Election (DVD)

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The biggest drawback to "Election" is its large cast of characters. You really do need a scorecard or family tree-style chart to tell everyone apart and who works for whom. It helps that almost everybody has a colorful nickname like Double East, Long Hair, Four Eyes, Sparky, Long Gun, Fish Ball, and Uncle Cocky. Out of all the supporting cast, the stand-out has to be Jet (Nick Cheung), a tenacious pitbull of an enforcer. Jet is efficient in his brutality and never backs down whether its battling against a half dozen gangsters armed with machetes or being dared to eat a ceramic spoon.

As Lok, Simon Yam turns in one of his best performances. Aside from playing the flamboyant sociopathic Judge in Ringo Lam´s "Full Contact" or his work in "Bullet in the Head", I haven´t been too knocked out by Yam. Here, Yam really gets to stretch his acting muscles. Whle Lok takes a backseat to the rest of the players in the first half of the film, he gets a much bigger role in the last half. Yam´s character slowly and subtly reveals a darker side to his outer laidback personality. The film´s epilogue ends on a particularly brutal note on Lok´s part and the traumatic experience to his son, Danny (Jonathan Lee), is a plot thread picked up in the sequel. Even better is the performance of the lesser known of the Tony Leungs, Tony Leung Ka Fai who is not to be confused with the more famous Tony Leung Chiu Wai from "Infernal Affairs" and several Wong Kar-Wai movies like "Chungking Express" and "2046." Leung is a blast and turns Big D into a petulant child constantly throwing temper tantrums when things don´t go his way. He does come off as a bit of a cartoon character, but that´s just part of the fun.

VIDEO:
The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The transfer is clean though the colors could be a little stronger. Still, no major complaints.

AUDIO:
The audio is presented on three different tracks Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS 5.1. All three are in the film´s original Cantonese language with optional English and Spanish subtitles. The film is dialogue heavy so your system probably won´t get much of a work out. What effects and score the film has sound really good, especially the driving blues guitar (with a dash of Eastern flavor) that dots the movie.

EXTRAS:
Interview with Johnny To is a fascinating half hour interview with the director. He discusses a variety of topics such as the Triads and their history, filmmaking, the Hong Kong film industry, and the effects of the Hong Kong changover that are still felt to this day.

You´ll also get three other interviews with actors Simon Yam, Wang Tian-lin, and Tony Leung Ka Fai. They each discuss acting, making the film, working with To, and the Hong Kong film industry.

The Making of Election Documentary is a short seven minute behind-the-scenes featurette that´s essentially of EPK quality. There is making-of footage mixed in with interviews with the cast and crew as they discuss their characters and shooting the picture.

Finishing out the extras are the film´s theatrical trailer and trailers for other Tartan releases such as "Triad Election", "Divergence", and Park Chan-wook´s vengeance trilogy.

FILM VALUE:
I´m sure others will disagree with me when I say the current Hong Kong film scene has been a little stagnant in the past few years. I can´t say churning out empty, overproduced films like "Gen-Y Cops" or "Dragon Squad" is helping any. It does make one appreaciate it even more when one finds a veritable gem amongst the wreckage. "Election" is the best Hong Kong film I´ve seen since "Infernal Affairs." There are rumors of a three hour cut of "Election" and I wished that had been the version released. Again, there are so many characters that most of them cut the short end of the stick when it comes to screen time. "Election" really had the makings of a gangster epic ala "The Godfather" or "Once Upon a Time in America", if it had been given a longer runtime. A double shot of "Election" and "Triad Election" is definitely recommended.

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