Election 2

Aka Election 2 -- continuation of crime drama

It's Election time again , and this time the lead candidates are Kun - the Baton retriever who served jail time for running over cop , and Jimmy - the leading money-maker in the Wo-Sing and Society Favorite ..

Jimmy doesn't want to run for prez , he wants to go clean as a businessman . But after getting busted in undercover sting, he's coerced by the head Inspector to become the new Chairman if he has any dreams of running business on his grounds .

Lok on the other hand , doesn't want to give up power either ,, and is plotting a second term which is against Society rules ... As the time ticks closer things get more and more antsy

9/10

The first "Election" film seems to be Johnnie To's most highly praised movie, which is strange, because I think this less-seen sequel is superior in every way. It has a plot you can actually understand, and a persistent style and tone.

"Election" had key moments apparently happening off camera so you could only deduce what was going on in the plot with super-human concentration. Not so in the sequel. You get the gist pretty easily, and pretty early on: Lok, the elected chairman from the first movie, is approaching the end of his tenure, but is considering breaking Triad tradition and extending his term. Meanwhile Jimmy is trying to set himself up as a legitimate businessman in China and move away from the Triad. He finds that government officials will only work with him if he takes the chair in his Triad.

So the stage is set for crosses, double-crosses and dealings with Triad "uncles" and cold-blooded subordinates.

"Triad Election", also known as "Election 2", is never less than engrossing and captivating. It's one of the best Triad films I've seen.

This film doesn't take half measures that's for sure. It's time to elect a new chairman again amongst the triad world, and the baton by tradition has to pass on. Our lead from the original is reluctant to hand it over, and is playing off people to secure a second term. On the other hand is the initially reluctant Jimmy who claims to want to distance himself from his gangster linked past but to secure business access into the mainland, he becomes brutal and merciless to become the newly elected leader for his own "business" purposes.

I enjoyed this more than the first. It's quite a difficult film to follow at times with some references to the original plus a large multitude of characters. There are various threads through the movie and if you give it time you will find it engrossing. Tense at times with violence always not far off, it doesn't let up. There are too many nods to "Infernal Affairs" with many of the same actors and some parts which seem to pay homage to it. In fairness, can't always be 100% original, and this film is not a rip at all.

Acting is fine but camera work doesn't have anything special. There was scope to have some incredible filming here with some of the locations and actors, but it doesn't seem to have been a priority, which is a shame.

A good film with some intriguing plot lines, and if you're into gangster films then you'll find this a good addition to the HK genre.

Triad chairman Simon Yam's term is coming to an end and he doesn't want to vacate the job. His main contender is Louis Koo, who is only seeking the job to further his business interests in mainland China. This one is a slow burn. Most of the running time is gangsters manoeuvring politically until the film erupts in a series of horrendously violent sequences. A grim gem among To's incredibly consistent output.

It's always nice to fallow the evolution of some characters through the years from films to films. You have the impression to see old friends again after a long separation. But in the triad world of "Election 2", this friends are rather bad and dangerous, and the two years that separate this second opus from the first haven't really improve, nor their friendship, nor the situation. If the first "Election" already was a death fight in order to elect the boss of a important HK triad, this one, setting two years after, is more a complete blood bath, where the most barbarian acts are tolerated. The old triad traditions, that manage to contain the savagery of the characters in the first movie, don't belong to the modern world anymore, for the opening of the Chinese market to the Triads in 1997 completely changes its face.

The characters who manage to survive to the first movie are now about to face a new election, which opposes this time Lok, who wants to be reelected and the young Jimmy, who's quite reluctant to become the new boos, but has to win the election, in order to become a traditional business man in two years. In this second movie, the characters have much more elaborated than in the first one, for they're acting in a tragedy play, with much more powerful actors than them.

Lok isn't the calm and self-control man he once was, he's now obsessed with power and greed. And Jimmy is the classical tragic Corleone character of a gangster movie, who wants to go straight, but only goes deeper and deeper in the evil world of the Triad.

As well as the characters, the political aspect of the movie is also well develops. If the first film mostly deals with ancestral Trial rituals, the second one brings a contemporary point of view on this, and lights the links between HK Triads and Chinese government, which really control them since 1997.

This movie is also more violent than the first, guns appear (whereas they were inexistent in "Election 1"), and a magisterially gore torture scene (with dog and human food...) greatly increase the emotional impact of the movie and underlines the abominations man is able to do in order to archive his need of power.

All this elements makes "Election 2" a entertaining and interesting movie, and elects Jhonny To as one of the most interesting filmmaker of Hong-Kong. But his very classical direction (the movie always looks like a classical 90's HK polar), and storyline (the story of Jimmy is very similar to the Michael Corleone one, with some Melvillle elements, and a soundtrack very similar to the one you can find in Corean Thrillers) makes him a lot less original, than directors like Wong Kar-Wai or Hark Tsui, who is always the godfather of HK cinema.