Overrated and overhyped

As Good As It Gets

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

On the surface the two Election movies are simple stories about the election of the Chairman of an organized crime syndicate in Hong Kong. The concerns of the lead characters are simple/primal - greed, power, money - all the expected elements and the predictable Hong Kong gangster cinema trademark - people sitting at a table drinking, eating and very casually suggesting that a lot of people are going to be dead by the time this flick gets over.Johnnie To's trick is to play with the dichotomy of the characters, to flush them out in such a way that you find yourself projected in them. You'll find Jimmy (the lead who's contesting the election) trying hard to read the names of Mandarin dishes in a restaurant much to the amusement of his wife and the waiter, and the current Chairman Lok's concern about the bad company his school going son keeps. Normal. Thenn the very same characters would do anything to get what they want. You will see Jimmy hacking a Lok loyalist limb by limb while Lok simply pushes Uncle Teng down the stairs and smiles. Threatening and foreboding permeates the movie mainly because ordinary people you can identify with are capable of extremities which even they weren't aware of.This is not a Tarantino flick - no one comes up with smart slang-ed retorts and refers to the Bible, you won't see blood and gore splattered on the screen and yet its more menacing, hideous and violent.

It's always nice to fallow the evolution of some characters through the years from films to films. You have the impression to see old friends again after a long separation. But in the triad world of "Election 2", this friends are rather bad and dangerous, and the two years that separate this second opus from the first haven't really improve, nor their friendship, nor the situation. If the first "Election" already was a death fight in order to elect the boss of a important HK triad, this one, setting two years after, is more a complete blood bath, where the most barbarian acts are tolerated. The old triad traditions, that manage to contain the savagery of the characters in the first movie, don't belong to the modern world anymore, for the opening of the Chinese market to the Triads in 1997 completely changes its face.The characters who manage to survive to the first movie are now about to face a new election, which opposes this time Lok, who wants to be reelected and the young Jimmy, who's quite reluctant to become the new boos, but has to win the election, in order to become a traditional business man in two years. In this second movie, the characters have much more elaborated than in the first one, for they're acting in a tragedy play, with much more powerful actors than them. Lok isn't the calm and self-control man he once was, he's now obsessed with power and greed. And Jimmy is the classical tragic Corleone character of a gangster movie, who wants to go straight, but only goes deeper and deeper in the evil world of the Triad.As well as the characters, the political aspect of the movie is also well develops. If the first film mostly deals with ancestral Trial rituals, the second one brings a contemporary point of view on this, and lights the links between HK Triads and Chinese government, which really control them since 1997. This movie is also more violent than the first, guns appear (whereas they were inexistent in "Election 1"), and a magisterially gore torture scene (with dog and human food...) greatly increase the emotional impact of the movie and underlines the abominations man is able to do in order to archive his need of power.All this elements makes "Election 2" a entertaining and interesting movie, and elects Jhonny To as one of the most interesting filmmaker of Hong-Kong. But his very classical direction (the movie always looks like a classical 90's HK polar), and storyline (the story of Jimmy is very similar to the Michael Corleone one, with some Melvillle elements, and a soundtrack very similar to the one you can find in Corean Thrillers) makes him a lot less original, than directors like Wong Kar-Wai or Hark Tsui, who is always the godfather of HK cinema.

It may seem odd for the selective New York Film Festival to include what in many ways is a fairly standard Hong Kong crime movie, working in the familiar genre of Triad gang stories. What is new here, perhaps, if it is really new, is that not only does the main character make his choices in order to create new relationships with the Chinese mainland, but he also dreams of becoming a pure businessman, and wants his son not to be a successful gang leader like him but an attorney. If we didn't see the original film of which this is the follow-up, we soon learn that the Wo Shing Society undergoes leadership changes every two years by a vote of its key members, and current leader Lok (Simon Yam) is about to finish his term. As the time comes though, Lok wants to hold onto his power, which leads to a personality change. He turns very nasty. But Jimmy turns even nastier.Lok has to select a potential candidate amongst his 5 godsons, and Jimmy (Louis Koo) already rich from pirated porn sales, seems the best qualified to bring in new business for the Society. However, his interest is only in making money, initially that is, until he's seduced by the fact that with power, the mainland Chinese will give him more respect, and with that, the potential for more business. In fact a key mainland player tells him he cannot come back to deal with them unless he is president of the society. It is only in the hopes of becoming more a businessman that Jimmy accepts the idea of a two-year term as Wo Shing leader. But he must fight for that, because of Lok's change of heart.The irony is that after Jimmy succeeds, he finds he has fallen into a trap.To what extent this has anything to do with actual events, or is a reference to the new relationships since 1997's changeover to mainland control of Hong Kong, is uncertain. But the kernel idea of the film according to To was a police commissioner's remark to him that the criminal class would be important to the stability of the new Hong Kong. To feels that the Triad system is dying, perhaps also as some Italians feel the Mafia's glory days are over. But as an old Arab proverb says, "Evil is ancient." And in keeping with this notion is director To's notion of the role played by destiny in life, which relates to Jimmy. Jimmy's destiny comes from his birth. His father was a criminal, and he is a criminal. His plan of eventually becoming merely a successful businessman is therefore doomed, because it is not his destiny, nor will it, most likely, be his son's.This film was entitled Triad Election as presented, but the international title Election II is more accurate, given that this is a sequel, with the same main characters, to Election. Apparently this newer film was issued in a "sanitized version" which dwelt more on the political machinations than on the usual violence. In the version shown at the NYFF the violence was restored, and it is some of the most horrific imaginable, including as it does men chained to mad dogs (was Abu Ghraib an inspiration?) and a man who is beaten to a pulp with mallets and then dismembered with knives, his severed limbs run through a meat grinder and fed to the dogs. There is a scene in the new Scorsese The Departed where Jack Nicholson smashes Leonardo DiCapro's already broken hand, and another when he appears with his shirt disheveled and covered with splattered blood. But that's nothing compared to these Hong Kong Triad tortures, which are shown in vivid detail. Unlike the showy acting in The Departed the characters in Triad Election tend to speak in quick monosyllables. Then of course, Chinese is a monosyllabic language. But there are no caressing poetic effusions, no love scenes, only politics, a few hugs, and the nihilistic isolation of ultra-cruelty. Even the gang lords' wealth is shown only by their riding in big dark expensive cars.The film begins boringly, as such films often do, with a meeting outdoors between syndicate members and officials. It is only as time goes on that the violence begins and we get the juice and momentum of a real crime movie. That also includes throwing an old man down many flights of stairs to kill him. All this is elegantly filmed; the often chiaroscuro wide-screen cinematography is impeccable, and Louis Ko as Jimmy is as handsome as the young Alain Delon. The acting is of uniformly high quality, as are the other aspects. But despite that the experience the film provides is rather routine. Godfather-esquire moments notwithstanding, there is here none of the powerful characterization, the moral content, and the fierce forward momentum of John Woo. What we have here is an homage to the peak performance of a genre artist – except that by reports Election, the first film, is superior. It's not likely that this film will make many new converts to the genre or the director.

Those who have not seen "Election" need not have any concern. The scene is very clearly set right at the beginning. When perennial election for the underworld super boss is around the corner again, each of the 5 "God sons" who helped Lok win the last one is at a across-road – to go for the top spot, to support another or to support him in a tradition-breaking bid for a second term. For those who have seen "Election", the connecting scene cannot be more conspicuous – the same riverside fishing setting and the same suggestion of "joint leadership". But there's a big different. Last time, the idea brought instant, abrupt death to the initiator. This time around, the initiator is well prepared, and looks almost as though he is going to do some killing himself, had not been for some passers-by right at the critical juncture. We never find out, but can only guess. And then, one can draw ready parallels with "The Godfather" trilogy, to a degree. Michael Corleone did not want to be a gangster, but was forced into it by circumstances. Jimmy Li did not want to be a gangster but joining the Triad was the only way he could survive as a paper boy. But here comes the big difference. Micheal Corleone wants to turn legitimate and has the power and means to do so because he is now at the very top. With Jimmy Li, it's a different story. Jimmy Li wants out and has proved his ability to be a successful businessman. Unfortunately, as he finds out, the duo goes hand and hand. If he wants to expand his business in the Mainland, where all the opportunities are, he has to control the underworld, not the way he wants, but as proxy for the people "up north", in other words, play the puppet - a blatant political message that no one before director Johnny To had the guts to deliver. Simple, chilling, brutal reality – that's what this movie is about. The story is told with an almost claustrophobic (both figuratively and literally, as you'll find out) feeling and what many consider to be excessive, gruesome violence. General consensus however is that it is capably directed, effectively shot and ably acted.