Exiled

Mr. Wo, a “fateful" coin, a man with a harmonica, four cool gangsters, dozens of weapons, gallons of blood and hundreds of bullet cartridges in a Hong Kong Eastern with frequent nods to various Spaghetti Westerns by Leone. Which could be a little lame, but this movie is aware of that and exploits it using pleasant hyperbole. Most movies try hard to be cool, but almost every frame of Exiled is cool without even trying. It’s not flawless, but in the action scenes at very least it approaches this state. Plus, we get probably the most stylish example of product placement ever seen in a movie. That’s right, I’m talking the scene with Red Bull, which gives you that kind of wings that you can only get from darn good movies. (08.07.2007)

The biggest disappointment from Asia in years and I don't understand how that's even possible. Johnny To is a decent director, he doesn't make bad films, but this was a complete flop with an excellent cast. Nick Cheung, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam this is the acting elite of Hong Kong but in the wrong package. The story is uninteresting, boring and tedious, the action is absolutely nothing, no fights, only uninteresting and cluttered "gunfights" where red powder sprays instead of blood, I would have tolerated this in the 90s not in 2006, and a visually weak western look to boot. Huge mistake. 2* for the cast. (20.09.2014)

Visually perfect shootouts, during which I could barely breathe, against the backdrop of an overly simplified script full of nameless male angry characters. (04.07.2007)