IF EVER THERE was a film genre that's quintessentially Hong Kong, it's the triad flick. Local gangs have been mostly glamorised on screen over the past two decades, audiences bombarded by a stylised exchange of bullets, bust-ups and bling. But if the subject hasn't quite run its course, a little realism is creeping into the treatment.
Consider Johnnie To Kei-fung's Election. Although sensationally blood-spattered, not a single shot was fired throughout the movie. There are no trophy wives or glamorous mistresses, nor is there much gangland debauchery. The main character, a triad chief played by Simon Yam Tat-wah, is a single parent, and his rival (Tony Leung Ka-fai) is steadfastly married.
The grittiness of Election may surprise audiences whose view of triads is informed by John Woo's ultra-cool gangsters or the thugs with attitude in Andrew Lau Wai-keung's Young and Dangerous series. But not Chu Yiu-kong. An expert on triads, the University of Hong Kong lecturer says Election is much closer to the sordid reality of the underworld.
'Few gangsters use guns, for example, except for contract killers,' says Chu, whose criminology research has put him in touch with powerful triad sources. 'Leaders don't want those large street battles that you see in movies - somebody has to pay the medical bills for gang members hurt in the fights,' he says.
'The 'big brothers' are rarely filthy rich. Just think of how many people they'd have to share their money with - the spending is enormous when you have to entertain your peers and even minions with visits to sauna parlours and so on.'
Gangsters scoff at conventional triad flicks, Chu says. 'They say the films just don't make sense. For most triad members, life is quite tedious. It's only screenwriters who dramatise the situations.'