Exiled DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

I've been wanting to dig into this for quite awhile. I received this disc before I moved to Los Angeles, but with a slew of newer discs to get through and other factors, I couldn't get to this disc until now. Let me tell you though, it was WELL worth the wait for Exiled that, for me, solidifies director Johnnie To as one brilliant filmmaker.

I'd never heard of Johnnie To until I was sent the movie he did before this one, Triad Election, and was considerably blown away by it. Here's the proof. So, when I saw this DVD and the name Johnnie To and all these awesome critic quotes on the package, I knew I was in for one hell of a ride, and I was right.

The story starts out simple, but it by no means ends that way. We open with a knock on a door, and two guys, Tai (Francis Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung) looking for a man named Wo (Nick Cheung). The woman who answers the door, Jin (Josie Ho) says there is no such person there. Another knocks comes on her door, this time by two more guys, Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Fat (Lam Suet) looking for Wo, and they're met by the same response. We soon find out that Blaze and Fat have come to take Wo out, because he tried to kill their Boss Fay (Simon Yam) and that Tai and Cat, former members of the same gang and friends of Wo, are there to stop him. A simply masterful gunfight ensues and when all the dust settles, they all are alive, cooler heads prevail and they try to work things out so that Jin is taken care of before he meets his end. As this quintet reunites, they realize how strong of friends they really are... and that's where the story REALLY starts.

One of the critic quotes on the Triad Election box said that To was one of the best action directors in the world, and even though there isn't much action in that one, there is a boatload in this one. Lets just put it this way. For any Andrew Lau or John Woo fans that are looking for a new fix, you might just have a new favorite action director in Johnnie To. Bold statement? Not as bold as this film.

What really strikes me, though, is the amazing balance between drama and action To strikes here, along with subtle flashes of humor. To and "writers" Yip Tin Shing and Szeto Kam Yuen (that word is in quotes for a reason; see the Special Features section) have crafted a brilliant story that not only combines this violent world with a tender friendship, but also pushes the envelope, big time, in conventional storytelling as well. This movie could very well have 10 different endings, all in different parts of the film. Each part could've easily been a satisfactory ending for any Hollywood filmmaker, but To keeps upping the ante throughout the film. It's almost like a bizarre series of short films, each with its own sort of ending, that are intricately and beautifully woven together in one film. It really is something else, folks, ESPECIALLY after you watch the special features.

The acting here is quite magnificent as well from all angles. There realy wasn't a single peformance I disliked, and the main five band of newly formed brothers played by Francis Ng, Roy Cheung, Anthony Wong, Lam Suet and Nick Cheung are all quite wonderful. They don't have equal roles by any means, but they each shine with the part they're given. The legendary Simon Yam is also spectacular as the baddie Boss Fay and his sinister demanor is pitch-perfect for a Hong Kong villain, as he's displayed over and over again.

I really don't know what else to say, besides that this is a brilliant, brilliant film. I really can't wait for America to take notice of this spectacular filmmaker in Johnnie To, because I would simply love to see what he can do with an American story. To is just one of the most talented directors in the world, bar-none, and Exiled surely proves it.

We only get two featurettes here. The first one is The Making of Exiled, and the nature of this featurette really speaks volumes of how different and how brilliant many of these Hong Kong films are, mainly because they approach nearly everything differently. The featurette is broken into several different parts. The first part is called Fate, and it starts off, instead of the normal "It was so great to work with..." glad-handing ass-kissing feature, we get real insights into the real actors and how they see the events in the film and their own personal takes on it, what it means to them. A lot of it is the main actors and director Johnnie To's personal views on life and also on this world they created. The next part, Affection and Brotherhood, we do get some of the "It was so great to work with..." stuff, but it feels so much more genuine than most of these deals I see. You see a lot of B-roll stuff of the five guys goofing around and it really feels like they loved making this film, and making it together. We find out that some of the funniest parts from the movie weren't scripted, just them goofing around and they decided to keep it. Behind the Scenes is next and we get some stories about injuries and Johnnie To revealed that there wasn't even a script for this movie, even though there are two credited writers. However, with some of the odd beats in this movie that you normally wouldn't see from a Hollywood flick, it does kind of make sense, and it's just all the more brilliant as well. He tells us later that there was a script... but he wouldn't tell the actors what was in the script, and that every performance was improvised. Amazing. Johnnie To himself said he doesn't even know now what the story is really about, it was in his head during shooting, and while he even admits that he thinks it would be weird for viewers to watch this feature and have the director say such things, but he said he was a fact and that he "went with the flow." Astounding. The featurette is 12 minutes long, and WELL worth the watch to get some truly unique insights into filmmaking and life in general.

The only other one is a Behind the Scenes really isn't that good, sadly. It's just a big collage of behind-the-scenes footage, most of it we've already seen in the first featurette. They're also strung together so quickly that they don't have any subtitles, and you don't understand what they're saying unless you speak Cantonese, which I don't. You do get the feel that Johnnie To smokes a lot of cigars though. It's really quite odd how these are all strung together in no particular order. It's about 6 minutes long, and it's not bad... just kind of redundant and weird.

The disc is presented in the anamorphic widescreen format, in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0 formats. You can listen to the original Cantonese language track, or the dubbed English version.

If you've never heard of Johnnie To before, the packaging should be enough to intrigue you. Just his name on top of the package was enough for me, but some might need more. The front cover features Anthony Wong's Blaze character pointing a gun in the foreground, with a shot of the main four in the background, along with a few praising critic quotes. The back features a brilliantly succinct synopsis, more critic quotes, a small special features box along with random shots and the billing block and tech specs. Very nicely done.

If you're a fan of Asian cinema, you can't miss this. Hell, if you're a fan of cinema, spectacular action, drama, brotherhood, friendship or any and/or all of the above, Exiled will not let you down. Sheer brilliance!