MovieChat Forums > Hak se wui: Yi woo wai kwai (2006) Discussion > Two Years?

Two Years?

posted 17 years ago by samlwas
3 replies | jump to latest

I liked both 1 and 2, but I thought it was strange that they would hold an election every two years. It seems like they would have longer terms to avoid conflict (I know it was their tradition, but it should have been a predictable problem even back then).

Even stranger than that is that chairmen are not allowed to run for reelection. Call me crazy, but didn't it seem like Uncle Teng had been chairman for a while?

I guess one term of two years makes some sense since a disgruntled candidate could always wait for the next election. But I don't think you'd be able to run a crime organization very well if everyone knew that you had to leave in a couple years anyway.

Does anyone know if organizations have been actually known to do this?

-Mike

[–] zenzenwakarimasen 16 years ago

Uncle Teng is not chairman, he is the most repected person in their group. this is the asian thing the eldest got more respect, not that because he is chairman or leader.

[–] MaadDawg1 11 years ago

He said he was chairman in the first movie...

[–] d12s34f57 14 years ago

the triad organization this movie alludes to is more of a collection of gangsters than a tightly controlled criminal organizations. There are certain perks and power the leader of the pack enjoy and there are traditions to follow. But at the end of the day, each senior leaders of the "society" runs his/her little fiefdom and enjoys high level of autonomy. The elected leader usually also has his/her own group/power base, he's usually leader of a faction inside the larger group. It's actually quite a common organizational structure in Hong Kong triad if you believe what many movies say. The divisional leaders of a gang work and contribute money to the leadership of the whole group, some are elected, others are hereditary, but ultimately, those people control their own section of the group.

If you take a look at Chinese history, you'd say the relation between central government and provincial governments is actually quite familiar to what you see in this movie between the chairman of the group and various gangsters covering various neighborhoods. There are seniority and power differences. But it's not a one way street where chairman barks power commands and subordinates follow them. Chairman is more of a consensus builder rather than an absolute leader.

Hope for the best,plan for the worst,enjoy the rest