When a gambling addict meets a prostitute, “romance” is not usually the first word that comes to mind. Yet, director Matt Wu manages to craft a beautiful story around two individuals who live on the fringes of society, each with their own tragic backgrounds in One Night Only.

Although One Night Only is set in the criminal underworld, the film is far from a crime thriller. Rather, One Night Only remains focused on the tragic romance between Gao and Momo. While at the surface, neither character seems particularly sympathetic, over the course of the movie it’s easy to get lost in their struggles and start to empathize with them.

“The desperate gambler and the disgraced hooker live at the bottom of the city. They race through the underground world and get pushed by all kinds of unpredictable incidents to their extremes. But behind these dramatic conflicts is a brief and genuine love story.”

Kwok and Yang’s acting do justice to the “genuine love story” between Gao and Momo — especially Yang’s portrayal of Momo between playful moments, and more romantic and sorrowful interludes.

Without giving too much away, One Night Only hardly gives the audience a comforting closure to the story between Gao and Momo, but it’s in the film’s tragic ending that One Night Only reminds us that, in real life, couples don’t always end up happily ever after. Sometimes, people meet only for a fleeting moment, but even fleeting moments can have a lasting, lifetime impact.

This message was one of the motivations for Matt Wu to shoot this story.

“The integrity of [Gao and Momo’s] love is not determined by how much time the two spend together and how different their living conditions are. Darkness and brightness are not two opposites. Instead, they support each other. The darker the night gets, the brighter the stars look.”

https://www.cinemaescapist.com/2019/01/one-night-only-chinese-movie-review/