Nightfall

Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: May 21, 2013.
Director: Roy Chow
Cast: Simon Yam, Nick Cheung, Michael Yong, Cherry Ngan
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

Roy Chow's 2012 thriller Nightfall follows a cop named Detective Lam (Simon Yam) who heads up a division that deals almost strictly in cold cases, those incidents that have more or less gone dormant and which the other divisions have abandoned for various reasons. As he's going over one such case, he figures out that upon his release from prison a man named Wong Yeun-Yeung (Nick Cheung) likely killed a witness, a musician named Han Tsui (Michael Yong), whose testimony landed him there in the first place. Not only did he kill the man, but he also brutally raped and murdered his daughter, the beautiful Zoe (Janice Man).

While Lam obsesses over this case and tries to put together the pieces of the puzzle that will help him prove Wong's guilt, he continues to wrestle with the death of his wife and his strained relationship with his own daughter. Though it was declared a suicide, Lam is positive foul play was involved.

Stylish and slick, Nightfall is really well made. It's a very good looking movie, the right mix of your typically gritty Hong Kong cop thriller and something typically more artsy looking, particularly in how the movie uses color. There's loads of style here, and some great camera work that is effective in showing off the film's locations and in building some tension too. Unfortunately the plot is a little too by the book. Lam's character is one that we've seen plenty of times before, he's a hardworking cop with family troubles. He's older than the rest of his team, his experience means the younger recruits in his department look up to him but they know he wrestles with some demons. As the story plays out, you know that his past is going to intertwine with Wong's, and it does.

The movie is far from a waste of time, however - it's actually got quite a bit going for it despite the more cliché aspects of the story. The pacing is great, we start off with a brutal fight scene in prison that introduces us to Wong in a way that we're simply not going to forget. On top of that the performances are really good. Simon Yam has a way of making older, pained police officers believable. He has the right look and the right acting style to really suit this type of role and he does very fine work here. So too does Nick Cheung do a fine job as the film's central antagonist. See this one if you don't mind your ultra-stylish, well-acted cop thrillers dealing with cliché storylines and there's plenty of entertainment value to be found here.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this disc is excellent. Detail is strong, colors are reproduced beautifully but keep in mind that this is a movie that frequently showcases scenes that have a heavily filtered look to them. This can and does occasionally sap some of the fine detail out of the image. This has to be intentional on the part of the filmmakers. Black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation. Generally the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.

The main audio option on the disc is a Chinese language track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English only. The lossless track here is a good one, with a lot of impressive channel separation throughout the movie. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong. All in all, this is a nice, well directed mix that does a fine job with the movie. A Chinese language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is also included.

The main extra on the disc is a forty-eight minute long Making Of featurette that is made up of cast and crew interviews and some decent behind the scenes footage. Most of the principals are interviewed here and we learn about how some of the key scenes were put together. It's well done and quite interesting. Aside from that we also get a trailer for the feature. Menus and chapter selection are included. The trailer is presented in high definition, the featurette in standard definition.

The Final Word:

Despite a few missteps here and there, Nightfall is an entertaining thriller that manages to hold your attention even when it teeters dangerously close to the edge of predictability. Simon Yam's performance is good and the film is impressive looking and features some impressive sound design as well. Well Go USA's Blu-ray looks and sounds good and features a behind the scenes documentary worth watching.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!