Triad Election

Jimmy, a Hong Kong gangster and bootleg DVD salesman, wants to expand his business empire into mainland China, but the Chinese government catches on and tells him that can only happen if he becomes Chairman of his Triad organization. The leader of the Triads is the one with the Dragon Head Baton, an item people view with a mythic reverence akin to the rabbit's foot in "MI:3" or the boom stick in "Army of Darkness." What transpires should be of moderate interest to anyone who sat through the original "Election," and no doubt of less interest to anyone else.

Parts of this film verge on the grisly. A public knife execution looks suspiciously like they didn't hire extras and instead performed it in front of whoever happened to be on the street. There's also a harrowing scene of rival gangsters being handcuffed and locked in prison cells, wearing a dog collar and a chain attached to a German shepherd (I think that's the right one; I'm not a dog guy). In "The Departed," Leonardo DiCaprio asks if his boss is going to let the bad guys chop him up and feed him to the poor. In one part -- you can probably guess it involves the dogs -- this film takes that statement to its literal conclusion. And it's gross.

There's probably a good documentary to be made about the lives of Americans who make a living as one-line actors in foreign films. Here, it looks like a certain execution near the water was carried out by three white guys. And a lounge singer performing "House of the Rising Sun" seems white as well. This brings to mind the American soldier in "R-Point," who delivers his lines badly, but if you don't speak English, it probably doesn't matter. Which raises the question, if Chinese actors aren't convincing when they speak, how would we know? Is that why foreign films that are big here may not do well overseas, and vice versa? I'd like to think that's why the latter two "Pirates of the Caribean" made so much money, but everyone stateside saw those as well. My theory is still under development.