This movie comes with two big gimmicks. The first is director Wong Jing’s decision to hail this as his “first cult film.” It’s emblazoned all over the trailers but sadly makes little sense. He’s not blowing his own trumpet and predicting instant legendary status by saying the film is “cult” and it’s not about some freaky deaky religious sect. By describing it as “cult” Wong is drawing attention to the fact that “To Live and Die in Mongkok” is a departure from his usual commercial comedies. By “cult” he actually means alternative and serious. Someone direct him to dictionary.com please! The second gimmick is a super stellar cast made up of Hong Kong Film Award winners including Nick Cheung, Liu Kai-chi, Pau Hei-jing and Chan Lai-wan.

Thankfully these two gimmicks unite successfully to make a powerful film examining the pain and anguish of mental illness. The plot is neatly summarized by the movie title and follows a gangster called Crazy Fai who’s just been released from prison after serving 29 years for killing 20 people on a triad mission. He returns to his neighborhood in Mong Kok only to discover it has completely changed. As he revisits old haunts he is plagued by schizophrenic visions of his alter ego—his 17-year-old violent self. Within days of leaving prison he finds himself caught up in life-threatening trouble as two triad bosses fight for the top seat. His predicament gets worse when he defends a prostitute and her sister. In its examination of mental illness and prison-like psychological walls, the film slightly resembles Herman Hui’s “True Women for Sale,” which also looks at the most ignored underprivileged sectors of the community. Thankfully, in contrast, there aren’t dozens of long monologues about each character’s hardships. Instead, grim issues are mostly tackled via black humor. Perhaps the audiences won’t get the deeper meanings but at least they’ll laugh at the jokes.

With this award-winning cast Wong, would be hard pushed to do wrong. Pau Hei-jing shines as Crazy Fai’s mother and even manages to produce some tear-jerking moments, something not often seen in Wong Jing movies.

3/5 Stars by June Ng.

(Hong Kong) Directed by Wong Jing. Starring Nick Cheung Ka-fai, Nina Pau Hei-jing, Chan Lai-wan, Liu Kai-Chi, Monica Mok, Natalie Meng. Category IIB, 95 minutes.