Johnny To is such a steady practitioner of the Asian gangster genre that the ease with which he tosses off the pitch-perfect "Exiled" serves to disguise the superb craftsmanship and intelligence of its design. Make no mistake, though; this is an accomplished suspense-action piece that touches on universal themes of brotherhood, exile, love and honor. Never letting the tension established in the first frames ebb for even a moment, To and writers Szeto Kam-yuen and Yip Tin-shing pull off a bad-gangsters-vs.-really-bad-gangsters tale set in 1998 Macau, a year before the Portuguese island colony is handed over to the Chinese.

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