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

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

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

The movie is familiar on several levels but also has its own engaging style.

| May 19, 2007

The director rejuvenates the genre by connecting the dots between a criminal subculture and a much bigger sociological picture. He's finally given HK cinema its very own Godfather.

| Original Score: 5/6 | May 12, 2007

Like the best crime stories, this one isn't about how the bad guys live, it's about how we live.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Apr 28, 2007

Ready for The Godfather with a distinctly Hong Kong flavor?

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 27, 2007

Plenty of films owe a debt to The Godfather, but it's rare to see inspiration used as successfully as it is here.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 27, 2007

The surfaces gleam as luxuriously in Johnnie To's exemplary gangster thriller Triad Election as those in a similarly slicked-up Hollywood film, but the blood on the floor here seems stickier.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 25, 2007

As in the first movie, To deftly references the Godfather trilogy, examining the moral equivocation and shifting alliances among various syndicate members.

| Apr 24, 2007

Johnnie To's Election 2 is distinguished by intelligence, wit and violence but is lightly wounded by some ill-fitting moments.

| Apr 24, 2007

Each angle -- and To's take on the plight of the modern gangster -- is inspired.

Full Review | Apr 24, 2007

Triad Election is something like a surprise candy, with a hard, sweet veneer and a shockingly bitter center.

Full Review | Apr 19, 2007