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EXILED
Produced & Directed by: Johnnie To.
Written by: Szeto Kam Yuen & Yip Tin Shing.
Director of Photography by: Cheng Siu Keung.
Edited by: David Richardson.
Original Music by: Dave Klotz.
Released by: Magnolia Pictures.
Language: Cantonese with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Hong Kong. 100 min. Not Rated.
Starring: Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Simon Yam, Nick Cheung, Richie Jen, Roy Cheung, Josie Ho, Lam Suet, Hui Sui Hung, & Lam Ka Tung.

It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does that Exiled doesn’t feel like it should be the follow-up to Johnnie To’s Triad Election. After seeing To go to lengths in the latter film to accentuate the action with moral undertones, it’s not necessarily the worst thing in the world to see Exiled as a gangster-cum-Western with posses out for blood and gold and vengeance. It’s only a minor disappointment that the script provides only little room for character development of any kind.

It’s 1998, a time of unrest for the gangs in Macau before the Portuguese colony is handed over to China. Hit men Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Fat (Lam Set) target Wo (Nick Cheung), who is just trying to get by with his wife, Jin (Josie Ho), and baby. Fortunately for him, he’s protected by two other guns-for-hire, Tai (Francis Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung). After a big shoot-out at Wo’s new home, there’s a stand-off, and soon all the hit men lay down their guns and help bring in furniture for Wo and his wife. They then eat and reminisce together and even take a photo of themselves (grainy and brown like an Old West photo). But there’s still more trouble – Boss Fay (eccentrically played by Simon Yam) had ordered the hit on Wo and is still intent on killing him. (Years earlier, Wo attempted to kill the crime boss.) In the meantime, a more lucrative offer is put to the four hit men: to find a stash of gold, tons of it, hidden within a mountain. All the while a meek little cop (Hui Sui Hung) tries not to get in anyone’s way so he can reach retirement.

The gun battles are stylish to almost a fault; unlike John Woo, you won’t necessarily get a big operatic spectacle, but there are some strange bits thrown in, like a can of Red Bull, used as a marker for how long a shoot out will take place, filmed in slow-motion flying high and falling to the ground. And the speed during said gun battles, of which there are at least four or five, is at a quick enough clip to be thrilling. However, the characters are beholden to the plot. Wo’s fragile but hardened wife shifts drastically upon news of Woo’s fate, and after the burning down of her and Wo’s apartment, she tries to track down Blaze, Fat, Tai and Cat, becoming a one-dimensional character and a tool of a plot that is very easily foreseen once the film gets rolling.

To’s on solid ground churning out a genre hybrid that has the ethics of Western gunslingers within a Hong Kong crime movie, with plenty of trench coats, powerful handguns, and some rousing music to back it all up. But To does mean for this to be as meaningful as something like Triad Election, and it’s here that the film falters. In the press notes, To makes a sociological observation that the setting of Macau 1998 has a lot of significance to the nature of the criminals operating without any code or law of order. This might be intriguing if one knew much about Macau. However, this attempt at extra meaning doesn’t add a lick of difference anyway if you’re looking for big action and drama – the film’s too shallow in its construction of characters to make any large-scale statements to the genre fan, who would be most likely to seek this film out. Jack Gattanella
August 28, 2007