Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!
The best of Time Out straight to your inbox
We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities. Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city.
By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.
Awesome, you're subscribed!
Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!
By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.
Awesome, you're subscribed!
Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!
By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.
Although Hong Kong crime movies too often scream for credible characterisation to complement their gunplay, that wasn’t so with Johnnie To’s gangland saga ‘Election’. If anything, the combination of a strong storyline with an exuberant action-oriented approach makes ‘Exiled’ the more accessible point of entry to the work of a director who’s long excited both fanboys and the festival circuit. The opening announces what’s striking about To’s best work: careful pacing and a witty take on the familiar tropes of gunplay are highly evident, as two pairs of hitmen pitch up at a backstreet Macau apartment to await a renegade ex-colleague. Anomie erupts into a dazzling apartment shoot-out, before old loyalties win out. These veterans have been through the mill together, and as their Triad masters prepare to swoop on the Portuguese colony now passing into Chinese rule (it’s 1998), the hired guns decide it’s time to put their priorities first.
Sam Peckinpah would surely recognise the way the killers’ code of honour sustains them in an ever more mercenary world, and with a Morricone-influenced score, To tips his hat to the westerns of yore. Sparse dialogue and taciturn charisma notwithstanding, this is no mere nostalgiafest, however, since To’s imaginative use of screen space and incisive cutting renders his bullet-sprayed highlights state of the art. It’s cool, thematically involving, knowing and sustained in its tension. Are you watching, Michael Mann?
Release Details
Rated:15
Release date:Friday 15 June 2007
Duration:100 mins
Cast and crew
Director:Johnnie To
Screenwriter:Kam-Yuen Szeto, Yip Tin-Shing
Cast:
Anthony Wong
Francis Ng
Roy Cheung
Lam Suet
Simon Yam
Josie Ho
Advertising
Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.
By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.
🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed!
Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!