Exiled: Hong Kong's Reservoir Dogs
Featuring Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung, Suet Lam, Simon Yam
Exiled otherwise known as ‘Fong Juk’, its Hong Kong title, is Johnny To’s follow-up to the internationally successful film The Mission. Working with the same star-studded cast, Johnny To creates a showpiece set in Macau, with heavy Western influences in setting, style and plot.
Situation Driven Film
Unlike most Hong Kong gangster movies, ‘Exiled’ is neither character-driven nor plot-driven. It does not hang on the goals of a protagonist, nor does it go into sentimental detail about death and violence. In this sense, ‘Exiled’ is very Tarantino-like. It is situation-driven with less focus on storyline or character development.
‘Exiled’ is about four hitmen with two separate goals – two of them are after Wo’s life (Wo is played by Nick Cheung, who puts in a good subtle performance), the other two try to protect him. Along the way, they help him out because he has a wife and newborn baby (wife is played by Josie Ho, another ‘foreign’ looking role for her, where she teeters on the edge between sanity and losing it all). The storyline twists and turns nicely, weaving intense shootouts with aimless driving. Several times in the movie the characters ask “Where are we going?”
Stylised Setting Portuguese Style
As Macau was administered by Portugal for 442 years, up till 1999, when it was handed over to China, it is a great setting for such an unsettling story. Johnny To has chosen spare settings to show off Portuguese architecture and even has a scene where the hitmen busy themselves putting furniture together in Wo’s house. The spacious square rooms and high ceilings, such as in the hotel scene, with little or no furniture makes it easier to watch the shootouts as they are the highlight of this film.
Shootout Scenes
‘Exiled’ is a shootout film. There are at least five highly orchestrated shootout scenes and this would be Johnny To’s trademark style. (Check out ‘Fulltime Killer’, directed by Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai, click here). The first shootout scene is brilliant, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Nick Cheung empty their guns to the same number of bullets. The audience is unsure who each one wants to kill, and the suspense hangs in the air like a sharpened blade.
The other shootout scenes are equally fantastic, each one in a different locale, but always in spacious settings. One of them takes place in a restaurant where each hitman sits at his own table, yet they surround Boss Keung (played by Ka Tung Lam) and Boss Fay (Simon Yam). Directorial style and set design work brilliantly here to bring out the hitmen’s different goals.
Exiled as a Sentiment
Like its title, ‘Exiled’ moves from location to location to bring out the beauty of Macau, yet it conveys a strong sentiment of bleakness and loss. Instead of the crowded noisy settings most Hong Kong films feature when in Macau, especially the casinos, ‘Exiled’ chooses a ex-gangster’s home, an ‘underground’ clinic and a run-down hotel. When the hitmen hit the road, they are aimless and hopeless, yet the film takes another brilliant turn, so that they discover something even better on this journey. The long roads, high heat and the Buddhist Temple round the hill that appears like a mirage give this film a very Tarantino quality, an on-the-road gangster film like ‘Kill Bill’ or ‘Reservoir Dogs’.
Friendship Between the Hitmen
As with Tarantino movies, dialogue is key. ‘Exiled’ may not have such delightfully wicked dialogue, but director Johnny To plays on the delicate tensions and the hitmen’s sense of compassion to create a camaraderie, a kind of brotherhood amongst these men that is strangely heartwarming. Wo’s wife, Jin, returns later in the film with a pointed gun at Anthony Wong’s character Blaze, and it seems that this wonderful brotherhood will be dissolved by a woman. Luckily the ending is more sympathetic. But it is touching to watch.
‘Exiled’ is an interesting offering from Johnny To and his crew, as it draws heavily from Western filmmaking such as Quentin Tarantino and Western-genre films like ‘Desperado’ especially with its focus on shootout scenes. However, Johnny To has re-created this gangster/road movie genre by focusing on brilliant shoot choreography and making the hitmen more accessible to audiences, by featuring their empathy towards Wo and their strong camaraderie towards each other.
Another Johnny To movie is ‘Fulltime Killer’. Click here to read the review.
