Renowned Hong Kong director Johnnie To's stylish new action film Exile hit Hong Kong cinema screens on Tuesday.

Cast members, including Anthony Wong, Francis Wu, Simon Yam and Richie Ren, attended the press conference in Hong Kong yesterday. However, Anthony Wong's name was glaringly missing from the huge poster onstage, which was a cause of some embarrassment.

The 40 million yuan project is a loosely related sequel to To's earlier film The Mission: Exiled. The new film was shown at this year's Venice Film Festival in August.

It is possible that Exile might not make it to Chinese mainland screens because censors believe it contains too many bloody and violent scenes.

(CRI October 18, 2006)