Election

Election (黑社會, 2005) is a Hong Kong crime thriller from director Johnnie To — stream it online on iFILM. Every two years the elders of the Wo Shing triad choose a new chairman through a ritual vote. This time around there are two candidates: the measured, well-regarded Lok and the volatile Big D, a man who has never lost anything gracefully.

Tony Leung Ka-fai plays Big D as someone who understands tradition perfectly and simply decides it does not apply to him. He pays, threatens, and brutalizes his way toward a result. The pivot of the whole struggle is the Dragon Head Baton — an old wooden staff that legitimizes a chairman's rule — and both factions tear across Hong Kong trying to possess it. Simon Yam as Lok is quieter, which turns out to be far more dangerous.

Johnnie To shot the film with almost no score, letting silences and faces carry the weight. The result is a study in institutional power — how organizations survive men, and how men corrupt institutions. A sequel followed in 2006. Watch Election (2005) on iFILM.