Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Cortechba Overrated

Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

jadavix The first "Election" film seems to be Johnnie To's most highly praised movie, which is strange, because I think this less-seen sequel is superior in every way. It has a plot you can actually understand, and a persistent style and tone."Election" had key moments apparently happening off camera so you could only deduce what was going on in the plot with super-human concentration. Not so in the sequel. You get the gist pretty easily, and pretty early on: Lok, the elected chairman from the first movie, is approaching the end of his tenure, but is considering breaking Triad tradition and extending his term. Meanwhile Jimmy is trying to set himself up as a legitimate businessman in China and move away from the Triad. He finds that government officials will only work with him if he takes the chair in his Triad.So the stage is set for crosses, double-crosses and dealings with Triad "uncles" and cold-blooded subordinates."Triad Election", also known as "Election 2", is never less than engrossing and captivating. It's one of the best Triad films I've seen.

Robyn Nesbitt (nesfilmreviews) "Triad Election" takes viewers deep into a ritualized world of the Triad Society crime organization which is full of betrayal, backstabbing, and power-grabbing moves for power. The movie contains complex characters, scheming political machinations, and explosive action sequences that creates balance against Jonnie To's unique directorial style and subversive plot twists. "Triad" is the sequel to the wildly successful "Election" (2005), which earned a number of awards and nominations including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2006. The "Triad" storyline expounds from its predecessor with a political subtext: the candidates here, elegantly played by Koo and Yam, are not only trapped by their own lust of power or wealth, but also by the mainland Chinese government's omniscient influence. To merges an intelligent screenplay with the hardball tactics of the Hong Kong underworld which contains political undertones and transcends an otherwise conventional crime drama storyline.The slow burn caper maintains a business-like atmosphere, while its general sense of tranquility is interrupted with sudden bursts of intense violence. Noticeably absent is the trademark two-fisted gun play, sunglasses, and highly stylized action sequences so prevalent in Woo's films. To underplays the spectacle of violence -- he's more interested in the how the escalation reveals the character of the candidates. The majority of "Triad Election" is about the political maneuvering of organized crime, but when the conversations end, make no mistake, the blood flows mightily. "Triad Election" strongly resembles "The Godfather Part II" (1974), but it's resolutely a Chinese story, reaching back to the origins of Hong Kong crime syndicates, and showing how they struggle to keep a foothold in a modernized world. There are great modern crime movies out there -- Michael Mann's "Heat" (1995), Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" (1990), and Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's "Infernal Affairs" trilogy. "Triad Election" unquestionably belongs with such illustrious company.

lastliberal Time for another election. Again, the idea of two chairmen comes up, only this time it doesn't end in the death of the initiator. Lam Lok (Simon Yam) looks to run for an unprecedented second term, others are deciding whether to run, and Jimmy Lee (Louis Koo), who only wants to be a businessman, finds that is not possible unless he becomes Chairman.This Chinese version of the Godfather continues with its intrigue and violence as everyone plots to take out the competition.It goes from broken fingers to body parts being ground up as hamburger.But, the ending was a real eye-opener. Jimmy was set up and now he is forced to do the bidding of the power in China. Just like Michael Corleone, he is in it for life.

Siddhartha Tripathi On the surface the two Election movies are simple stories about the election of the Chairman of an organized crime syndicate in Hong Kong. The concerns of the lead characters are simple/primal - greed, power, money - all the expected elements and the predictable Hong Kong gangster cinema trademark - people sitting at a table drinking, eating and very casually suggesting that a lot of people are going to be dead by the time this flick gets over.Johnnie To's trick is to play with the dichotomy of the characters, to flush them out in such a way that you find yourself projected in them. You'll find Jimmy (the lead who's contesting the election) trying hard to read the names of Mandarin dishes in a restaurant much to the amusement of his wife and the waiter, and the current Chairman Lok's concern about the bad company his school going son keeps. Normal. Thenn the very same characters would do anything to get what they want. You will see Jimmy hacking a Lok loyalist limb by limb while Lok simply pushes Uncle Teng down the stairs and smiles. Threatening and foreboding permeates the movie mainly because ordinary people you can identify with are capable of extremities which even they weren't aware of.This is not a Tarantino flick - no one comes up with smart slang-ed retorts and refers to the Bible, you won't see blood and gore splattered on the screen and yet its more menacing, hideous and violent.