Election 黑社會

[skylee]

I saw this film, directed by Johnnie To (杜琪峯), today. I was really impressed by the scene when the elders gather and have tea. And the ending is sudden, cruel and unexpectedly chilling.

It is as stylish as the other films directed by To. But I still prefer PTU and Breaking News.

It has got 11 golden horse nominations (Taiwan). Looks like its edited version is/will be released on the Mainland as "龍城歲月".

The story (from the Cannes Film Festival website) ->

The time has come, as it does every two years, for the senior members of Hong Kong's oldest Triad, The Wo Shing Society, to elect a new chairman. Fierce rivalries emerge between the two eligible candidates. Lok, respected by the Uncles is the favourite to win. But his rival Big D will stop at nothing to change this, including going against hundreds of years of Triad tradition and influencing the vote with money and violence.

When Wo Shing's ancient symbol of leadership, the Dragon's Head Baton, goes missing, a ruthless struggle for power erupts and the race to retrieve the Baton threatens to tear Wo Shing in two.

Can Wo Shing balance their traditional brotherhood ways with the cut-throat modern world of 21st century business?

繼「無間道」後　「黑社會」再度將黑道內部鬥爭搬上螢幕

Trailer -> http://movie.grouppower.com.tw/media/election.wmv

Website -> http://movie.grouppower.com.tw/election/

[geraldc]

When I saw it, I realised I've seen far too many gangster movies. There were scenes that reminded me of Godfather, Goodfellas and Casino. Good movie nonetheless.

[Ian_Lee]

Just curious why Mainland would allow a film which topic is about Triad and Election as well as election in a Triad.

I always think that these two topics are taboo.

[skylee]

Not sure about why. But the ending of the mainland version is different -> bad guy gets caught.

[Ian_Lee]

I just watched the DVD over the weekend. My feeling about this movie is "So...So".

Johnnie To is a good story teller. But that is it. This film is hardly more outstanding than his previous films.

My comment is HK should decrease making Triad movies because this genre usually faces obstacle in Mainland market.

[Outofin]

My comment is HK should decrease making Triad movies because this genre usually faces obstacle in Mainland market.

But I'm so into it. And perhaps the genre is what HK is best at. Let officials edit the ending, I'm totaly fine with that.

[Ian_Lee]

The ending of the HK version is unconviincing. How would Tony Leung, who was aware that his life was always vulnerable, went with his wife to fish in reservoir w/o bodyguards?

[geraldc]

He thought they were friends, and it was a family day out. He'd already proved his loyalty by helping kill the opposing boss in the bar, and he probably thought he was safe, plus the other guy brought his child along too, not the sort of thing you're going to do if you're going to kill someone.

[skylee]

The sequel will premiere in the HK film festival next month.

[skylee]

The sequel has got some good review ->

《黑社會以和為貴》雄赳赳宣言：

不看大陸臉色　我要創作無忌

無論杜琪峰的《黑社會以和為貴》的票房如何，它已經為香港電影人打了一口強心針。

戲拍得出色，娛樂性豐富，主題中的政治含意，更觸動了香港人的敏感神經，影射我們如何和共產黨打交道。電影中，窮兇極惡的黑社會，也給共產黨玩弄於股掌間，只能俯首聽命，實在可圈可點，你要錢，他給錢；你要權，他給權；你要安定繁榮，就得繼續聽命。

烏氣吐了出來

對付黑社會，在上集，香港警察用的方法是講秩序講平衡，說法不同，目的一致；大陸對付黑社會，不是趕盡殺絕，而是手執你的龍頭，直接控制。

電影人看到這裡，感同身受，弦外之音，呼之欲出，這幾年受內地審批電影創作的烏氣，就在這一場結局，完全吐了出來。

古天樂不甘受控，向公安部的石廳長飽以老拳，難怪在電影節開幕首映時，觀眾席中大部份是行內人，都看得起立鼓掌。

這一拳，代表了香港電影工作者的壓抑，另一條出路，就是豁出去，不要大陸市場，沒法上畫便算，那塊肥豬肉，我就是咽不下，《黑社會以和為貴》就是一次精彩示範，如果你要寫黑社會賺大錢，肯定連題材也不可能通過，故事大綱也不用交上，一定不能過關。

既要講出行內創作人的心聲，又要賺大陸觀眾的錢，這是不可能的，頂多像徐克拍一部《七劍》，來一個借古諷今，什麼朝廷頒下了禁武令云云，都要顧左右而言他。

不能上畫便不上畫

《黑社會以和為貴》讓我們一班電影工作者體驗了激情，我們要拍心中的說話，放棄大陸市場，不能上畫，便不上畫，我要拍自已想講的東西，我要抓回香港電影的定位。

這幾年，大家努力鑽營，找尋中國電影和香港電影磨合的方法，最終還是失敗，兩頭不到岸，不能犯禁，處處討好，失去了香港電影“率直敢言”、“有話直說”、“我行我素”的風格，能夠上大陸市場，固然是好，但難免不能暢所欲言，較早時，已經有人提出要回復港產片本色，寧願放棄大陸市場，轉攻亞洲。

杜琪峰的實驗，終於為香港電影找到出路，他不拍大製作的商業電影，不理大陸市場，著重個人風格，拍《PTU》，拍《黑社會》，最後拍出了成績，沒有大陸市場，不一定是死路一條，畢竟周圍還有不少市場，你不想處處遷就，正好用少少錢自把自為，起碼可以拍得順心稱意。

他的示範，在行內引起關注，最好是學他一樣，長短腳走路，大製作是照顧大陸市場，中小型作品，只要能封蝕本門，就可以像拍獨立電影般，拍出director-film（導演掛帥）式的獨立電影。

不可能兩全其美

香港電影一向是商業掛帥，這一次，重回創作為先的起步點，釋放無忌激情。由《黑社會》及《黑社會以和為貴》兩集開始，找回本身的創作特色，暫且放下大陸包袱，放肆創作，杜琪峰的“黑社會”系列，贏盡口碑，不是因為票房，而是那一種香港電影人的創作激情，看得每個人都心頭火熱。

這好像回到了新浪潮獨立製作的年頭，沒有了包袱，沒有了歷史，沒有了計算，市場在重新探索，拍了再算，這才是創作人應走的路。香港電影人要拍的，就是大陸看不到的電影，大陸可以審批通過的電影，大陸人也可以拍的電影，不用香港電影人出手。

當香港掌權者還未為電影設創作禁區，還未從大陸接過龍頭鬼杖，我們理應回頭是岸，重回無忌創作起步點。

你要顧及大陸市場，便要失去自己，你要學Jimmy仔找回自已，又不沾黑社會事務，世事不可能兩全其美。既想做生意，又不想做龍頭；你要做龍頭，又要身不沾塵，做回自已，現實中沒有那麼便宜的買賣。

香港電影人得要明白，自已最值錢的東西是什麼，想清楚，那便贖回自己，決心抵抗引誘。

[skylee]

Election 2: Harmony is a virtue -> trailer 1 2 (in Mandarin with traditional Chinese subtitles)

[Ian_Lee]

Skylee:

Director To has the clout to make movie of such genre because Triad-related movies have big markets in Europe.

Anyway, Mainland's counterparts face even worse plight than those in HK movie industry. This issue's Economist talks about movie industry in China. Sarcastically it used the title like "The Whole World loves Chinese movies -- except Chinese". And it said that Mainland actually produced about 250 movies last year -- comparable to Bollywood. But only 80 of them got a chance to be screened.

[skylee]

I saw "Election 2" today and I think it is good. It is not as violent as I imagined (looks like deep down I am a very violent person) and the story telling is good. I like the way Louis Koo (古天樂) struggles to speak in Putonghua, and the scene when he hits the Public Security Bureau Deputy Chief hard because the latter forces Louis Koo to abandon elections in his society (i.e. gang) (and Koo has to give up speaking in Putonghua when he bursts out in anger that he does not want to be a 蠱惑仔 ) ...

The HK version seems to have dropped some of the scenes shown in the trailer in my previous post (e.g. there is no execution).

BTW, the Public Security Bureau Deputy Chief's name is 石. But the name becomes Mr Xi in the English subtitles. Unforgiveable.