Director To doesn't sacrifice substance to style. The over-the-top violent flourishes, more psychological than paint-the-screen-red literal, will burrow under your skin.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009

Whatever he lacks in narrative drive, To is still the master of style.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 7, 2007

Drips with a thick, Stygian darkness, but also offers violence that's too explicit and willfully perverse to be thoughtfully disturbing. . . . a little too overwrought, too operatic after its regal predecessor.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2007

The exposition is perfectly balanced with bloody action and muscular set-pieces.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2007

The film's violence erupts in rare, staccato bursts, all the more horrifying for coming out of nowhere.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 24, 2007

If it is too stylistically modest to win converts among the multiplex crowd, the film surely rewards followers of the genre.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 11, 2007

tackles big ideas like the preservation of tradition and the overall reach of destiny, but also slyly suggests that the Triad of the 21st Century has evolved into something like a giant corporation.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 14, 2007

If Machiavelli's The Prince and Sun Tzu's The Art of War translate to other centuries and cultures, so might Election and Triad Election.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 13, 2007

[Director To's] talent for documentary-style realism and navigating complex political systems sets him apart, though his nationalism puts him squarely in the mainstream.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 12, 2007

The movieâ(TM)s most powerful component is political.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/6 | Jul 12, 2007

This remains a well-crafted genre movie, and one that promises further developments in its final scene.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 6, 2007

Dense, demanding concentration, lacking any romantic (but plenty of sordid) violence, extremely involving and rewarding of careful attention.

| Jun 21, 2007

Like the late John Frankenheimer, director To marries his drama with action and superb composition to achieve compelling results at times.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 18, 2007

If you're willing to do the work, Triad Election pays you in tragedy.

| Original Score: B | Jun 15, 2007

... exhibit A in the case for the Hong Kong gangster film as the new genre standard.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 14, 2007

Shameless pulp it may be, but to watch it is to see a master craftsman continuing to refine his talent.

| Jun 13, 2007

Into a season of Hollywood blockbusters, this import arrives with the impact of a high-velocity bullet.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 8, 2007

Like any good sequel, this film takes what is familiar with the original's concept -- in this case, an internecine struggle for supremacy -- and deepens it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 8, 2007

Reveals [director] To as a master of lean, close-quarters action.

| Jun 7, 2007

Like many Hong Kong mob movies, Triad Election

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 31, 2007