Election - Monkeys Under The Skin

Sep

17

Election - Monkeys Under The Skin

≡ Category: Category III, Drama, Hong Kong, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Drama/ Category III
Director: Johnny To
Year: 2005

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Is Election the best film of 2005, as Quentin Tarantino would have it? Not really, when you consider that Brokeback Mountain, Goodnight And Good Luck, and Sin City came out the same year. But there’s a lot to like about Election.

Let’s start with the lead performances. Simon Yam is Lok, an even-tempered gangster in the running for the Chairmanship of his triad organization. Tony Leung, as his opponent, Big D, displays the opposite temperament — hotheaded and with a tendency to use violence to solve any and all problems. Both Leung and Yam are terrific actors with charisma to burn. In the typical Johnnie To style, the emoting is tremendously nuanced, but with actors this powerful, that doesn’t mean dull.

After one of these men wins the election (I’m not saying who), the other tries to block the transfer of power by obtaining the Dragon Head Baton symbolic of the Chairman’s power. This struggle takes up the bulk of the picture.

Therein lies the main problem with Election. The transfer of the baton back and forth gets repetitive, not to mention confusing. Who’s betraying who? The constantly shifting alliances become a little hard to follow.

However, I enjoyed To’s direction, which is elegant and not the least bit showy. And I was extremely grateful for the lack of digital blood, which is almost never convincing.

To almost always films the violence from a middle distance. He wants us to observe it in an almost anthropological way, rather than getting caught up in the bloodlust of it all, the way directors in the Golden Age of Hong Kong (1985-1995) did.

Despite the overlong and unnecessarily confusing 2nd act, Election is generally entertaining and thought provoking. Despite the pretensions of tradition and legalisms that characterize the election of the title, the main forces at work are atavistic, like the monkeys in the forest during the climax. I think To is probably implying that if this is the case in the triads, it’s probably also true in broader society.

He’s probably right.

Note: the Category III isn’t really justified, except possibly for a brutal beating that takes place in the third act, but then again, plenty of Category IIb flicks have violence that’s even more brutal. Aside from that, there’s no nudity or sexuality to speak of.