The exposition is perfectly balanced with bloody action and muscular set-pieces.
Comment
10/26/07
Triad Election (2007)
96 %
Reviews Counted: 45 Fresh: 43 Rotten:2 Average Rating: 7.4/10
Consensus:
Taking its cues from the Godfather series, Triad Election understands how a giddy mix of thrills and gunplay can make for compelling cinema.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Synopsis: Wo Sing is Hong Kong’s oldest Triad Society. Under the leadership of its current Chairman Lok, it has grown to become the most feared crime organization in the city. Jimmy (Louis Koo), a twenty-first-century gangster with an M.B.A., wants to go clean by building a legitimate business empire.... [More]
Genre: Action/Adventure
Starring: Louis Koo, Simon Yam, Suet Lam, Andy On, Mark Cheng
Director: Johnnie To
Screenwriter: Nai-Hoi Yau, Tin-shing Yip
Producer: Johnny To, Dennis Law
Composer: Robert Ellis-Geiger
Screenwriter: Nai-Hoi Yau, Tin-shing Yip
Producer: Johnny To, Dennis Law
Composer: Robert Ellis-Geiger
Reviews
Top Critic Top Critic
Drips with a thick, Stygian darkness, but also offers violence that's too explicit and willfully perverse to be thoughtfully disturbing. . . . a little too overwrought, too operatic after its regal predecessor.
11/19/07
The film's violence erupts in rare, staccato bursts, all the more horrifying for coming out of nowhere.
08/24/07
If it is too stylistically modest to win converts among the multiplex crowd, the film surely rewards followers of the genre.
08/11/07
tackles big ideas like the preservation of tradition and the overall reach of destiny, but also slyly suggests that the Triad of the 21st Century has evolved into something like a giant corporation.
07/14/07
If Machiavelli's The Prince and Sun Tzu's The Art of War translate to other centuries and cultures, so might Election and Triad Election.
07/13/07
Top Critic
[Director To's] talent for documentary-style realism and navigating complex political systems sets him apart, though his nationalism puts him squarely in the mainstream.
07/12/07
This remains a well-crafted genre movie, and one that promises further developments in its final scene.
07/06/07
Dense, demanding concentration, lacking any romantic (but plenty of sordid) violence, extremely involving and rewarding of careful attention.
06/21/07
Like the late John Frankenheimer, director To marries his drama with action and superb composition to achieve compelling results at times.
06/18/07
If you're willing to do the work, Triad Election pays you in tragedy.
06/15/07
... exhibit A in the case for the Hong Kong gangster film as the new genre standard.
06/14/07
Shameless pulp it may be, but to watch it is to see a master craftsman continuing to refine his talent.
06/13/07
Into a season of Hollywood blockbusters, this import arrives with the impact of a high-velocity bullet.
06/08/07
Like any good sequel, this film takes what is familiar with the original's concept -- in this case, an internecine struggle for supremacy -- and deepens it.
06/08/07
Top Critic
Triad Election is slow-burning and sedate, even dull in stretches. But it deserves credit for presenting such a courageous critique of the Chinese system, which combines the worst aspects of official corruption and mob lawlessness.
05/31/07
Johnny To's superb, graceful new Triad Election actually has quite a bit in common with Francis Coppola's Godfather trilogy.
05/24/07
Related Forums
(NYFF)-Johnnie To's TRIAD ELECTION to screen @ the 44th New York Film Festival!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
(NYFF)-Johnnie To's TRIAD ELECTION to screen @ the 44th New York Film Festival!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
(NYFF)-Johnnie To's TRIAD ELECTION to screen @ the 44th New York Film Festival!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
(NYFF)-Johnnie To's TRIAD ELECTION to screen @ the 44th New York Film Festival!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 12/26/07
Pictures
News
RT on DVD: It's Death Proof Time!
posted by Jen Yamato September 18, 2007
If you've been itching for a good rental, you're in luck -- even the gambles this week are near Fresh on the Tomatometer!...
posted by Jen Yamato September 18, 2007
If you've been itching for a good rental, you're in luck -- even the gambles this week are near Fresh on the Tomatometer!...
Critical Consensus: This Film Is "Condemned"; "Next" Vexes; Guess "Invisible," "Kickin' It" Tomatometers!
posted by Tim Ryan April 26, 2007
This week at the movies, we've got clairvoyants ("Next," with Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore), cons...
posted by Tim Ryan April 26, 2007
This week at the movies, we've got clairvoyants ("Next," with Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore), cons...
Around the Network
• Triad Election at Rotten Tomatoes
IGN RSS Feeds