DVD
REVIEW: Election (Hak se wui)
11/04/07
Mafia movies have a
powerful impact on people. For some inexplicable reason
people feel sympathy and attraction to the Gangster
character. Probably is the gangster’s personality like the
Godfathers honor and devotion to the family, or the ambition
and passion of Tony Montana, or it could be the world they
live in, with all the danger they endure, the luxurious
lifestyles, and at the same time the traditions that keep
the families together . Johnnie To’s Election tell us the
story of the world’s oldest Mafia family from a different
perspective without discarding all this traits mention
above, making Election an enjoyable ride.
“300 years ago the Manchurian empire exterminated patriotic
shoaling monks. Five survivors got away joined forces and
swore to be brothers to restore the Ming Empire. Known as
the ‘Five Ancestors’ they created the Hung society. It
conducted heroic uprisings, thousands of patriots valiantly
died in battle. The Hung continue to exist as a secret
society,” and every two years a new chairman should be
elected to lead the family. This year the election could not
be harder, in one side we have Big D, the typical
unscrupulous, showing off, cruel, selfish, power hungry
gangster, but passionate Gangster. On the other side there
is Lock , a well educated, successful businesslike person
who likes to play by the book and wants the common good for
the family. Everything goes crazy when the elections does
not go as planned and when the Dragon Baton, a figure that
symbolizes power over the family, and it is passed to the
Chairman, goes missing. Family members take sides and makes
the election a race for the artifact that could rip the
family apart.
Elections is a nice mixture between the western mafia and
the oriental tradition. The movie is well staged and it the
dialogs are kept simple for the enjoyment of the audience.
It also depicts the typical life in Hong Kong. Director
Johnny To introduces the new evolution in organized crime;
it id based on democracy. Usually in mafia movies a sibling,
a son, or someone related to the boss’ family heirs the
power of the family. Election break that tradition and
making it more logical, the older members of the family
picking the right successor. This movie makes the conflict
inside the family more important than outside conflicts
which make it more interesting and unique to any other mafia
movie. Another characteristic that makes the movie different
is the change of flow; the movie changes from a traditional
mafia drama to an exiting chase adventure. The fighting
scenes are brilliant and make it more fun to watch, is not
the same gun fight as many movies from this genre, here the
Asian tradition takes place taking it to the edge. You will
see machete fighting, people will be hit by cars, and strike
to death with logs and rocks, also you should see persuasion
like none other. Also To presents this groups as idealistic
groups , fighting for freedom, that lost their ways and got
corrupted with power and money, selling drugs and
contraband, like most of these groups were born in real
life.
The actors make an excellent job portraying their characters
depicting their beast and worse qualities. From the uncles
which portray experience and knowledge and at theme time
greedy, the hit mans who are extremely loyal to their bosses
to the main characters Big D (Leung) portraying a low life
gangster and Lock (Lam) portrayed as a successful man with
an alter ego to fear.
This is a movie for those who loved the mafia. Big D and
Lock are both appealing to the audience in their own way.
With a surprising change in roles at the end that would
leave the audience mute.
Election gives you a new vision to the mafia, it will show
you their beginning , their traditions, you will be impress
with their mysticism, their respect to the sacred and the
rules, the honor of the family, the loyalty to the oath and
the most important feature of movies of this genre, the
corruption, the greed and the betrayal of this same code.
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen
AUDIO:
Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital ,Cantonese, Mandarin
Subtitles - English, Spanish,
BONUS FEATURES:
The Making Of Election:
Explanation of the idea behind the movie and characters, and
a couple of history about the Triads (mafia) in Hong Kong
and how they influence its culture (7:15)
Interview With Characters:
Toney Leung ka Fai(Lock):
Discussing his Character and the experience in Election
(6:55)
Simon Yam (Triad Chairman) :
Discussion about his character but mostly about his career
as an actor (7:45)
Wong Tim Lan (Big D) :
discussion of his character (16:00)
Interview with Johnnie To:
To is asked about the idea of the movie, what motivated him,
the research made for the movie, and he describes many of
the actors of the movie (29:00)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
 |
|
VIDEO |
|
|
AUDIO |
|
| BONUS
FEATURES |
 |
Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
Submit Your Movie Review
MORE MOVIE REVIEWS
>>>
