Election / Hak se wui

Written on 11/30/2008 04:37:00 am by apit

Election
Election concerns itself with the power struggle of a Triad election. A highly organised and ritualistic initiation ceremony bookends the film, a cheerfully ironic repetition of ancient and ultimately crime-blackened wisdom, clothed in virtue like a naked Emperor.

As the film opens, the uncles discuss the candidates over tea, while the camera glides through their dimly lit home, complete with wives playing mah-jong (this film needs women as much as Das Boot) and children ushered from the room. Like The Godfather, crime can be civilised when we are separated from the victims. The candidates are Lok (Simon Yam), a highly respected and competent leader, and Big D (wallpaper-chewing Tony Leung Ka Fai), a brash, flamboyant and impulsive young gang lord