NIGHT KING (夜王) (2026)

Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Wai-lun Ng
Cast: Dayo Wong, Sammi Cheng, Louise Wong, Fish Liew, Yeung Wai Lun, Lo Chun Yip, Ho Kai Wa, Renci Yeung, Mandy Tam, Li Sum Ling, Hazel Lam, Tang Lai Ying
Runtime: 2 hr 13 mins
Rating: NC16 (Sexual References)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 16 February 2026

Synopsis: The year is 2012. The once-glamourous Club EJ suddenly experiences a hostile takeover. Much like the nightclub industry, the glory days are over for the club’s manager, Foon (Dayo Wong), despite having stood tall in East Tsim Sha Tsui for decades.

To make things worse for Foon, the club’s new CEO is none other than his cutthroat ex-wife, Madame V (Sammi Cheng)! Determined to change things up, she leaves Foon and his hostesses with no choice but to transform and modernize in order to breathe new life into their business. Little do they know, a powerful conglomerate has been pulling the strings all along to shut down Club EJ for good.

To save their neon empire, Foon and V must join forces and make an epic last stand with the hostesses against what seems to be inevitable doom.

Movie Review:

While it does acknowledge the prolific number of nightclub-heavy dramas, often mixed with triad and underworld themes, of the 1980s and 1990s, ‘Night King’ is hardly another trashy throwback to that era. Instead, it is deliberately set in the early 2010s when the nightclub scene in Hong Kong was in decline, struggling to define its existence at a time when the once booming economic territory underwent a period of cultural, political and societal transformation.

That is the fate of its lead protagonist Foon (Dayo Wong), the club manager of the once glamourous Club EJ, whose glory days – alongside that of East Tsim Sha Tsui – are fast fading. An extended opening scene shows the seasoned veteran Foon managing each night’s operations around its various client personalities with clockwork polish, and above all, taking care of his female employees not just because he would not otherwise have a business without them, but out of genuine care.

Foon’s thoughtfulness is in sharp contrast to that of his ex-wife Madame V (Sammi Cheng), who thinks Foon is too soft and wants to take over EJ in order to shake things up. For a good first hour, Foon and Madame V bicker and banter like married exes who are still very much in love with each other even if they would refuse to admit it, and if you’re lucky enough to catch this in its original Cantonese dialogue, you’ll delight at how Wong and Cheng spar with vim and vigour.

Madame V’s plan to assume control of EJ however goes up in flames after she is played out by her wealthy benefactor’s egotistical and thin-skinned son Prince Fung (Lo Chun-yip), paving the way for V to team up with Foon in order to take the tables on Fung. Nothing beats a common enemy to unite a pair of exes, and the last half hour unfolds a thoroughly satisfying ruse within EJ, where Foon executes an elaborate scam to rescue Madame V from her debts owed to Fung, as well as to regain control of the nightclub that means more to them than just a business transaction.

Having had the benefit of hearing from director-writer Jack Ng Wai-lun about the creative process of the movie, you’d appreciate why this 133-minute version that we are seeing feels like more than a film in one. Indeed, the first half is an energetic, largely comedic, affair that sees Foon try to boost the fortunes of his club before Madame V wields her axe to sack underperforming employees; and thanks to Wong’s signature sardonic wit, as well as the excellent deadpanning of Yeung Wai-lun as his assistant, is probably the more crowd-pleasingly entertaining section.

In contrast, the second half is a combination of a number of not always complementary subplots, which while adding texture to the movie, also unfortunately ends up bloating it. There is Coco’s (Louise Wong) budding relationship with Prince Fung, which eventually forces her to choose loyalty or a life of riches; there is also Mimi’s (Fish Liew) affection for Foon, despite knowing that he is still in love with Madame V; and last but not least, there are a bunch of rich/ influential/ powerful types, each searching for their own escape or solace from the real world, whose paths will intersect in the intricate heist that Foon and Madame V engineers to save EJ from Prince Fung’s hostile takeover.

To be fair, it is never boring, especially with veteran cinematographer Anthony Pun’s dynamic camerawork; but those expecting a similarly tight and compelling movie as ‘A Guilty Conscience’ will probably be disappointed. What we did appreciate though is how Ng uses EJ as a microcosm to examine a once illustrious Hong Kong in the throes of change, revealing not just a fond nostalgia for the days of old but also a need to transform in order to survive and thrive in the new world. The same can be said of Hong Kong cinema, for which Ng also intends his film to be a metaphor of.

‘Night King’ isn’t your typical Lunar New Year movie, nor for that matter, the sort of nightclub-themed movie that was a staple genre in Hong Kong cinema in the past. Rather, it is a lively battle-of-the-exes comedy, a scrappy underdog caper about bruised veterans clawing back relevance in a city that has moved on without them, and a wistful parable about the necessity of reinvention in an era when nostalgia alone is no longer enough to survive. Even if its sprawl makes it messy and uneven at times, it remains a captivating watch, elevated in no small part by the crackling chemistry between Wong and Cheng, whose banter gives the film both its bite and its bruised, beating heart.

Movie Rating:

(A fading nightclub manager and his sharp-tongued ex-wife reunite to outwit a hostile takeover, in a messy but engaging romantic caper about love, loyalty and reinvention in a changing Hong Kong)

Review by Gabriel Chong