Rating of
3/4
"Triad Election" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/12/12
Two years have past and it is time for the next election and many of the Triad "uncles" want entrepreneur Jimmy to take over, but Lok is unwilling to release his grip on power. The sequel to Election, like The Godfather II is a continuation of the previous film and there are many parallels that can be drawn between Jimmy and Michael Corleone. Both began as relatively benign characters who did not really wish to enter the gangster fraternity, but as their situations and therefore methods become more extreme it is obvious that there are no "good guys" in this shadowy world. All the events here just reinforce the fact that for all the talk of "honour" and "tradition", it's all a flimsy facade to paper over the corruption and brutality of their actions and the election is little more than a farce. Election 2 is a beautifully crafted gangster film, with an excellent cast exploring the themes, only touched on in the original, far more fully. It seems to me that the two films are really a single whole and should probably be seen together to get the full effect. If you like the Infernal Affairs Trilogy, I'd add them to your shopping list asap.
