Few Hong Kong films have generated as much buzz and mystery as Juno Mak Chun-lung’s* Sons of the Neon Night. With a staggering HK$400 million (US$51.4 million) budget and a star-studded cast, the film was shot back in 2017–2018, only to vanish into obscurity for nearly a decade. Its long-awaited debut finally came this May at the Cannes Film Festival, instantly reviving curiosity and speculation.

That delay has only deepened the film’s enigmatic aura. Set in an alternate-reality Hong Kong of 1994, Sons of the Neon Night no longer feels like a simple follow-up to Mak’s acclaimed 2013 horror debut Rigor Mortis. Instead, it plays like a relic from a forgotten past, unearthed at just the right moment.

A Film Frozen in Time

Much has changed since the cameras stopped rolling. The film’s legendary composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, passed away in 2023. Leading man Takeshi Kaneshiro hasn’t appeared on screen since 2017. And Hong Kong cinema itself, caught in shifting political winds, has moved far beyond the days of glorifying charming gangsters and utterly corrupt cops.

The Story

Kaneshiro takes center stage as Moreton, the younger son of a kingpin whose pharmaceutical empire is secretly rooted in drug trafficking. When the ageing patriarch is suddenly detained in a hospital, succession becomes the burning question. The chosen heir appears to be Maddox, the fugitive elder son — a wanted man who refuses to disappear.

Yet from the very beginning, the film makes it clear that this is no ordinary crime saga. Moreton awakens in an abandoned traffic tunnel as though it were his bedroom, only for chaos to erupt: a mass shooting in Causeway Bay, a hospital explosion, and a world where snow drifts endlessly from a blackened sky.

A Cast of Shadows and Secrets

The ensemble is just as captivating:

Gao Yuanyuan as Moreton’s manipulative, power-hungry wife.
Lau Ching-wan as a narcotics officer torn between his sick daughter and a side career in drug-dealing.
Tony Leung Ka-fai as a retired police chief inspector pulled back into the shadows.
Louis Koo Tin-lok as a hitman with a strangely philosophical death wish.

Sprinkled throughout are cameos and supporting turns from big names like Alex To Tak-wai, Richie Jen, and Rigor Mortis alumna Nina Paw Hee-ching, who once again steals scenes with quiet brilliance.

A Fever Dream of Crime Cinema

Trying to untangle the film’s kaleidoscopic plot would miss the point. What makes Sons of the Neon Night unforgettable is its spectacular production design, its darkly humorous dialogue, and its surreal, dreamlike atmosphere. Every frame feels crafted with obsessive detail, creating a vision of Hong Kong unlike anything audiences have seen before.

This is less a film chasing tidy resolutions and more an uncompromising fever dream — the work of a director wholly committed to the lawless, violent universe he has conjured. In an era when Hong Kong cinema has grown more restrained, Mak’s film is a rare, audacious swing.

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Sons of the Neon Night is not a story neatly tied up with answers. It’s an experience — a descent into chaos, beauty, and corruption — that reminds us why we still crave cinema bold enough to risk everything.