If you're looking for an action flick that's a little different from the usual shaky cam and incoherent running and shooting, Exiled may be the answer. It belongs on any movie downloads queue for the way that it manages to create a strange, dreamlike trance in its action through slow motion and unpredictable developments.
Years after a top ranked lieutenant in the Triad betrays his boss, the boss, played by Simon Yam, sends a pair of hitmen to take him out. Meanwhile, two members of the gang come to protect the man. These characters were all friends in the gang, and it's out of duty that the two hitmen come to kill their old partner. They come to a compromise and decide to pull off a big score to support the man's wife and child before settling their conflict.
There's a warmth and sweetness to what happens. Where most gangster movies are defined by that cold, impersonal "Just Business" approach to violence, here, none of the characters really want to shoot at each other, they've been friends since they were young, and they seem upset that it's come to this.
The movie was directed by Johnnie To, the Hong Kong legend, who came out with his first films around the same time as John Woo and Ringo Lam were defining the Heroic Bloodshed genre of HK action flicks. Where those earlier films were defined by the anger at the Chinese takeover of the city, this one has a sense of forgiveness, compassion and understanding, having been made after the takeover.
The film really feels like a dream, with slow motion shootouts taking several minutes while only carrying about thirty seconds of action were they to be shot in real time. One incredible sequence has a character throwing an empty drink can into the air, and the shootout takes place over several minutes as the can falls to the floor in slow motion just seconds after the final bullet is fired.
The story is fairly confusing. You have to simply watch it for the emotional drive of the characters, because the plot line is all over the place, however, this actually helps the movie's dream like quality. Even the director has said that he didn't know exactly what was going on while directing the film, and was hoping that he would figure it out in editing. When that didn't work out, he decided that, maybe someday, it'll make sense.
The Heroic Bloodshed genre was defined as being an angry, violent group of films, largely as a reaction to the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong. The heroes would take on hundreds of enemies at a time in a symbol of the Hong Kong independent spirit against that of communist China. So it's interesting to see To taking the genre in a new direction. This film is defined by its themes of compassion and forgiveness, and there's an odd gentleness to even the most gruesome violence in the film.
Where the classic Heroic Bloodshed films were about anger and revenge, this one is about forgiveness and compassion, and is certainly a unique, one of a kind action film, both exciting and trance like at once.
Years after a top ranked lieutenant in the Triad betrays his boss, the boss, played by Simon Yam, sends a pair of hitmen to take him out. Meanwhile, two members of the gang come to protect the man. These characters were all friends in the gang, and it's out of duty that the two hitmen come to kill their old partner. They come to a compromise and decide to pull off a big score to support the man's wife and child before settling their conflict.
There's a warmth and sweetness to what happens. Where most gangster movies are defined by that cold, impersonal "Just Business" approach to violence, here, none of the characters really want to shoot at each other, they've been friends since they were young, and they seem upset that it's come to this.
The movie was directed by Johnnie To, the Hong Kong legend, who came out with his first films around the same time as John Woo and Ringo Lam were defining the Heroic Bloodshed genre of HK action flicks. Where those earlier films were defined by the anger at the Chinese takeover of the city, this one has a sense of forgiveness, compassion and understanding, having been made after the takeover.
The film really feels like a dream, with slow motion shootouts taking several minutes while only carrying about thirty seconds of action were they to be shot in real time. One incredible sequence has a character throwing an empty drink can into the air, and the shootout takes place over several minutes as the can falls to the floor in slow motion just seconds after the final bullet is fired.
The story is fairly confusing. You have to simply watch it for the emotional drive of the characters, because the plot line is all over the place, however, this actually helps the movie's dream like quality. Even the director has said that he didn't know exactly what was going on while directing the film, and was hoping that he would figure it out in editing. When that didn't work out, he decided that, maybe someday, it'll make sense.
The Heroic Bloodshed genre was defined as being an angry, violent group of films, largely as a reaction to the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong. The heroes would take on hundreds of enemies at a time in a symbol of the Hong Kong independent spirit against that of communist China. So it's interesting to see To taking the genre in a new direction. This film is defined by its themes of compassion and forgiveness, and there's an odd gentleness to even the most gruesome violence in the film.
Where the classic Heroic Bloodshed films were about anger and revenge, this one is about forgiveness and compassion, and is certainly a unique, one of a kind action film, both exciting and trance like at once.
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