Movie Review: Exiled

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Exiled (2007)–**1/2 

Johnnie To owes a debt to Sam Peckinpah. To’s film Exiled, which premieres in New York City today, is a more stylish, less substantive update of the Peckinpah classic The Wild Bunch. On first read, that last line doesn’t sound like a solid indictment of the film’s flash-over-substance mentality. For genre fans, it probably never will. What this film needed, however, was Peckinpah’s consciousness, if only to go beyond being simply an above average Asian crime film.

But Exiled is above average. The film follows five friends whose lives have been pulled in different directions. Two of the friends, Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Fat (Lam Set), are hired by the Hong Kong crime lord Boss Fay (Simon Yam) to kill Wo (Nick Cheung). Two other friends, Tai (Francis Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung), are there to protect Wo.

Knowing that his life will soon be over, Wo decides to do one last job, be it a robbery or a hit, so that his wife and newborn child will have some money once Blaze does what he has to do. The gang of five go to get the orders, which turn out to be killing Macau’s crime boss Keung (Ka Tung Lam) for Boss Fay.

The gang doesn’t know who called the hit, so it’s a surprise when Boss Fay makes an unexpected appearance. And Boss Fay isn’t happy to discover that his own hit on Wo wasn’t carried out. After a severe gun battle, Boss Keung cedes power to Boss Fay in exchange for his life, while the new partners try to find and kill the men who have left them either powerless or wounded.

Exiled is set in Macau just prior to the former Portuguese colony’s return to China. As far as settings go, it fit Peckinpah’s Mexican westerns perfectly. What is missing is a sullenness of an era coming to an end. In all of the flash and elegance of the hyper-violent gun ballets, the setting is taken for granted.

Rather than establishing itself as a strong Chinese western, Exiled comes off as Tarantino-lite. Lucky for To, the film is still worth comparing to Tarantino. While there is much left to be desired in the story of Boss Fay’s Hong Kong invasion of Boss Keung’s Macau, the artistry in the gun fights, the intelligent, methodical choreography, helps Exiled shine.

I’m not inclined to like a straight Asian crime film, but genre fans are likely to enjoy the hell out of To’s film. I am, however, inclined to believe that in the hands of a stronger director, say a Martin Scorsese (The Departed, anyone?), Exiled could still result in a great American remake. Of course, that assumes you wouldn’t care to see The Wild Bunch — the great American original.