Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

TRIAD ELECTION
Directed by: Johnnie To.
Produced by: Dennis Law & To.
Written by: Yau Nai-hoi & Yip Tin-shing.
Director of Photography by: Cheng Siu-keung.
Edited by: Law Wing-cheong & Jeff Cheung.
Music by: Robert Ellis-Geiger.
Released by: Tartan Films.
Language: Cantonese & Mandarin with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Hong Kong/China. 93 min. Not Rated.
With: Louis Koo, Simon Yam, Nick Cheung, Lam Ka-tung, Lam Suet & Wong Tim-lam.

Johnnie To has been touted for some years for his crime films like Fulltime Killer, PTU, and Triad Election’s un-official prequel Election. He doesn’t have the same pervasive directorial wam-bam effect that John Woo and his other counterparts, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (Infernal Affairs), have shown. Not that he lacks energy – the guy can direct an action scene with an assured hand at suspense – but his films may not be what one might expect right off the bat from a director of Hong Kong gangster pictures. If anything, there’s more here associated with the well-touted directors behind the most well-known American crime films of the past 30 or so years: Coppola, Scorsese, and De Palma. To’s newest film is less about cops and criminals or the operatic movements of hit men as in the films by those Hong Kong directors previously mentioned, but more one with a level of political depth concerning corruption.

Jimmy (Louis Koo) is a businessman, or trying to be, but has to contend with his Uncle Teng (Wong Tim-lam), a member of the Triad, the very powerful and influential Hong Kong crime family. Teng has selected Jimmy as the front-runner to become the chairman of the Triad, but the police may deport Jimmy unless he agrees to infiltrate the organization and feed them information. Jimmy's competition for the top job comes primarily from the reigning chairman, Lok (Simon Yam), who has turned the group into a notorious and degenerate enterprise. Lok, to be sure, will hold on to his position through whatever it takes, murder and/or intimidation. Meanwhile, as the campaign heats up, there are more “supporters” for Jimmy, who goes even further than Lok, locking up his potential opponents into cages with crazed dogs.

It’s fascinating, almost in a clinical sense, to see the line between what is legal or illegal in this world, and how Jimmy has to come to terms with what it means to give up what he wants, legitimacy, with his knack for being a natural leader. His character is contrasted with Lok, who somehow becomes sympathetic in the end through the tragedy of his juvenile delinquent son’s plight. In comparison to the gangsters who use physical and torturous methods, Lok’s not quite as ruthless.

To’s style, meanwhile, is more indebted to the aforementioned iconoclasts of modern crime cinema, with his 360-degree pans, sharply defined close-ups, stabs of dark comedy, and a general subversion of characters and story arcs from film noir. He generally doesn’t make it as extremely violent or bloody as one might expect; if this were around in the ‘70’s, it wouldn’t immediately garner grind house status. The dog cage scenes, most notably, make one recoil at the lower depths of the criminal underworld.

The plot is not always the easiest to follow, particularly as the competition heats up between Jimmy and Lok, street-fights break out, and supporting characters come to Jimmy pleading for their lives for one reason or another. But at the same time, it’s also one of the better films to come out of Hong Kong. To’s message is simple: To descend to the depths of a specific, societal hell, where order is absent, is to lose one’s sense of what’s right and wrong. Overall, Triad Election is sure to please and be a smart surprise for crime genre enthusiasts. Jack Gattanella
April 25, 2007