Review: Exiled at the Brattle

Bonds of loyalty and honor cause the group to double cross Boss Fay, resulting in a number of increasingly deadly confrontations, each staged with the balletic precision that, through John Woo, audiences have come to expect from Hong Kong gangster films. But, when the gang flees the city, penniless in a stolen car, it isn't Woo who comes to mind. It's Sam Peckinpah.

Lost in a Chinese wasteland, navigating crossroads by flipping coins, our gang spends a lot of time bonding. They sit around a fire playing the harmonica and musing about the future ("I want to open a gun shop," reveals one gunman). They indulge in homoerotic horseplay. They happen upon a hijacking and befriend a stolid, chain smoking police sniper, played with shades of Clint Eastwood by Taiwanese pop star Richie Jen. But it's To's final showdown that would color Peckinpah with jealousy.

Arriving to meet Boss Fay drunk and hysterical with laughter, the gang bonds one last time by cramming into a photobooth for a group picture. The clichés come fast. Bags of gold bars and gunmen on the balcony. A hooker in the wings. One character bites into a gold bar to judge its authenticity. The last gun battle begins and ends with the flight of a tossed Red Bull can (no bottle of whiskey for our villain). Even the unearned sentimentality of the closing moments owes something to Peckinpah's odes to the Y chromosome.

Exiled is not exactly a masterpiece, but it won't waste your time. To hasn't found much of an audience in the U.S., so this engagement at the Brattle is a rare opportunity to catch his work.