In a Hong Kong diner several months before the peninsula was to be handed back to mainland China in 1997, I witnessed a scene between a portly local businessman and a suited gaijin. They were discussing a deal over a plastic table groaning with food — the gaijin had no appetite, but the Hong Kong businessman was shoveling it in, pausing every minute or so to spit out a prawn tail. The gaijin was no match for this businessman, and the conditions of the deal seemed one-sided. Whenever the gaijin protested, the businessman shot out, "No time for nonsense, no time!" and resumed masticating.
I knew there was a moral in this about economics, stamina and gastronomy, and that it marched to the tune of the businessman's mantra: "No time for nonsense!" It also summed up the mood of Hong Kong at the time. The mainland Chinese were about to take over. So much had to be done. There certainly was no time for nonsense.
The same mood is duplicated, then multiplied by 1,000, in "Exiled," the latest from Hong Kong's martial-arts maestro Johnny To. To's last foray into international cinema had been the slow-paced violent thriller "Election" two years back. This had caused fans to remark that the director was losing a lightness of touch, was getting weighty and philosophical. No such criticism can be leveled at "Exiled," a tight, explosive package crammed with all that's enthralling about Hong Kong action movies.