Election - Hak se wui

(aka "Hak se wui" )

directed by Johnnie To
China 2005

With Election, I dare say, that Johnnie To finally has matured. While he still is a director, who, from a western narrative point of view, leaps rather quickly from scene to scene, his earlier films often seeming to be missing scenes, Election shows a To, who allows authenticity and calm to enter his sphere, and while violence still is present, its not show boat slow-mo violence, but a sudden and more realistic display. From this alone, I welcome Election. If one then considers the politics concerning showing triad activity in HK films, not only is Election then To’s most mature, but also his most daring film to date.

As with all films by To, it centres around two male protagonists, here the triad to-be leaders, the calm and diplomatic Lok (Simon Yam) and the larger than life Big D (Tony Leung). The Wo Sing Society is in the process of electing a new leader, and both candidates fight to get the position.

Surprisingly, there is little violence and action involved. To wants to depict the process of an election, thus most of the film is men sitting and talking. When To allows violence to interrupt, its sudden and without any “coolness”.

Nevertheless, Election is very intense.

Henrik Sylow

Poster

Theatrical Release: May 14, 2005 (Cannes Film Festival)

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DVD Review: Optimum - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Optimum Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:36:02
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.59 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	2.0 Dolby Digital Cantonese, 5.1 Dolby Digital Cantonese
Subtitles	English (fixed)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Optimum Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • The making of Election (7:19) • Interview with Johnnie To (29:02) • Interview with Tony Leung (15:49) • Interview with Simon Yam (6:43) • Interview with Wang Tian-Lin (7:46) DVD Release Date: Sep 11, 2006 Keep Case Chapters 16

Comments

A rather compressed image, details are not as sharp as one would expect. A high degree of "pixels", some compression artefacts and a lack of sharpness in details, is the result. I have not seen the HK Panorama DVD, but I suspect the transfer is from this source.

Sound is the 2.0 and 5.1 Cantonese tracks. They are both very good and dynamic.

Additional material is a pretty good making of featurette, followed by one very good interview by To, then decent interviews with leading cast.

- Henrik Sylow

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Screen Captures

subtitle sampel - captures resized to 800px from 1024px