Exiled

A quartet of hitmen in pre-handover Macau find the bonds of friendship tested when they fall on opposite sides in their latest assignment. An elegiac mix of ritual, camaraderie and impending doom – staged with To’s typical feel for pauses, hesitations and sudden eruptions – the film showcases his regular ensemble playing in brilliant harmony, with Anthony Wong most fully embodying the film’s bruised humour and weary grace.

The widescreen frame turns every room into a pressure chamber, a space for a melancholic dance between loyalty and inevitability that plays closer to Peckinpah or Leone than to a contemporary gun opera. With Simon Yam.

35mm print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.