Exiled, directed by Johnny To, is 21st Century western mixed with old and new flavors of American and Asian action films. The description of the movie reads as follows:
The 1999 turnover of the Portuguese colony of Macau to China is investigated here through the unique rites of passage of a group of cold-blooded hit men as they wonder what the future has in store for them, try to make quick money or simply hope to retire.
In all honesty, my viewing experience really didn’t key into this. Rather, like one of the old John Ford movies, it shows us a group of friends (or mafia businessmen) who set up shop in a new area and then find themselves striking the ire of the Mafioso’s who are already there. What ensues are stylized shootouts (of the variety where the shells of bullets flip through the air in slow motion, the blood sprays and bodies drop perfectly to the floor) and confrontations that always seem to end badly. Like all good westerns, this movie brings its action scenes along sparingly, letting us get into the heads of the main characters. We come to understand a little bit more who these guys are, as the movie builds up to it’s final, bloodsoaked denouement.
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I would love to be able to break down the story further but I can’t. It was just somewhat difficult for me to follow. However, what I liked about this film was that I didn’t care. Even though I was somewhat clueless the whole time I was watching this movie, I was kept engaged by the action, the way the scenes were put together, the bluesy/western music and just about everything else. Of course the law is inept and they can do nothing about these mafia men, and the Mafioso’s, while violent killers, live by a code of conduct that ultimately redeems them to the world. These were all attributes that made this film special. They combined to take Exiled out of the pedestrian, Asian, action film realm and made it a reflexive story that showcased the effects of past films and filmmakers on a new crop of talent many miles away.
Johnny To has crafted a singularly unique film with Exiled. It mixes themes, genres, stories and just about everything else to make a movie that feels familiar but at the same time it isn’t. It is rich in style and cinematic elegance. So if I might have baffled you since I didn’t really talk too much about the story itself, just know that I don’t even think it was that important. The world that has been put on screen is one that we are supposed to experience, more-so than it being one we are meant to 100% figure out.
