Election

Election (; literal title: Black Society, a common Cantonese reference to the triads), is a 2005 Hong Kong crime film directed by Johnnie To. Featuring a large ensemble cast, the film stars Simon Yam and Tony Leung Ka-fai as two gang leaders engaged in a power struggle to become the new leader of a Hong Kong triad. The film premiered as an "Official Selection" at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, before being released in Hong Kong on 20 October 2005, with a Category III rating. A sequel, Election 2 (also known as Triad Election in the United States), was released in 2006. Hilary Hongjin He, a doctoral student at the University of Western Sydney, stated that compared to its sequel, this film is "less political or suspicious" from a Mainland standpoint. Plot In Hong Kong, the Hongmen-descendant and 50,000-strong triad Wo Lin Shing elects a new chairman every two years. The two leading contenders of the current election, Lok and Big D, carry out some last-minute "campaigning". Lok is calm, patient and even-tempered, while Big D, who attempts to buy the election with bribes, is boisterous, impatient and quick-tempered. After some quarrelling among both candidates' supporters, the triad's elders elect Lok as the new chairman. Big D refuses to honour the result, and instead attempts to obtain the triad's dragonhead baton, a symbol of the chairman's authority, from Whistle, the previous chairman. Whistle orders for the baton to be hidden. Lok also has his supporters search for the baton.