Exiled was nominated for a Golden Lion award at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Although described by many as The Mission 2, it is not. While The Mission is a great film, Exiled is faster, stronger and in my opinion better.
Full movie and DVD review inside...

Director: Johnnie To
Main Stars: Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Nick Cheung, Lam Suet, Roy Cheung, Simon Yam, Josie Ho, Richie Ren
Production Year: 2006
Studio: Mega Star (HK)
Packaging: Photobook in a cardboard slipcase
Extras: Making of, Behind-the-scenes footage, two trailers
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio Tracks: Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, Cantonese DTS, Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, simplified and traditional Chinese
Regional Coding: Region 3 NTSC
Running Time: 109 minutes
Rating / Certificate: Category III
Release Date: December 12th 2006

The Film

Exiled is set in Macau in 1998, the year in which the Portuguese colony was handed back to China. Four hitmen (Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Lam Suet, Roy Cheung) from Hong Kong are sent to take out Wo (Nick Cheung), an old friend of theirs, upon his return from overseas. Two of them were sent by Boss Fay (Simon Yam). As the four hitmen see their old friend is trying to settle down with his wife and his newborn child they sympathise with him. They spare his life, a dangerous decision as Boss Fay is not happy to hear that his hitmen refused to take out his order.



The five friends' only way out is to make a lot of money really quick and to leave Macau as soon as possible. They go to an agent who offers them many different assignments. Among these assignments are robbing a 1 ton gold transport and killing some gangster boss. They decide to go for the latter. When they are at the restaurant where they are supposed to take out the crook, Boss Fay, the man they try to hide from, suddenly appears and all hell brakes loose. With their job gone terribly wrong, they have to look for another way to escape with big money. Wasn't there a 1 ton gold transport?



Many people call this film The Mission 2 as it reunites 5 cast members from Johnnie To's 1999 classic The Mission. (ed.: well, duh...) But that is probably the only thing it has in common with it. The style is totally different from what you can see in The Mission. While The Mission has an overall quiet and calm style, Exiled reminds a lot of an Italo-Western movie running in the similar vein as Sergio Leone's films run. The similarities are the use of camera angles in combination with stylistic music which could have been composed by a modern Ennio Morricone. While To uses a lot of old elements, he makes use of other elements I cannot remember to have seen in any of his previous films.


All this and the wonderful acting by the cast, especially Francis Ng and Anthony Wong made Exiled my favourite 2006 Hong Kong film.

Action
Suspense
Story
Humor
Romance
Drama Level
Eroticism
Music
Cinematograhy
Total

This film could appeal to you if you liked:

The Mission or Once Upon a Time in the West

The DVD

The Mega Star release of Exiled comes in a photobook folder which features a calender and some stills from the film. The disc is found in a paper envelope glued to the back of the book.



The picture quality seems is nothing extraordinary. Some scenes are sharp and others kind of blurry. I am quite sure that the film is intended to look a little blurry during some certain scenes, especially those that remind us of Western movies.
The sound quality is very good. It is made good use of all the speakers during the gun fights. When you have a quiet scene, the sudden sound of somebody reloading his gun is really thrilling.



As for the special features, I don't know if we can expect a special edition anytime soon. There are two making ofs on the disc (a long and a short version), some behind-the-scenes footage (6 minutes) and two trailers. None of the extras are subtitles in English however, which is why I haven't even bothered to watch the making ofs. I only watched the behind-the-scenes footage and it seems to be edited together without any logic.

Overall

Probably the best HK film of the year. Although the Mega Star DVD is weak in the special features department, it is the only one currently available. And since Exiled is such a great film I wouldn't hold back to get this edition. It is cheap and you get one of the best HK films in recent years for that price.



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Note: The scene that gave this film its CAT III rating is present on the DVD. The scene shows Simon Yam shaking hands with another gangster with their left hands turned around. A triads agreement handshake.