How Johnnie To redefined Hong Kong’s gangster genre with 3 mid-2000s classics
Exiled, Mad Detective and Sparrow show the director at his eclectic best, mixing violence, humour and chaos
Exiled (2006)
To’s 1990s crime films played out like neat French policiers. But Exiled is more Italian in style, with the classical cinematography and Grand Guignol (bloody and dramatic) scenes evoking Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.
Together with art director Tony Yu Hing-wah, To managed to give Exiled the opulent look of a “big picture” even though it was shot on a relatively small budget.
“To uses the minimalist plot as a springboard for some of the most beautifully choreographed gun battles in Hong Kong cinema,” noted Post critic Paul Fonoroff. “The muted palette and fluid camera movements of cinematographer Cheng Siu-keung are possibly the year’s most awe-inspiring.”
To manages to keep things unpredictable, adding enough surprises, diversions and plot reversals to set Exiled squarely in his eclectic oeuvre. The story is typical To, taking a triad plotline and bending it out of shape.
After a tense shoot-out in which no one is killed, the four band together to help him, even if Yam’s gangster boss refuses to let him off the hook.
The action scenes are shrouded in darkness and edited together at a mercurial pace. The flashes from guns are often the only way of knowing from where a shot was fired in the barely lit locations.
