I’m going to have to pen a review of Hong Kong director Johnny To’s 1999 film‘The Mission’, which ranks fairly high on my list favorite films out of Hong Kong.  ‘The Mission’ is a simple, straightforward story about five bodyguards protecting a big boss and their lives together.  It was muted, and cold and plodding and pedestrian, but was just a ‘cool’ movie, for lack of a better word.  Mr. To has returned with pretty much the exact same cast, in a very similar film in look, tone and pace with ‘Exiled’, and while I didn’t find it quite as entertaining as ‘The Mission’, ‘Exiled’ was still a pretty good way to waste away 100 minutes.

There’s a knock on the door.  A woman with a baby opens it to see Tai (Francis Ng) with his associate Fat (Suet Lam) in tow.  They want to know if Wo is home and the woman, Jin (Josie Ho), informs them that she doesn’t know anyone by that name.  They obviously don’t believe her and inform her they’ll wait outside.  Minutes later, another knock on the door, two more men, Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Cat (Roy Chueng) are also looking for Wo.  Jin tells the same, they also don’t believe her so they go outside and wait with the previous two dudes.  It would seem that Wo, along with Tai tried to kill Boss Fey (Simon Yam) and Boss Fey has dispatched Blaze and Cat to end Wo.  But Tai and Fat have showed up save to Wo.  When Wo (Nick Cheung) finally shows up, and in typical Johnny To fashion, there is are slow, quiet tense filled moments as Wo casually loads his revolver, Blaze casually pops out bullets in his clip until it reaches six, and Tai does the same.  They stand there for a while and then, typically, all mayhem and chaos breaks loose.

Surprisingly they all survive, everyone then helps Wo unload his truck with furniture and baby toys, Tai cooks dinner, fat pours drinks and they all have a grand old time.  Crazy, yes, I know.  Blaze explains why he must kill Wo, Tai explains why he can’t let Wo die, Boss Fey calls and asks why Wo isn’t dead yet.  Wo asks Blaze for a day to set some things in motion for his family, Blaze agrees, and this leads them all to Macau where some shady shenanigans are going down with Boss Fey, aging gangster Uncle Fortune (Ping-Man Tam) and punk boss Keung (Ka Tang Lam).  In a hail of gunfire, all plans change, and then toss in a ton of gold bullion and it looks like we have a situation on our hands.

Where ‘Exiled’ differs greatly from ‘The Mission’ is that the story is far more convoluted and far fetched the what ‘The Mission’ offered.  Where as ‘The Mission’ was probably under plotted, ‘Exiled’ was definitely over plotted with all of the somewhat extemporaneous characters being introduced, plot diversion, and plot twists.  It never becomes confusing mind you, it just seems somewhat unnecessary and adds to an already long running time.  There was also a little more slapsticky humor than one would expect in gangster themed flick as violent and bloody as this one was, but, for the most part, it blended in well.

The best thing that ‘Exiled’ has going for it though is its veteran and experienced cast.  These cats have been in so many movies together and have so much skill that they could probably play these roles in their sleep.  Fortunately everyone was wide awake and gave stellar performances, as if you would expect anything less from the likes of Wong and Ng.  As he tends to do in a lot of the movies he shows up in, however, Simon Yam and his shit-eating grin steals most of the scenes with his maniacal portrayal as the cool, but way to quick to anger Boss Fey.  Anyone who watches Hong Kong films with any kind of regularity will notice these characters as pretty much the usual suspects, but they don’t disappoint.

I’ve never really been much of a fan of To’s work such as his judo themed ‘Throw Down’ or ‘Fulltime Killer’ and ‘Exiled’ isn’t a great movie but an entertaining one following in the tradition of the better and crisper ‘The Mission’.  Truth be told ‘The Mission’ wasn’t a ‘great’ movie either, it just had something that grabbed a hold and never would let go.  Regardless, as a follow up to ‘The Mission’, ‘Exiled’ works quite well.