Exiled (2006)
"Fong juk" (original title)

A friendship is formed between an ex-gangster, and two groups of hitmen - those who want to protect him and those who were sent to kill him.

Director:

Johnnie To

Writers:

Kam-Yuen Szeto, Tin-Shing Yip

Stars:

Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Francis Ng, Simon Yam

6 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	Blaze (as Anthony Wong)
Francis Ng	...	Tai
Simon Yam	...	Boss Fay
Nick Cheung	...	Wo
Richie Ren	...	Sergeant Chen (as Richie Jen)
Roy Cheung	...	Cat
Josie Ho	...	Jin
Suet Lam	...	Fat (as Lam Suet)
Ka Tung Lam	...	Boss Keung (as Lam Ka Tung)
Siu-Fai Cheung	...	Jeff (as Cheung Siu Fai)
Ellen Chan	...	Hooker
Bing-Man Tam	...	Uncle Fortune (as Tam Ping Man)
Shiu Hung Hui	...	Sergeant Shan (as Hui Siu Hung)
Ronald Yan	...	Underground Doctor
Wah Wo Wong	...	Sergeant Shan's driver (as Wong Wah Wo)

Storyline

The time is 1998. The setting is Macau. Every living soul jumps at every chance to make quick money before the Portuguese colony ushers in a new era under the Chinese rule. For the jaded hit men, they wonder where this journey will end. Against this backdrop come two hit men from Hong Kong sent to take out a renegade member trying to turn over a new leaf with his wife and newborn baby. They soon find themselves in the throes of a dilemma when two of their former associates also show up, intent on thwarting them at every cost.

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Plot Keywords:

baby | macau | friendship | triads | gold bar | 

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Taglines:

Brotherhood, honor, loyalty, assassination - which one is the strongest?

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and some sexual content

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

19 October 2006 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Exiled

Filming Locations:

Macau, China

Box Office

Budget:

HKD 35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$20,351 (USA) (31 August 2007)

Gross:

$49,413 (USA) (14 September 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Media Asia Films, Milky Way Image Company, Newlink Development

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the film, actress Josie Ho did not work with a script. Director Johnnie To wanted the actors to come to the set with their minds clean, so he could draw whatever he could on them. Ho did not find this method of improvisational acting difficult.

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Goofs

As Josie Ho's character is praying the rosary, she repeats the Our Father on the small beads when it should be the Hail Marys.

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Connections

Remade as Bachelor Party (2012)

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Soundtracks

"CAMILLE"
Co-composed, Arranged, Orchestrated and Recorded by Guy Zerafa and Dave Klotz
From the recording entitled 'Azul'
Performed and Composed by Diego Marulanda
2000
Unpublished

User Reviews

Lo Mein Western

Mainstream Asian cinema owes as much to Hollywood as mainstream cinema anywhere in the world. Hollywood perfected cinematic storytelling in the 30's and 40's and its influence is still present in practically everything we watch. The transition from Hong Kong to Hollywood has elevated (or destroyed, depending who you ask) the careers of many directors and actors: Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, John Woo and Tsui Hark to name a few. To his credit, one director has avoided the calling of the West and remained in Hong Kong not only to buoy HK cinema, but also to redefine himself as perhaps the most interesting of all mainstream Asian filmmakers.

Johnny To may be the only HK filmmaker who possibly owes as much to Jean-Luc Godard as he does to Hollywood. As such, the similarities between To's films and Tarantino's are impossible to disregard and, like Tarantino, To elevates the tired clichés and conventions of genre pics (the same traits John Woo is (sac)religiously married to) into revisionist works of art. But To's influences don't begin and end with Godard and Exiled hammers this home since it is crammed full of references to Leone's famous Spaghetti Westerns and also to the classic John Ford Westerns that made John Wayne a household name. Make no mistake about it, Exiled is a Western and even though it masquerades as a HK triad shoot em' up, every single detail on the screen is cherry picked from Westerns.Exiled is a good example of how a film can, at first, smack of familiarity before taking off on a fresh, uncharted flight of fiction. Despite a few clunky sequences and some thin writing, Exiled will not only be hailed by To fans as one of his best films, it will also find converts thanks to its Triad trimmings (and those in search of a post-modern Western).

In Exiled, the premise of a typical gangland hit evolves into a blossoming character study of five friends whose pasts unfold in increments alongside the growing chaos of present circumstances. While gun play cracks throughout, To's style is nothing like Woo's, where, instead of making the action the proud centerpiece, To uses it sparingly as an infrequent catalyst to propel our protagonists story arc from one escalating situation to the next. That's not to say the action isn't palpable, but the action is merely a flash of style that's deliberately trumped by the predominant substance throughout. Exiled makes a strong case that if John Woo were to permanently abandon the West for his homeland, he'd have some catching up to do with the current king of Kong.

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