Election (Hak Seh Wui) Review

The image of a sharply-dressed hero brandishing two handguns has come to define Hong Kong action movies, mainly thanks to the extensive efforts of director John Woo in masterpieces like The Killer and Hard Boiled. In any modern HK thriller, and especially those that deal with the ruthless criminal gangs known as the Triads, it's expected that there will be excessive gunplay, Mexican stand-offs, and a healthy dose of balletic violence, transforming any bullet-ridden battles into something closer to a surreal, free-form dance routine.

HK action director Johnny To had no qualms about indulging in this habit with Fulltime Killer and The Mission so Election comes as a surprise. Here, instead of the usual explosions of ballistic carnage, we are presented with a Triad thriller where not a single bullet is fired, and none of the characters even draw their guns. A daring choice, this pitches the film in a very different direction, and when violence does arrive, it's brutal and ugly, meted out with whatever comes to hand, and with seriously unpleasant consequences.

The story revolves around the bi-annual democratic election for the chairman of the Wo Shing Society, Hong Kong's oldest and most respected Triad. Out of the two contenders for the role, Lok (Simon Yam) is the calmer, cooler and apparently more popular choice, while the hot-headed Big D (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) sees the chairman post as the ultimate sign of the respect he deserves.

The election is quickly resolved, with Lok as the winner - but Big D isn't happy, and sets in motion a struggle for power that could break the entire Triad apart. Significantly, the chairman doesn't truly hold his power until he is presented with the symbolic Dragons Head Baton, and both sides in the struggle are suddenly locked into a desperate chase to get to the Baton first, while the police try (and usually fail) to stop the situation from getting out of hand.