Exiled

Director: Johnny To

Producer: Johnny To

Plot: A little back story for you first, there is these five orphans who joined the triads as teenagers. One of the five, Wo (Nick Cheung) had attempted to kill off his boss Fay (Simon Yam), after botching the job he flee’s to Macau with his wife (Josie Ho) and new born child.

Fay orders a hit out on Wo and sends the other four triads to Macau to do the job. But the group have taken sides, Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Cat (Roy Cheung) want to stay loyal to Fay and do the hit, where as Tai (Francis Ng) and Fat (Lam Suet) want to help their triad brother.

When confronting Wo it ends up rapid fire shoot out between Blaze, Wo & Tai. Blaze delay the hit and allows Wo ‘one wish’. Like any loving husband/father he asks for his family to lead a wealthy live. The five men take up one last hit on a gang lord for a very health sum of money. Does it all go to plan?

Review: This is the movie Johnny To will be remembered for! John Woo will be remembered for Hard Boiled; Tsui Hark will be remembered for Once Upon a Time in China and Johnny To will be remembered for Exiled! Trust me!

I must admit I wasn’t a fan of ‘The Mission’, which is a related prequel to this movie, also by To. So as you can expect with this movie a related sequel, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. it would be an identical cast if Jackie Lui was included, but he really wasn’t missed in this movie.

The cast in the movie was great, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Roy Cheung were always to cool to be true, but they just seem even cooler in this flick. Nick Cheung looked great, in the Election movies he was preserved as someone in his mid-twenties, younger than he is, in my opinion that is. He was perfect in this movie, he a great look and proved he can handle a leading role, this gives me hope for when I watch ‘On the Edge’.

There is a tension between Wong and Ng’s characters, Wong being the voice of Justice and Ng being the voice of Reason, the common battle between a man of Science and a man of Faith. We don’t really get to see why Fat & Cat have chosen the sides that they chose; I guess they just wanted to tag along.

Notable appearances include Gordon Lam as Gang Lord Keung, Hui Siu-Hung (JT regular) as a police sergeant count down the hours to his retirement, Richie Ren plays a sharp eyed sergeant who is deadly with a rifle. Ellen Chan appears as a voluptuous/money hungry prostitute.

Final thoughts, this film ranks above all the other Johnny To films I’ve ever seen, even the bloody good Election 2 and the too damn cool PTU! Buy it, Watch it, Watch it again and enjoy it!

Rating: 9.7 out of 10.0