Election
iView Author: Vishrant (Unknown, India)
Email: withheld
Election
ok. i am charged enough to write something down about election. may be this can help me forming a full sentence. which otherwise is a herculean task. it is based on a triad society – hong kong underworld. they function with certain rules and regulations. a certain hierarchy is in place in the organization. society chooses its chairman for two years. it is time to choose new chairman for the society. two candidates are forerunner in the this election.
we are introduced to the first candidate big d. he is short tempered. in his introduction scene a society member eats a spoon. this kind of loyalty and following the order without any further question is expected from the society members.this spoon eater is going to play important role in this battle of one up man ship. big d considers this outdated. he is trying to influence the uncles to vote in his favor by bribing them.
hong kong police is in the role of the referee. they don’t want to annihilate triad society. as they know that if one such society is annihilated new society will emerge in its place. they are concerned with the peace. triads are free to do there business as long as they do it quietly. when police smells that this election can become messy. they put all the leaded is jail and tell them to short it out. otherwise they will interfere and that would be not good for triads health.
society meets and selects the other forerunner ‘lok’ as the next chairman. we see lok for the first time as he receives the news of his selection as the next chairman. this decision has not gone down well with big d. he reacts by kidnapping two members of the society who had played important role in the selection of the lok as next chairman. the newly elected chairman will get a baton. this baton has been the tradition of the society. but big d is determined to not let it happen. the battle begins.
the movie is filled with gripping scenes. there are some wizardry in cinematography but you will be too engrossed in the narration to notice them. the style of cinematography fits with the mood of the movie. background score is there, so that you don’t feel the pinch of silence, it is minimal. acting is top notch, every single character has played out really well. enjoy
imdb link
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434008/
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Election, Election Triad and the third installment…watched it in LA fest 2 years back or so…all three are wonderful..especially the Traid…the movie moves at such a rapid pace that once it ends you are left clueles that you just watched a 100+ min movie..the background score was stupendous…i think t! had written an article on it sometime back and Lao Tayu( music) had commented too…loved this movie a lot
I have the movie on DVD…found it in the bargain bin of a sydney store and man it was satisfying. It’s hard to make a gangster flick that keeps one interested just because the rule book has been written already on the genre and both too much deviation and too much adherence to it produce duds. The Election walks that fine line very well and I must the acting in the movie from even incidental characters is very very high class…at no time does any character appear to be a caricature – which again is the key in the genre to seperate the finest from the rest.
No doubt it will “inspire” a bollywood rip off sooner or later.
You do seem to be a big fan of East Asian cinema, have you spent time that side. Anyway i do love the Hong Kong action flicks, in fact for me John Woo, produced some of his best work that side, before Hollywood spoilt him.
Have you seen City on Fire, starring Chow Yun Fat, one of my favorite HK actioners? Reservoir Dogs heavily borrowed from this movie, including the climax Mexican standoff, as also the basic plot of an undercover agent in a gang of jewel thieves.
Also John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, which has one of the best climaxes.
Here are some John Woo favorites of mine, before he switched over to Hollywood.
The Killer
Hard Boiled
In fact among Woo’s earlier Hollywood flicks, i even liked Hard Target.
Also do check out the Korean movie Shiri, it is somewhat Hollywoodish in feel, but i loved it. JSA was of course a classic.
Having stayed in Korea for a year, do love most of the East Asian movies.
It was Vijay that wrote the articles on Election and Election 2 for PFC, I wrote a review elsewhere.
Part of the reason this film works so well is that Johnny To is a masterful director. As many directors do, he tends to work with the same cast and crew, so he knows how to bring out the best in them. And, he is a master of framing a scene. I cannot think of any other director who can create a ballet out of a gang shooting the way he can. Even in his worst films (worst being relative to me), he is still more entertaining than many directors at their best.
Now, I am still waiting for Election 3.
Makes me wonder one thing, why do talented directors like John Woo and Wolfgang Petersen, end up making mediocre stuff in Hollywood? Is it that their sensibility does not match that of Hollywood’s or US?
Also why is that Chow Yoon Fat, who on his own, is much more talented than some of the Hollywood superstars, end up playing supporting acts in Hollywood, do they still have this Asian insecurity?
t! wasnt Exiled, Election 3? if so, we have watched it with Vijay at the AFI fest.
ratnakar
all the movies you have mentioned are in my list to watch
i have seen only ‘the killer’
.
asian cinema ki lat lag gai hai
Yep and also do watch Infernal Affairs, the original of The Departed. I still find it a much better movie than Departed, this inspite of me being a hard core Martin Scorcese fan.
quote asian cinema ki lat lag gai hai unquote .
the birthplace of most east asian philosophies
and martial arts
is india
.
why watch their interpretation when the real mcCoy is right here?
dabba
precisely that’s why
.
what is of india is left in bollywood
.
the three great religions , hinduism, jainism, buddhism were born in india
these three religion disagree on every thing
there is no concept of god in jainism
buddhism even denies atma
.
there is only one thing on which these three religions unanimously agree
that is ‘law of karma’
.
aaj ki taarikh main saare bollywood ke director ediyan ragad ke mar jaayein
to bhi ek ‘running on karma’ nahien bana sakte
@Vishrant,
Perhaps these Isms are different than what Budha and Mahavira thought or practiced in their respective real lives!
(1) Budha- Goshalak Story – Instinct to survive
(2) Mahavira’s strange vouches and self-imposed strange and almost impossible looking conditions to check if something is there that wants to keep him alive.
Meaning, interpretations of doctrines which we read today may be different than what they had said from their own mouth.
we may be reading interpretations done by intermediate forces
we ARE reading interpretations done by intermediate forces
.
there are two option for us
one is live our life
and to feel spiritual
discuss these interpretations
.
this is what india has been doing
discussing and discussing and discussing more
producing commentaries upon commentaries
.
gita has one thousand FAMOUS commentaries
.
second option
the authentic option is
to grow in consciousness
@Yes Vishrant,
authentic option of growing in to consciousness or getting such a state.
But this is contradictory to your thoughts you wrote in (10).
Jainism can be anything and may differ from what Jaina lived in his own life
Budhism can be different than what Budha experienced in his own life.
and we have no way to know what duo felt inside their consciousness?
—-
If Gita can be interpreted in 1000 ways then it also shows its liveliness and it appeals to different generations over the centuries and it does not become old.
Its like Life on earth. Like any other feeling.
People take birth and die but feelings dont die, and they fill every new person.
Why you think its a disgusting fact that Gita has 1000 famous interpretations?
and if they are famous interpretations then its also sure that famous commentators and scholars have given their commentaries through this Gita and many commentators will be included among the people whose books you have been reading or whose thoughts you have been listening or witnessing through other means.
Is not it so ?
thousand of commentries definately shows the liveliness of gita
.
but that is not what gita aimed for
.
the ultimate goal is to achieve the supreme conciousness
.
scriptures are finger pointing to the moon
gita also point to that same moon
.
the only purpose scriptures can serve is
to cajole us to look at the moon
.
the pitfall of india is that
india has totally forgotten about the moon
.
all that india is left with is the finger
in the form of scriptures
.
moon is shining on japan in the form of zen
and
we are left dissecting the finger
.
nothing wrong with thousand of commentaries
only
that we have forgotten the real purpose of scriptures
@Vishrant,
I go for very simple things so please bear with me.
(1) your quote [the pitfall of india is that india has totally forgotten about the moon / all that india is left with is the finger in the form of scriptures ]
Unquote- you are India, I assume you have gained this consciousness yourself and its not because of some book/s you have read. You have done a thorough research on India, indian people, indian psyche etc etc.
So if you are getting consciousness why you say India is left with scriptures. The day you will get full consciousness, you will start illuminating like (perhaps, because I have not seen and only heard) Budha etc had illuminated in their respective times.
(2) You quote [moon is shining on japan in the form of zen
and we are left dissecting the finger ]
Unquote- You mean to say Zen is shining like a sun in the day to day life of Japanese people living in Japan. I assume that you have visited Japan and have done thorough research on Japanese people, Japanese psyche etc etc.
(3) You quote – [we have forgotten the real purpose of scriptures]
Unquote- why you say so? when you have this realisation and you live in India then how you can accept such despondencies. You are the hope, are not you?
Why you think yourself away from rest of the country? why you are not part of it?
When you will shine, this light will enlighten other people also. When this special knowing which is inscribed in many scriptures will fall upon you also then people, cities, country and hopefully world will be benefited.
Why this distance from other people?
Till you are in awakened state, what is the problem?
whatever I have read, heard when Budha etc got realisation they did not maintain this ” please stay away attitude” and their light started affecting people in their surrounding, in a positive manner.
Why Zen of Japan is not able to do this?
Is darkness too heavy now?
@Vishrant,
We will continue it, here or at any other thread.
Please take your time but whenever get time and opportunity, write something coming from a solid real life experience.
That is must. You can recall incident recorded in scripture (again:) where wife of Mandala Misrha asks Shankracharya to tell about married life.
So if you are expressing some knowledge on LOVE then it should come from your real life experience and from a love relationship else as you have said in previous comments, you are also paying attention to fingers only and Moon is hiding behind these fingers or hand.
Things should not look contradictory.