Hong Kong Dispatch. 2.

Following a long festival tradition, the HKIFF opened Tuesday night with two opening night films, Johnny To's Election 2 and Pang Ho-cheung's Isabella. Election 2 had all the qualities of an "opening night" film. It was highly anticipated and played to a packed house (tickets sold out within two hours of going for sale online); it was overtly "artistic," it was brutal and, therefore, controversial, and it stirred up strong reactions in most who were present.

Both opening night films had political undercurrents of direct relevance to the HK audience. Those in Isabella were more direct. The Macau handover of 1999 is a direct reference to the HK handover, and perhaps the only way Pang could directly deal with an issue that is still painful for many Hong Kongers. Some locals I spoke to had picked up on the film's themes of rejection in the story of a daughter finding and getting to know the man she believes to be her father, saying that's how they felt when the British "abandoned" them. Some complained that Election 2 was politically simplistic - but the film doesn't aim to be a political analysis, only a political metaphor for the loss of freedom that HK now faces, and the sense of entrapment some people feel, under PRC rule. Even though the HK triads in the film are brutal and lawless, they still have a system of "election" to choose their chairman. But when they move into China for business reasons, this "election" system the Triads hold so highly is the first thing that is weeded out. Election 2 doesn't really have a conclusion. The main character, trapped by Chinese officials, made their pawn, stares out at the vast wilderness about to become a Chinese shopping mall and contemplates his bleak future.

What Election 2 makes clear is that Johnny To excels in the cinematic presentation of violence. He gives it such a suffocatingly dismal atmosphere that you are left with a bitter taste in your mouth. A person is quietly asked to lie down inside a coffin and then we see the lid calmly being screwed shut. A man is tied up, quietly stuffed inside a duffel bag and thrown overboard. To doesn't highlight the brutality with music or with screams. Characters struggle, but are usually overwhelmed by greater numbers and must face their fate. This is not the violence of Scorsese that goes off with fireworks and a blasting score. And the mallet scene in Election 2 makes Scorsese's controversial hammer-to-hand or head-in-vice treatment in Casino seem somewhat more... tame.

To's suffocating atmosphere is highlighted by his use of shadows. The greater portion of the film takes place in darkened rooms, where the characters are only half visible. Though the physical darkness of the scenes may be a common stylistic touch, To manages to give the shadows a heaviness and a richness that could be compared to the paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn. To isn't using the shadows to conceal the characters, he's using them to reveal the characters. This is the dark heart of Triad life; this is the violence that is as natural as breathing; this is the fear of being the next hit or the decision to kill your best friend, which is an everyday part of their lives. And though To wants to show this life as ugly, at the same time, he wants to show that the loss of Triad culture in the face of Mainland officials is the loss of something idiosyncratically Hong Kong, and by extension, he is referring to the danger HK faces of loosing its own culture, its identity, and perhaps more importantly for To, the democratic freedom it came to enjoy under colonial rule, as it faces an increasingly uncertain future with Mainland China.

Posted by dwhudson at April 6, 2006 12:40 AM