Exodus (2007)

Police officer Simon Yam is assigned to the statement desk one afternoon. A man is brought in for peeping on women in the ladies room. During the course of the interview the man says that he wasn't peeping on the women but trying to get evidence of a grand conspiracy being perpetrated by a large number of women with the aim of killing off the male sex. The cop thinks nothing of it until the man shows up later that night and retracts his story, insisting that what he said before was a mistake and that he really was peeping. Yam is confused because there was something about the retraction that didn't add up. Despite being warned off (the man after all is nuts) Yam begins to investigate and finds that maybe women are out to get men.Dark comedic film works for a while before running out of steam. Its good, but the problem is that once things are set up then set in motion there aren't a great many surprises. Certainly the film is often slyly funny, and it does generate a good amount of tension and unease but it kind of disappoints. Its a good idea that I don't think completely has enough to fully fill its 90 minute running time.I do have to say that the cast is first rate and is a joy to watch in action. Also a joy is the wonderful non sequitur seeming opening of guys in scuba gear assaulting a man in a hall way.Would I recommend the film? Sure,its off beat enough that its worth giving it a try, but only if it was a rental or on cable or something like that. I wouldn't pay full price for a ticket to see it in a theater.

Let's skip the formalities and build up, Exodus is a capable addition to Hong Kong's minimal catalogue of conspiratorial psychedelia, and even though it also stars Simon Yam, it actually gets the job done very well, unlike his bigger release from last year, Eye in the Sky.Yam returns to his cop roots for another foray, but here we have one of the city's more recognizable actors in a decidedly indie release that's not very well known and has been given none of the limelight treatment many lesser releases have received.Exodus is a tense, paranoid affair with an undercurrent of madness that's very subtle. There's nothing overwhelming about the story or action, but after watching the whole thing you'll have to reflect and conclude it was well worth the time and effort.So, we have Simon Yam as a cop again. Sure, but not the glamorous type he's done in many instances in the past, but rather a regular beat walker of twenty years, with apparently no ambition and even less sympathy from his superiors. This Sgt. Tsim happens to be married to a wealthy young woman (Annie Liu from Ah Sou), complete with a mother in law that's quite the nag, going on and on about how a real man should have his own business, etc.Tsim (full name Tsim Kin-Yip, which probably has more than one meaning if you ask the filmmakers) is posted to suburban Tai Po, an area that offers several interestingly desolate and rundown location opportunities. One evening, or night, Tsim takes over a deposition from another cop, only to realize he's happened on a corker: alleged sex maniac Kwan Ping Man (excellent Nick Cheung) was arrested for some peeping tom action, but claims to be investigating a wide conspiracy by women to kill all men.As ludicrous as this may sound, Tsim immediately warms to the notion, and begins to look into matters. He also starts to notice a variety of clues and other suspicious occurrences around him, a gradual process the movie does very well. There's almost no drama – Exodus is about subtlety, and this it achieves marvelously. The transition into paranoia and conspiracy-spotting is seamless.I won't spoil it for you, but there are a few minor surprises along the way. The main thing here is the viable mood and very flowing storytelling that Exodus pulls off. It's a rarity in Hong Kong these days, and in fact has always been: for the surreal, one always had to turn to the mainland or Taiwan, HK has always been almost entirely about the fast and the cashious, even in its movies. But when this one opens and what you get are a bunch of barely-clothed guys beating up a hapless victim with hammers while wearing goggles and snorkels, well, you can't help but nod the nod of warm acceptance.Plus, we also have the long-awaited return of leggy actress Irene Wan, who's on board and carries out her duties well.Director Edmond Pang (credited as Pang Ho-Cheung) has delivered the goods, making sure the film features a multitude of elements to ensure multiple viewings become warranted: for example, this reviewer would like to know why there's so much eating going on in Exodus? Seriously, of its ninety minutes, at least ten are spent taking in food.Go figure it out – it'll be rewarding.

The artful direction was the only thing which made me finish this film. The way the camera moved and all the shots on Simon Yam were very original. These artistic and unique scenes are something you will not get to see on TV or Hollywood blockbusters.A plot with logic and flow was something i was hopeful for. However, the film further gave me mindless dialogues and poor character development. Irene Wan and Yam starred in their usual roles, there was nothing compliment on their acting. The ending was really bad, i did not like it at all. Luckily, i was tired of those typical TV series and this film provided some entertainment.

At the denotative level, the film comes with an explicit theme of females' distrust on the other sex. At the connotative level, it is loaded with a wider exploration on the disequilibrium of the sexes. Set in a story line of suspected conspiracy of the feminine gender, it is a film noir with a mild degree of suspense and tension. Director Pang adopts a multiplicity of film language and cinematographic techniques alongside the restricted narrative. Pang deliberately leaves time for the audience to self-explicate the narrative and the leads' staging by use of, among others, freeze action, slow camera movement, slow cutting, lugubrious piano key strikes, subdued blue lighting and sound off, all in consonance with the tone of the story. The film is particularly slow-paced and consequently relatively hypnotic in the first half. The exposition on the lead's (Simon Yam) personality is unnecessarily long and the portray on his intrinsic psychology seems to be pointless, weak and, after all, in vanity. Pang also uses discontinuous and elliptical editing for narrative purposes. The former renders several scenes mildly undecipherable before the entire narrative is shown, although this is probably an ostentatious narrative device of Pang to intensify the audience's brain working process in a psychology loaded product. Creation of sparse mise-en-scenes together with the infrequency of dialogues further establishes a mood of alienation among characters in addition to the story's mystery mantle. If termed a comedy, the film is a noir comedy. Not surprisingly, it is not associated with logic, nor are the lines of thoughts behind the theme reasonably articulative as the screenplay is from Goo Bi GC. It is ontologically more an exquisite, eccentric and cult film aimed at a minority market.