20 years ago, a 19-year-old Wong Yuen-yeung was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering an 18-year-old Eva. Now, after being released on parole, he starts stalking Zoe, a young pianist who resembles Eva in appearance. Zoe's father, the famous musician Han Tsui, is very abusive and controlling towards her. He does not allow her to have any male friends and justifies his actions as protecting her from harm. George Lam, a police inspector, is deeply troubled by his wife's suicide many years ago. He tries to distract himself by working long hours but ends up neglecting his daughter. One day, Tsui is found dead near the beach with his face disfigured. While investigating, Lam comes across Eva's case and learns that Eva was actually Tsui's daughter. When he asks Zoe and Mrs Tsui about it, he is surprised to hear that Zoe's parents had never told her that she had an elder sister who was murdered. Lam tracks down Wong and questions him but receives only frosty responses. The police suspect that he is the murderer after finding out more about his background from people who knew him, and after he attacked Lam and his colleague. While his team are out on a manhunt for Wong, Lam carefully thinks through the case again and realises that Wong seems to be trying to draw the police's attention towards himself. He also notices that Mrs Tsui is always cleaning the same patch of ground outside her home every time they visit her. They comb the area and discover traces of blood. When Lam questions her, Mrs Tsui tells him about her husband's abusive treatment of Zoe, and reveals that Zoe is actually the illegitimate daughter of Eva and Eva's lover. Han Tsui had treated Eva in the same way he treated Zoe, and he killed Eva in anger after discovering her secret affair. Eva's lover is none other than Wong, who became the scapegoat for Eva's murder. The police strongly believed that Wong had attempted to rape Eva and then killed her, so they beat him up during questioning to force him to confess. Lam, then a rookie cop, caught a glimpse of his seniors beating up Wong. Wong eventually succumbed to the beating and falsely admitted that he murdered Eva. While serving his sentence, Wong attempted suicide by piercing his throat with a pencil but failed and became mute as a result. The other prisoners scorned and ostracised him. He once beat up four prisoners who harassed him. Han Tsui's death was actually an accident. He missed his step and fell off the balcony to his death when Zoe pushed him away in self-defence while he was hitting her. Wong took away his dead body and abandoned it at the beach after disfiguring his face so that no one would recognise him. Lam concludes that Wong's true purpose in doing everything he did so far is to divert the police's attention away from Zoe and make them think that he is the murderer. In the meantime, the police have tracked down Wong and cornered him on a rooftop. Wong manages to convey the words – "Have you ever given your daughter a piggyback ride?" – to Lam before plunging to his death. Later, Lam receives a message sent to him by Wong before his death: Wong said he envied Lam because Lam had the privilege of watching his own daughter grow up, while Wong himself could not because he was in jail. Lam breaks down after reading Wong's message as he feels sorry for having neglected his daughter since his wife's death. Zoe goes to the police station to turn herself in. When she asks Lam about the mysterious man who has been trying to protect her, he shows her Wong's photos. In a post-credits scene, Lam and his colleague exchange their views on the case and then go to Lam's house to celebrate.
The film was released in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Australia on 15 March 2012. Well Go USA Entertainment released it on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on 21 May 2013.
Reception
Wong Kwok-siu of Apple Daily wrote: "The shadow cast by the Korean film Oldboy on Nightfall is very obvious. Both of them told stories of pursuing vengeance at all costs. In terms of technical details, this film is very professional, especially with Ardy Lam's cinematography. That was the motivating factor for me to finish watching the entire film." Patrick Kong of Headline Daily wrote: "Christine To and Roy Chow had met viewers' expectations in terms of how the film concluded, and it was sufficiently convincing. Of course, experienced movie fans would have noticed that certain parts of the film were actually inspired by Galileo and Polanski's Chinatown."
