review by Julie Patron
Election 2 2006
Watched Jun 11, 2012
Julie’s review:
After watching The Mission, I needed more Johnnie To. More! All Johnnie To all the time. Triad Election (or Election 2) is a sequel to Election, and a continuation of his "power, but at what cost?" theme.
As the politics get more brutal and the moral compromises more horrifying, so do the action set-pieces. Triad Election is not one of To's more light-hearted ventures. There is humor, but it is dark dark dark.
I found this to be a big improvement on Election, which I thought was just alright. More exciting, higher stakes, better characters.
Where the surviving characters are left off made me wish for an Election 3 to see what happens next is the best way I can put it without any spoilers.
YES. I love Jet, he's one of my favorites (the actor is great too...he was in Exiled, but he was also in On the Edge which was not a great movie, but he and Anthony Wong were great in it). More more more! I can't get enough.
I do own these two films - and have done for some time, another 2 I need to watch though. Added to the watch list!!
Yes you need to! It's one of those rarities where the sequel isn't just more of the same... the story evolved from the first including the characters.
I have a couple of nights free from the cinema this week. Election tonight then!
Enjoy! Looking forward to hearing what you think.
Does my review show up on your feed? I watched it!
It does! Going to read it right now.
I've heard many people compare this to The Godfather Part II. I couldn't agree with them more!
I'd never heard of Election 1-2, but after seeing this review I looked it up and added it to my watchlist. Thanks!
Great pair of films.
They definitely sound interesting.
@Craig I can see that, in terms of superiority over the original (although I'm someone who has only seen Godfather 2 once but Godfather 1 a few times and like 1 more, but I've been meaning to do a re-watch).
@Ron I think you'll like them, based on the other stuff you've said you liked.
@Richard yup! I liked how dark Election 2 goes...it's something I hadn't seen from the other To films I've seen (admittedly not a lot). It's crazy how flexible he is.
@Julie I think I will to.
Johnnie To can do just about anything. My favorite of his is still All About Ah-Long; a rather depressing melodrama with a fantastic, Award-winning performance by Chow Yun-Fat.
Neat, I will check it out. I read he's done some fluffy romances too.
Love on a Diet is one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies.
That looks wild! I'm definitely going to have to check out some of his non-action stuff.