Exiled/ 放．逐

Exiled is the latest Johnnie To movie. After Election, which I was disappointed with, contrary to popular opinion, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this director was back to making awesome movies. For those unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend watching his past works if the chance ever presents itself.

Exiled is a story of the strength of brotherhood in the realm of jiang hu, the implicit rules and regulations that govern the world of triads. Nick Cheung plays an ex-triad who returns to Macau to settle down. Two of his old buddies have been ordered to assassinate him, while two other buddies have come to his aid. In this strange stand-off, the five "brothers" enjoy their time together before getting down to business. Cheung's character asks everyone to help him do one "job" to raise money for his wife and kid before the shooting begins, and the gang agrees. Thus, this strange journey of the brothers begins. One thing of note is the cameo appearance by Richie Ren. He appears as a police seargeant with a sniper rifle. In short, he looks awesome. It is certainly good to see him on screen, where he has been absent for a long time.

Action sequences occur very infrequently but when they appear, they are very stylishly done. The gun fights take on a fantastic feel that borders on the ridiculous but feels fitting to the overall movie. The action is always covered from multiple angles, which are striped together into very coherent sequences. The bond between the main characters is portrayed very deeply and all the side characters have more than paper-thin personality. The pace of the movie is controlled very well, with sweeping camera work at the right time to capture the feeling of the current scene. Overall, the directing is excellent.

It has been about a week of so since I watched Exiled, and the above is what stands out most in my mind. However, I can clearly remember the disappointed feeling I had immediately at the conclusion of the film. I can most readily narrow this down to the ending, which ended fairly abruptly in a shoot-out which was somewhat entertaining - except for the fact that it ended the plot. There is more potential that could have been realized in the plot, so that makes the ending even less satisfying. Another lesser point is that the entire story takes place amidst the last day before Macau's control back to China. This portion was not conveyed well and the sense of urgency of some of the characters to wrap up business before the new "era" is thus not apparent, when it should have been.

Pros: Good cast, stylized action, stays true to subject matter
Cons: Not enough action. No new innovation to the genre
Conclusion: If not for the ending, this would get one-half to one point higher!
Score: 3/5

Check out this alternate poster in French!