstances with Ying in Thailand, after his wife had abandoned them both and left them saddled with a mountain of debt. Ying gets into harm’s way after Lung intervenes to stop a bunch of kidnappers from snatching away a child and the baddies end up snatching his daughter instead.

In somewhat truncated fashion, the movie fast-forwards from scenes of him desperately giving out flyers of Yung’s picture to a buffed-up Lung sporting a buzz cut now married to a fellow Hong Kong immigrant Lan (Chrissie Chau). Lung and Lan share a tender marital relationship, the former in particular acting as protector against a lecherous local cop’s occasional sexual advances on Lan, with both husband and wife united as broken individuals with their respective baggage of difficult circumstances.

To their credit, Cheng and Chau carry this second act of the movie beautifully, and you’d be won over by their little gestures that demonstrate their affection for each other. It is deliberate that we are only told how they met and why they got together much later on, and even though it instantly makes Lung a much less likeable character than some would have liked, the late twist also adds interesting colour and shade to what would otherwise be a rote avenging figure.

Those looking to see Cheng go completely berserk will have to wait until the third act, which sees Lung get his chance to confront the mastermind of the kidnapping gang responsible for Ying’s disappearance. Lung finds a friend in fellow prisoner Dan (Philip Keung), who not only serves as his voice of caution but also a voice of reason, not least because Lung feels no compunction unleashing the full extent of his wrath confronting the obnoxious Mad Dog and his clique.

As much as it does allow Cheng to showcase the physical preparation he had to go through for the role, the finale is a odd and ultimately unnecessary detour into gratuitous violence. Ironically, it is seeing Lung totally lose it that we also come closest to losing the sympathy Cheng had accumulated over the course of the movie for his character, and we wonder how a more skilful director would have handled Lung's inevitable brinksmanship before his eventual redemption.

And in that regard, Cheng as well as his co-director Mark Wu come off woefully out of their depth. There is a good story here, as well as a compelling message centred on how moving forward with life requires one to let go of the past, however painful or difficult it may be; but the execution leaves much to be desired. Not only is it tonally uneven, the movie feels disjointed shifting gears from one act to another.

Thankfully, Cheng proves a better actor than he is a director, and even though this is a deliberate attempt to play against type (and possibly establish himself as a serious actor to shed his usual comedic persona), the do-over is surprisingly effective. Cheng also has good chemistry with Chau, and a nice bromance with Keung who shines in a small but critical supporting part. These strengths do not entirely atone the many weaknesses we described, but they do make ‘Atonement’ better in parts than in sum.

On a final note, it has taken 8 years for this effort to make its way to the big screen, and even though flawed, we’re glad it has finally seen the light of day. It won’t be the career-changing movie Cheng probably intended it to be, but Cheng’s performance anchors the movie and makes it an engaging watch for most of the time. As long as you keep your expectations in check, you might find this a sufficiently cathartic watch about healing and forgiveness.

Movie Rating:

(Deliberately playing against type, Ronald Cheng anchors a tonally uneven but nonetheless engaging watch about the importance of letting go of vengeance to find salvation)

Review by Gabriel Chong