May 27th, 2010 by cm1
Rival gang leaders are locked in a struggle to become the new chairman of Hong Kong’s Triad society.
It might be a little erroneous to open a review by describing a film in terms of other films, but I think it’s the best way to give an approximation of the place Election occupies in the gangster genre arena. It works somewhere in between The Godfather and Kinji Fukasaku’s yakuza opus The Yakuza Papers (AKA Battles Without Honour and Humanity), in that it is simultaneously both romanticized and realistic, dark and gritty. But it’s also a Johnnie To film, and as such it carries the distinct touch of the Hong Kong auteur.
Every two years the HK Triad elects a new boss. Only this time one of the candidates is not overly happy with the result so he decides to take matters into his own hands much to the dismay of the rest of the Triads and the police. That’s the story in a nutshell but rest assured it has a lot more going for it than that. As in The Yakuza Papers, there’s a great deal of scheming, back-stabbing and forming and switching of allegiances (sometimes all it takes is a phone call – in one of the most memorable scenes I’ve seen in recent time) which might not necessarily make for deep drama but makes for an interesting plot and good character conflict. Fans of the gangster genre are likely to appreciate it in that aspect. Election is not as action-oriented as one might expect; although it IS violent. And I’m not talking about the glossy, glamour version of Hollywood violence. This is dark and grim. To’s camera lingers in the scenes of people being brutalized in ways that reveal both the humanity and inhumanity of the perpetrators and victims; after all violence IS an integral part of us whether we like it or not.
password: raktivist
Download Election 2005 part 1:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22031451/demo-3L3cti0N.r00
Download Election 2005 part 2:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22031962/demo-3L3cti0N.r01
Download Election 2005 part 3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22032469/demo-3L3cti0N.r02
Download Election 2005 part 4:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22032937/demo-3L3cti0N.r03
Download Election 2005 part 5:
http://rapidshare.com/files/21951273/demo-3L3cti0N.r04
Download Election 2005 part 6:
http://rapidshare.com/files/21953370/demo-3L3cti0N.r05
Download Election 2005 part 7:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22030484/demo-3L3cti0N.r06
Download Election 2005 part 8:
http://rapidshare.com/files/22030991/demo-3L3cti0N.rar
