Election
Director: Johnny To
Producer: Johnny To & Dennis Law
Plot (Panorama): The time has come, as it does every two years, for the senior members of Hong Kong's oldest Triad, the Wo Shing Society, to elect a new chairman. Fierce rivalries emerge between the two eligible candidates. Lok (Simon Yam), respected by the Uncles, is the favorite to win. But his rival Big D (Tony Leung) will stop at nothing to change this, including going against hundreds of years of Triad tradition and influencing the vote with money and violence.
When Wo Shing's ancient symbol of leadership, the Dragon's Head Baton, goes missing, a ruthless struggle for power erupts and the race to retrieve the Baton threatens to tear Wo Shing in two.
Can Wo Shing balance their traditional brotherhood with the cut-throat modern world of 21st century business?
Review: When watching this movie for the first time, I have to admit the first hour was boring. Sure seeing people being rolled down hill in crates and others eating ceramic should be fun, but I just didn’t ‘get into it’. But for this review I am planning on watching the movie once again.
Now this is paragraph is the my thoughts of the movie after watching it 6 months later. I must admit I rather enjoyed the movie this time around, I still found the story a little complicated and confusing, but I'm sure watching another couple times would erase those gray spots. Simon Yam and Tony Leung's performances make the movie - Yam being as cool as cucumber (my favorite phrase at the moment) and Leung being a power ridden Triad, both of those roles were played with ease too which makes them look natural and natural is good!
The action picks up mainly in the second half of the movie where Louis Koo and Nick Cheung have the legendary baton and are high tailing it back to the elders. Koo and Cheung have to escape a group of blood thirsty triads who also seek the Baton for Simon Yam.
Notable appearances; Shaw's Legend - David Chiang plays Inspector Hui as constant annoyance to the triads as you can expect. Lam Suet also appears as a triad known as 'Big Head', Wong Tin-Lam plays one of the Wo Shing elders and Maggie Siu as Tony Leung's wife.
Final thoughts a good triad drama from Johnny To, sure the UK press slaughtered this movie, but hey it doesn't mean you can listen to them, listen to me!
Highlight
- The ending twist
- The strong violence
- Long Gun and Sun being rolled down the hill
- The over taking sequences between the van and the car
Letdowns
- Story is complicated at times
- The stabbing sound effects are a little over the top
Rating: 6.9 out of 10.0
