After watching a disappointing My Left Eye Seeing Ghosts and Fulltime Killers, Election 2 was a great relief to his fans to see Johnnie To return to form when he handles one of his favourite genres - that of the underworld and triad who suck bloods like drinking milk. Though it does not have the austerely stylish presentation of his classic, The Mission (1999), the filming and subsequent success of the film itself is probably one of the best answers to the general concern before 1997: what would happen to the freedom of speech in Hong Kong after the handover to China by Britain.
Shot in 2006, the film closes with a dialogue between the handsome yet cold-blooded young head of an ancient triad and the weathered deputy director of a provincial (read as Guangdong Provincial) Public Security Department (played by a well-known mainland Chinese actor): now that the protagonist was an elected head of the triad (with bloods in his hands), he'd better make sure that he stayed that way (and hence destroyed the age-old election system of the triad). Prior to request, the vice director gave out the address where the presumably seal of power had been retrieved - that in the capital city near the actual municipal government in Guangzhou. The cold-hearted head of the triad was so infuriated by the demand that he hit the stout vice director with an armed bodyguard by his side on the head several times. He was however allowed to get away with his outbreak of rage: after all, the demand was made for the long term benefit of a more predictable future (because, the vice director said that they could trust him, a killer who doesn't mind his weapons in order to get what he wants).
The message here cannot be more explicit.
Election 2 epitomises the one country two systems policy: the HK filmmakers are allowed to get away with their cynical criticism to the Communist region.
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