AKA: Fong Juk
Country and Year: Hong Kong (2006)
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Lam Suet, Nick Cheung, Simon Yam, Roy Cheung, Richie Jen, Josie Ho, Ellen Chan

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good)

Exiled is not a true sequel to Johnnie To’s 1999 fan favorite, The Mission, but it is a follow-up in spirit. To reunites the primary cast of the earlier film, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung and Lam Suet (though Jackie Lui has been replaced by current To fave, Nick Cheung), and sets them in action like dominos. However, The Mission, in which the men are hired to work as bodyguards for a criminal boss, was as much (if not more) about teamwork as it was about male bonding – one of the great pleasures of that film was watching the members of the group perform like a well-oiled machine. Exiled clearly sets its sights in the other direction. Every frame of the film drips with camaraderie and brotherhood, and To constantly returns us to a sepia photograph of the leads – loyalties run very deep indeed. The only female characters, Josie Ho and Ellen Chan, are total outsiders in this all-boys-club.

Exiled starts quietly as Blaze (Wong) and his sidekick Fat (Suet) shows up one morning at the Macau home of disgraced gang member Wo (Nick Cheung). Wo isn’t home, but his wife Jin (Ho) and infant son are, and she clearly knows things are not good. Blaze is joined in his wait by Tai (Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung). These men and Wo are all old friends, but Blaze has been sent by Boss Fay (Simon Yam) to kill Wo for a past attempt on Fay’s life. Not one man among them really wants to fight, but they find themselves in an impossible position. Eventually they come to the only solution, the proverbial “one last job.”

Exiled plays like a throwback to the “Heroic Bloodshed” movies of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s; films like John Woo’s The Killer and Hard Boiled, and the A Better Tomorrow series he created with Tsui Hark. Yet, it harkens back even more to the glory days of Chang Cheh at the Shaw Brothers studios, when Ti Lung and David Chiang would die smiling in films like The Anonymous Heroes, or Two Champions of Shaolin with its triumphant massacre. The difference is that To is not taking the material entirely seriously – it’s heroic bloodshed, but with a huge wink at the audience. Exiled constantly walks a fine line between self-parody and earnestness, but with some exceptions it walks it well.

While the sentiment is pure Hong Kong, Exiled stylistically is as much the child of Sergio Leone as it is of John Woo. The film opens with a classic Leone-an (Leonine?) showdown as Ng, Wong, Cheung and Suet gather in the quiet plaza, and wait. The tension is palpable – at this point the audience has no idea what is going on, but violence is in the air. To even lays his cards on the table with a direct quote of the famous scene in For a Few Dollars More where Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef test each other out by shooting up each other’s hats.

Of course, Macau is the perfect location for a modern Western – the island was, until recently, the closest thing Hong Kong had to the Old West, with its dodgy rule of law, gambling parlors, and triad-dominated politics. To gives us a Macau on the verge of the Chinese takeover, and makes the island a character unto itself. The archaic Mediterranean architecture of the Portuguese-held island only enhances the effect. One scene even finds the characters trudging through a dusty canyon pass on the way to an old-fashioned gold robbery.

The stylistic excess and occasional overly cheesy scene might overwhelm the balance of the film were the characters not so beautifully delineated, or if the actors didn’t have the charisma to fill their roles. Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth - the cast is truly the best reason to see Exiled. It’s a who’s who of Hong Kong talent. Anthony Wong is terrific as always, despite having to act against a horrible faux-hawk. Laconic Roy Cheung and portly Lam Suet steal the show as Ng and Wong’s respective sidekicks. Of course, Suet steals every show he’s in, with the exception of Election 2 where he spends most of the film trapped in a coffin (probably at the request of his co-stars). Simon Yam dominates the screen in his limited role - his Boss Fay is cheerful psychopath, a dandy and a killer. Yam continually proves himself one of the best and most versatile actors in Hong Kong – I still think that his cold-eyed insanity in Election was a more subtle and impressive performance than the flashier character played by Tony Leung Ka-fai.

The only weak points are Francis Ng and Nick Cheung. Ng scowls his way through the film - his character is meant to be the moral center, but comes off as vaguely annoying (and I do wish the production had included a competent hair stylist for Wong and Ng). Nick Cheung does the best he can with his somewhat underwritten role, but never feels like more than a plot device. He does better than in Breaking News, but is not at the level of his ferocious turn as Jet in Election and Election 2.

The supporting cast also comes through with stand-out performances. Ellen Chan, an old favorite of mine from Eternal Evil of Asia, continues the comeback she started in the amusing Men Suddenly in Black. As an amoral hooker only interested in survival, she brings a welcome element of blasé sex appeal to the manly goings-on. Richie Jen is also good as a no-nonsense police sniper. Oddly though, with all these heavy hitters, one of my favorite parts was the minor role of Jeff, a fixer who runs the local brothel and traffics in women and information. As Jeff, Cheung Siu-fai is a genial, oleaginous presence, whispering in every ear and all but curling up in Francis Ng’s lap. It is worlds apart from his stuttering nebbish gangster Mr. So in the Election films, and shows an impressive range.

Equally importantly, fans of Hong Kong action cinema who were disappointed by the lack of action in Johnnie To’s Election films and PTU (among whose number I do not count myself) will be in ecstasy throughout Exiled. While PTU saved up the bulk of its violence for one cathartic burst, Exiled packs a whopping five shootouts into its 100 minute length. While I found a confrontation in a restaurant to be a little confusing, lacking the laser line cause-and-effect dynamic of the extreme slow-motion finale of PTU, To outdoes himself with a running gun battle that moves from a cavernous apartment into an outdoor stairwell. The action in Exiled is a wonderful blend of The Mission and The Wild Bunch, and should satisfy anyone’s jones for gunplay.

Recommended? For me, Exiled does not quite stack up to To’s greatest works like the first Election, The Mission, PTU and Running on Karma. Still, it’s terrific fun and much better than the disappointing Breaking News. To is firing on all four cylinders here, and it’s simply a pleasure to watch a master put this superb cast through its paces.

If you like this, you might like: The Mission, PTU, For a Few Dollars More, The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, The Wild Bunch, Time and Tide, The Anonymous Heroes

© David Austin