REWATCHED: ELECTION
Without much thought into the specific reasons "why", 2005's "ELECTION" had been one of my constant rewatches through the years, first owned and watched on VCD a few times, then yesterday another glorious rewatch, even thought I'd remembered what had happened before, but was still enthralled from beginning to end!
Perhaps it is my fascination with the cinematic Hong Kong Triads (thanks to the days of "Young & Dangerous"), and the pseudo-bromantic allusions of brotherhood - which is particularly heightened in this feature, with a distinctive "historical" look ("Fact" or "fiction", I know not) and re-enactment here too ... Or perhaps it is the exceptional acting, or even the somewhat cliched characters assembled in this film, directed by Johnnie To.
The actor's list is a dream: Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Louis Koo, and Nick Cheung, and a level of machoism - both silent and loud - that proved highly entertaining for me.
The premise was straight-forward: A new triad boss had been elected, with Simon Yam's "Lok" edging out the brash "Big D", played with relish by Tony Leung, who begins a campaign to usurp the position. The completion of the election is predicated on receiving a symbolic "Baton", and both character set out to procure said-wooden carved piece.
Circumstances change, alliances change, allegiance morph, and blood is spilt. The life of Hong Kong triads teeter between "tradition" and "business", and this no-nonsense look at the older members was/is an interesting POV, versus the "brash upstarts trying to move their way up the ladder" (talking about you, "Y&D" lol) or the cops-and-undercover-triads variety of yesteryears.
The visual aspect of this film is subtly exceptional too, cinematic while being unassuming, with a lot more shadows used to layer what we see, without it being overtly "theatricalized", IMHO.
This has been one of the more measured genre films of memory, without much hyperbole save the glorification of triad-values, countered by the attempts of the Hong Kong Police, and even the law enforcement of the People's Republic of China - whom will play a larger role in the sequel ...
The film spawned a sequel "ELECTION 2" (黑社會以和為貴), which I too have watched a rule of times already, and perhaps hope to do so again this Friday / tonight.
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