Election 2

A sequel set two years later. The election is close. Lok's term is ending and tradition forbids him standing again. Jimmy is the richest man in the society. He has construction and investment interests, wants to move away from crime, and is chasing a large contract on the mainland. The official on the mainland sets one condition. Jimmy will be chairman; otherwise there is no business. From there the film is a story about compulsion. The man who wants out has to stay, and he does not choose it. Lok will not let go. He tries to change the rule so that he can stand again and eliminates his rivals one by one. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but the state: the speech at the end says the society is seen not as a threat but as an instrument, and that inverts the whole idea of the previous film. The violence is more open here. One scene takes place around a machine for making dog food and the narrative avoids showing nothing. Jimmy's transformation is the real matter. The character opens as the most reasonable person and ends as the coldest. The last scene takes place in a car and finishes on one line. The production came a year after the first film and the two work together as a single narrative. Simon Yam, Louis Koo, Nick Cheung and Wong Tin-lam are in the cast. Johnnie To directed. Who it is for: anyone who has seen the first film and wants a darker continuation. Who it is not for: anyone sensitive to violence; this one is far more open than the last.