Exiled (2007)

★★½
Macau is an amazing city. I had the privilege of visiting in 2017. It’s a city steeped in history, with its Portuguese colonial architecture, breathtaking casinos and the amazing Ruins of Saint Paul’s. The Macau Tower is a sight to behold. Few movies are wholly set in Macau. James Bond passed through a few times, while Hong Kong cinema will occasionally drop in now and then. Director Johnnie To has been here before (Fulltime Killer), and he set his 2007 film Exiled in the former colony. This is an effective if somewhat muted Triad crime film taking place in 1998, the year prior to the administrative handover from Portugal to China.

Wo (Nick Cheung) is a former gangster retired in Macau. Boss Fay (Simon Yam) orders two of his hitmen, Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Fat (Lam Suet), to shoot Wo, because Wo once tried to assassinate Boss Fay. Two of Wo’s friends, Tai (Francis Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung), arrive at Wo’s house at the same time. After a brief exchange of words, Blaze and Fat go inside to confront Wo while Tai and Cat stay outside and stare down retiring cop Sergeant Shan (Benz Hui), who claims just to be passing through. I’m unclear why Tai and Cat stood down to allow the other two to go inside, but after a short firefight between Wo, Blaze and Fat, the five men agree to end hostilities and have dinner. They were all childhood friends and former colleagues, so they have history together.

The men decide to work together for one final score to earn the funds needed to leave Macau and Hong Kong. They visit Jeff (Cheung Siu-fai), who has a list of bounties and other opportunities and assigns them to whoever comes calling. The group settles on a hit against rival crime boss Keung (Gordon Lam), a job that would fetch a high price if successful. What follows is a series of close-calls and run-ins, as the group comes face to face with Keung while Boss Fay shows up to express his dismay for Blaze not finishing his assignment to take out Wo. The five men escape and are on their own, while Bosses Fay and Keung join forces to track down Blaze and his friends.

The premise is intriguing, and it should have been more entertaining to watch this play out, but unfortunately Johnnie To takes a seriously restrained approach to his storytelling. Macau is eerily deserted. The only people we meet are those integral to the story, with no sign of life anywhere to be found. Streets are empty, absent of pedestrians and vehicles. Most of the movie was shot at night. I’m not sure what To was trying to say here. We get the idea that Boss Fay wants to move into Boss Keung’s territory during the transition from Portuguese to Chinese control, feeling that this is the most opportune time to do so. We are informed that many Portuguese citizens have left, but how does that translate to the complete lack of bystanders? The movie is not told from Boss Fay’s point of view, negating any notion that the empty streets imply a lack of resistance for his planned takeover.

The only daytime sequence takes place in one of the few uninhabited areas of the colony, where the gold heist takes place. With no other options, the men plan to steal the gold to fund a way off the islands. A rival gang has already shown up to ambush the convoy, which is defended by brave cops who are eventually reduced in numbers down to one expert sniper. Blaze and his friends dispatch the rival gang and recruit the remaining cop to join them, rather easily I might add.

Exiled is solid but not spectacular. Like all movies of the heroic bloodshed genre, there is a shootout between all involved parties. It is well staged and not without emotion, but the path to this confrontation is murky and not just because of the nighttime photography. The retiring Sergeant Shan shows up more than once, but his character isn’t a factor in any of the proceedings. His indifference to the plot might have meant something if he were Portuguese, perhaps to suggest that Portugal was going to look the other way and let the Chinese contend with the Triads after the handover date. Since Shan isn’t Portuguese, that idea goes out the window.

This is unfortunate. Johnnie To deliberately set the movie in 1998 and gives a token mention of the upcoming handover, which took place on December 20, 1999, but doesn’t do much with the timeframe. John Woo’s Hard-Boiled was in part a commentary on the fears that accompanied the pending transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China. Woo had something to say about it, but I’m not sure what was To’s angle here. If the movie had been set in 2007, when it came out, and if all references to the handover were dropped, then the result would have been nearly identical. However, what Exiled does offer is good chemistry among the five protagonists and an appreciation of their loyalty for one another, a staple of this genre. The movie got that part right, but if the 1998 setting had been utilized to its fullest potential, then this could have been a more fulfilling picture.

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