SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

connor-cox Exiled is what i call a stylish film, it doesn't strive to be realistic it simply wants to entertain the audience. So if you're expecting a constant barrage of action, you'll probably be a little disappointed, however the high drama and acting make this film very enjoyable.The film has some well known faces like internal affairs Anthony Wong and Ip mans Simon Yam, both of these actors are great but i'd have to say Anthony Wong put on the most memorable performance in Exiled. Some of the action sequences are incredible, with dozens of extras in nearly every scene.A précis of this film is, Very Dramatic and a nostalgic eastern action movie, I really enjoyed it and i think you will to.

Yaaatoob Set on the island of Macau in 1998 'Exiled' tells the story of five friends who grew up together in the gangs of Hong Kong. One of these five, Wo (Nick Cheung), has been in exile for many years after attempting to assassinate the crime boss of Hong Kong, Boss Fay (Simon Yam), but now Wo has a family and is tired of running, so he moves to Macau to make a new life for himself. Unfourtunatly, Boss Fay has not forgotten Wo's transgressions and sends another of the five friends, Blaze (Anthony Wong), to see Wo dead. However, while Blaze and his partner Fat (Suet Lam) must follow orders and kill their friend Wo, the remaining two friends Tai (Francis Ng) & Cat (Roy Cheung) are intent on protecting him, even if it means going against Boss Fay and becoming exiles themselves. This predicament and the decisions than the five friends must make provide the films intrinsic themes; brotherhood, honour, loyalty and friendship, themes not at all uncommon in the HK action genre.Likewise, there's a great sense of familiarity across the board here. Actors such as Anthony Wong, Simon Yam and Francis Ng are all veterans of HK action films, and Johnnie To's direction itself recalls the hey- day of HK action with numerous nods to Tsui Hark and John Woo. But despite this film evoking a sense of deja-vu at almost every turn, it's a fantastically paced movie that's all the more better when regarding the sum of it's parts. Anthony Wong & Francis Ng provide stalwart performances as the films two leads and they are supported by a fantastic cast; Suet Lam and Roy Cheung as their stoic partners in crime, Simon Yam as the crazed, bat-crap insane mob boss, Richie Ren as a sharpshooting police sergeant and Eddie Cheung as bizarre deal-broker and pimp. Meanwhile, the setting, cinematography and soundtrack all conspire to create a wonderful backdrop for the convoluted plot. Also, Macau is presented as an idyllic sort of place, always in the shadow of Hong Kong, and the cinematography and setting only help further this idea with many outdoor shots and vibrant yellows and oranges and greens employed throughout. Macau was a Portugese colony for much of it's history, which I believe To alludes to through the films soundtrack which at times sounds almost like a spaghetti western and serves to immediately set 'Exiled' apart from To's previous films and those of his peers, many of which star the same actors.Overall Johnnie To's 'Exiled' is a film at odds with itself. On one hand it's a stylish, over the top Hong Kong gangster film, on the other it's a melancholy movie about friendship and the past, but for the most part these two sections perfectly compliment each other. Some may find the plot somewhat confusing, but it's brilliantly presented with a veteran cast, some amazing action set-pieces and a few moments of inspired direction. Also, 'Exiled' left me with a good number of things to consider afterwards (for instance; what appeared to be a continuity error actually ended up providing another facet to one of the characters that I had not previously considered) which is more than I can say for most action films.

marymorrissey and ... it was very very good overall nice tensions building up everywhich way, nice performances, gunfights that were more or less cyphers - it was completely unclear what was happening in em until the dust settled and you saw finally who'd survived the big brouhahas and who hadn't done.I liked it very much for its timing and phrasing however illogical a lot of it was it was very effective and the audience was beautifully manipulated through the various stages in the progress of the narrative.I have to say the big bad guy was awfully forgiving for someone who had his testicalia blown off, of course it wasn't really so, he was a backstabbing type and even if all hell had not broken loose he would certainly have wreaked havoc over his new boy soprano spot in the choir!

moimoichan6 If "Exiled" could at first appears as a cold style exercise that focuses itself on the mathematical numbers of five and two, the movie is at the end one (if not the) best Johnny To's movie, and carries within a incredible felling of freedom and melancholia. I think that with this movie, Johnny To archive to reach the level of the best of his older masters, like John Woo or Tsui Hark.FIVE : That's around this number that the all movie seems to be build. "Exiled" tells the story of five men against the world, in five parts (that means five gigantic gunfights). But the logical of the number five is broken by one of the member of this gang of five : Wo, who left them years ago. The movie stars when he comes back to Macao, where his four old friends, his wife and his baby, are waiting for him. But the unity is already lost : when they met again, two wants to kill him, and two wants to protect him. There's no wonder why this breaker of symmetry rapidly died, when he refuses to bend over the mathematical beauty of the movie. The former gang will indeed try to find a fifth member (it will be a moral mercenary), but they'll be only four to finish their road. Anyway, the movie isn't rationally build on the number five, but rapidly chooses errancy and coincidences to makes its way. That's the way the gang also fallows when he lets a coin game chooses its path. It's then in in number two, like the two faces of a coin, that the movie will find its unity. TWO : With the use of that coin, the exiled of the movie takes the face of the duality. The gunfights, if you watch them carefully, are also duels (even with multiple characters and combinations). The number two is indeed at the beginning of Johnny To's project, witch is to combine the codes of a classical Hongkongue polar (with it's killers with sunglasses and ethical from another time, its alway on the move camera, that shoots the killings like musical ballets, etc.) with the ones of 60's European westerns (...Per Qualche Dollari in piu is directly quoted, the atmosphere of the movie reminds the Peckinpah's ones, the OST is a pastiche of Moricone, etc.). It's like the movie itself is a cultural translation of Macao, the Chinese island where the movie occurs, and that has been a Portuguese colony for years. In that original mixture, the movie reminds me of "Cowboy Bebop" (an anime that also mixes Asian culture and occidental western in order to creates feeling of nostalgia and freedom) or of a reverse "Kill Bill".But this cultural duality is like an echo of the personal style of Johnny To, that always breaks his beautiful gunfights with lighter and melancholic scenes. This fusion and complementarity of the style with its subject creates a great movie, full of freedom, that becomes magnificent in its last killing, beautifully seen through the eyes of a can of Red Bull.