A gangster has to be cool and they tend to be cool in films by To. A gangster only keeps to his own rules and in the case of To these rules are beautiful, dark and originate in an ominous past. An election among gangsters has more to do with a bloody battle for power than with democracy. A triad (a Chinese gangster organisation) needs a new chairman. It is the old ones, the so-called uncles, who decide who that will be. Two young ambitious gangsters, Big D (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) and Lok (Simon Yam), battle each other for the honour. Big D is hard, erratic and violent. He has the money he needs even to bribe the uncles. Lok is a prime example of a modern gangster: cool and calculating as a stock-exchange trader. When the battle seems to be over, another problem crops up. You can only be chairman of the triad if you possess the baton with the dragon’s head. The baton has disappeared. A total gangster war threatens and no one wants that. Certainly not the police. Stunningly edited by Patrick Tam, who also has his own film After This Our Exile (a very different kind of film) in the programme. (GjZ)
