(Directed by Johnnie To from a script by Yau Nai-hoi and Yip Tin-shing; starring Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Louis Koo, and Nick Cheung. Released 20 October 2005; watched 2023w09 via Criterion Channel)

Took awhile for me to find ELECTION's narrative rhythm but once I did, it had me. Phenomenal performances all around, especially Yam as Lok and Leung as Big D. While proclaimed as Hong Kong's answer to THE GODFATHER (and there are similarities, certainly – Big D is nothing if not a hybrid of Sonny Corleone, The Joker, and 45 after the 2020 election, while Lok relishes in the post-ascension Michael role – even getting his own baptism sequence, though far more willing to get his own hands dirty), I never quite felt the suffocating binds of the familial, mythological or real - but it's unfair to compare the two: ELECTION stands on its own and should be judged on its own merits, of which there are legion. Queuing up the sequel for later this week or early next.