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Election
Movie

Election

2005 • Unknown

Woke Score
1.6
out of 10

Plot

After losing an election to become chairman of the Wo Lin Shing triad, a gang leader lashes out and tries to seize the dragon-head baton, the official symbol of a chairman's authority.

Overall Series Review

Election is a Hong Kong crime film focused on the power struggle between two ruthless gang leaders, Lok and Big D, as they compete to become the new chairman of the Wo Lin Shing triad society. The narrative follows the brutal maneuvering, betrayal, and violence that erupts after the elders select the new leader, contrasting one candidate's calm, manipulative facade with the other's impulsive aggression. The entire plot centers on the pursuit of the Dragon-Head Baton, the ancient symbol of the chairman's authority, illustrating how tradition and ritual quickly dissolve into a raw, amoral fight for dominance. The film is a dissection of power, hierarchy, and loyalty within a male-dominated criminal organization, showing the cyclical nature of violence and corruption in the pursuit of absolute control.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The narrative centers on a power struggle entirely within a specific Hong Kong Chinese triad, the Wo Lin Shing Society. The character conflict is based purely on individual ambition, ruthlessness, and an internal dispute over the triad’s criminal hierarchy, not on race or any modern Western intersectional lens. The casting is culturally authentic to the Hong Kong triad setting.

Oikophobia2/10

The movie scrutinizes the traditions and rituals of the triad society itself, showing them to be hypocritical facades that cloak greed and brutality. This is an internal deconstruction of a criminal culture's 'heritage' by exposing its lack of true code. The criticism is not aimed at Western civilization, the Hong Kong nation, or one's ancestors in a broad civilizational self-hatred sense, but specifically at the savage nature beneath the formal institutions of organized crime.

Feminism1/10

The entire story revolves around a hyper-masculine power struggle for leadership of a male-dominated crime syndicate. Major female characters are virtually absent from the power structure. The few female roles are minor and peripheral to the central conflict, often shown as wives or victims, not idealized 'Girl Boss' figures or Mary Sues. The narrative does not contain anti-family or anti-natal messaging.

LGBTQ+1/10

The core of the film focuses exclusively on the violent, male-centric dynamics of a triad election. There is no presence of alternative sexualities being centered, nor is there any narrative thread deconstructing the nuclear family as an 'oppressive' institution. The content is entirely devoted to the pursuit of power within a traditional, secretive criminal hierarchy.

Anti-Theism3/10

The film’s central theme is the triumph of pure, cynical power over all pretense of morality or ancient code. This creates a deeply amoral and relativistic worldview where 'Objective Truth' is irrelevant and power is the only law. However, the hostility is directed at the triad’s own rituals and codes—a pseudo-religion of the gang—not explicitly at traditional organized religion like Christianity or other major world faiths.