On the eve of the Chinese government's taking over the reins of the former Portuguese colony of Macau, the island’s residents are going through a tumultuous time. Those who are rich and powerful are leaving Macau at the first occasion that arises; while those who are staying back are suspicious and antagonistic towards people from Hong Kong, who are labeled as ‘outsiders’. And with the onset of the new regime imminent, the triad (the myriad Chinese criminal organisations) takes this opportunity to settle some old scores once and for all.
It is to extract revenge that in the Hong Kong-based director Johnnie To’s Exiled (2006), mob boss Fay (Simon Yam of 2008’s Ip Man and 2010’s Ip Man 2 fame) sends two of his henchmen, Blaze (played by Anthony Wong, who shot to fame with the Infernal Affairs trilogy, on which Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winner The Departed was based) and Fat (Suet Lam) to take out a renegade gangster Wo (portrayed by Nick Cheung, who also acted in To’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful 2005 film Election and its sequel Triad Election that was released a year later).
The reason behind Boss Fay’s wrath was a foiled assassination attempt on him that was masterminded by Wo three years ago. Since then, Wo has been on the run, and has only recently returned after turning over a new leaf—forsaking the path of violence and opting for the family way instead. The news of Wo’s return has also reached Tai (Francis Ng, from Infernal Affairs II), who also arrives at his former gang mate’s doorstep alongside Cat (Roy Cheung). Since the botched assassination attempt on Boss Fay was as much Wo’s idea as it was Tai’s—but Wo ‘took the rap’ for it—Tai now considers it his duty to protect Wo, his wife Jin (Josie Ho) and their one-month old son. Very subtly, To tells the viewer that the two groups are at loggerheads with each other—Tai knocks with his left hand, while Blaze uses his right.
This opening sequence of Exiled, when the two duo—Blaze and Fat, and Tai and Cat—knock on Wo’s door asking for him, bears an uncanny resemblance to the bravura opening sequence of Sergio Leone’s magnum opus Once upon a time in the West (1968). There, too, a gang (of three) lay in wait at a decrepit railway station for someone they were sent to kill. However, the stylised, choreographed, and visually sumptuous Mexican stand off that follows, once Wo returns to his apartment in a van carrying furniture, is pure ‘noodle’ rather than ‘spaghetti’.
A former gang member mending his ways is hardly a novel concept in mob-based crime dramas. Nor is fate’s intervention preventing him from doing just that. However, by ushering in a divide among the same gang on the question of eliminating an exiled member, To gives a new spin to an old yarn. After all, not many films can boast of scenes where after a shootout, those who pulled the trigger are seen replacing shattered mirrors, mending broken doors, and helping their ‘target’ in moving furniture, before settling down to have dinner together. It is then, with the help of a faded out photograph we get to know that Wo, Tai, Fat, Blaze, and Cat had not only been in Boss Fay’s gang together, but had also grown up together. As events unfold, Wo’s future becomes inextricably linked with whether or not the five friends succeed in pulling off a heist involving an armoured car carrying a ton of gold.
Knowing fully well that friends who have spent a major portion of their lives together say as much with their silence as with their speech, To does not make the characters speak about themselves, nor does he delve into a back story for any of the five characters. Instead, living up to his reputation of being a director who sifts through genres in his movies in a ‘chameleonic’ manner, To laces Exiled with a generous dose of darkly comic sequences. So, we have street-smart gangsters arguing among themselves regarding how many kilos make a ton; haggling with a surgeon in an underground clinic over the fees for an operation when one of the gang members gets shot; four fully-grown gangsters turning tail in an instant when a woman points a gun at them; giving up the idea of ganging up on a gold-carrying vehicle simply because a flipped coin landed on the wrong side; Boss Fay and the five ‘traitors’ arriving at the same location for medical treatment; spitting up a bullet that got lodged inside a vessel, while drinking from it; asking for driving directions from compatriots who are equally clueless; a guard getting help from unexpected quarters during a raid on his vehicle—the instances are many.
Hong Kong’s official submission in the Best Foreign Language Film Category at the 80th Annual Academy Awards, Exiled as a Johnnie To vehicle might not be as satisfying as some of his earlier films like Running out of Time (1999), PTU (2003) and the aforementioned Election and Triad Election; or the offerings that he followed up with such as Mad Detective (2007) and Vengeance (2009), but it still is a spectacularly shot film with a rich palette and a memorable score. Even though the film will, possibly, never make it to the top five list drawn up by any To aficionado, but the very fact that a trick with a soft-drink can in the introductory sequence of the Ajith starrer Billa (2007) was ‘inspired’ by the last sequence of Exiled, just goes to show that certain aspects of even not-so-good films by this prolific director are good enough for members of his ilk residing in another part of the globe.
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