Election

A film about an election inside a criminal society in Hong Kong. The society has worked by the same rule for a hundred years. A chairman is chosen every two years and the elders' committee makes the choice. There are two candidates. Lok is calm, measured and works by the rules; Big D shouts, hands out money and has no patience. The committee chooses Lok. Big D will not accept it. He gathers a crowd and declares his own chairmanship, and things come apart. From there the film runs after an object. Whoever holds the society's baton is the chairman, and the baton is hidden on the mainland. Both sides send men. The chase crosses the border, goes into a forest, and turns around a wooden box. What the narrative is interested in is not violence but the institution: the film describes the society not as a gang but as a structure with its own constitution, traditions and order of business. The violence is rare and sudden. Nothing happens for a long time and then a scene turns hard at once, and the film never stretches it. Carrying the box through the forest is the strangest section; two men haul a case uphill and the scene is almost comic. The last scene takes place beside a lake and the film changes its tone there in a moment. Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung are in the cast. Johnnie To directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes calm crime films built on structure. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the narrative is almost entirely talk and the last scene is unexpectedly hard.