Sightlines · reception

How Exiled was received

2006 · Johnnie To · Exiled on Sightlines

The arc

It landed in competition at Venice in 2006 to warm reviews, and its stock has only climbed since — what once looked like a stylish genre exercise is now routinely ranked among Johnnie To's two or three best films and a peak of the whole Milkyway Image project.

What’s debated

The eternal cinephile coin-flip: is Exiled or The Mission the true To masterpiece — the looser, more romantic one or the leaner, more rigorous one?

Its footprint

For many Western viewers this was the gateway drug to Johnnie To and Hong Kong's post-handover crime cinema, endlessly described as 'a western in Macau' — its balletic standoffs and the melancholy group-photo imagery are the stuff of a thousand Letterboxd reviews.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd darling and a 'start here' title for To — the film people hand you when you say you've run out of heroic-bloodshed classics.

Did you know? Exiled reunites the core cast of The Mission (1999) — Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Simon Yam, Roy Cheung and Lam Suet — but as new characters: it's a spiritual companion piece, not a sequel, and it premiered in competition for the Golden Lion at Venice.