FestivalsExiled was shown in Competition at the 2006
Venice Film Festival. It was also shown at the 2006
Toronto International Film Festival, the
2007 Bangkok International Film Festival, 2007 8th
Jeonju International Film Festival, 2008
Midnight Sun Film Festival and the 2007
Seattle International Film Festival.
Category III Rating
The film was awarded a
Category III rating (18+ restriction), particularly for one scene showing Simon Yam's character shaking hands with another gangster with their left hands turned around, making a
triads agreement handshake. The scene is present on the Mega-Star uncut Limited Edition
DVD. However, only the Category IIB cut version was released in Hong Kong theatrically.
Box office
Exiled was released in Hong Kong on October 19. The film, on opening weekend, grossed a total of HK$47,533. The film's total HK box-office take was $687,434.
It was later released in the United States with an R-rating by the
MPAA "for strong violence and some sexual content." Following its limited released in the
United States,
Exiled grossed US$20,351 on opening weekend. The film's total gross was $49,413.
Distribution
Magnolia Pictures acquired the
North American rights of
Exiled and the film was given a limited release as of August 31, 2007. The
North American DVD version of the film was released on January 11, 2008.
Critical receptionExiled received fairly good reviews in the United States. The film is currently one of the highest-rated limited-release films of 2006 on
Rotten Tomatoes at 81%. Critics often made comparisons to the early
spaghetti western pictures made by filmmakers such as
Sergio Leone and
Sam Peckinpah, hailing the film for its action sequences and dark humour.
Newsweek Magazine even awarded the film at number 4 as one of 2007's "Best Action Movie Scenes"
[1]
Some critics, however, were less enthusiastic by the film. Film critic
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film a 2.5 star rating, writing:
[2]
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“ |
Johnnie To, the director, is highly respected in this genre, and I suppose he does it about as well as you'd want it to be done, unless you wanted acting and more coherence. |
” |
Remake
Hong Kong
film distributor Media Asia Group has announced a remake of
Exiled. The company brokered a deal with
film producer Samuel Hadida, who is attached as a pro
