A Better Tomorrow II

The sequel to John Woo's 1986 film, and holder of one of the most extreme action finales in Hong Kong cinema. Ken, the twin brother of Mark, who died in the first film, is brought in, which returns Chow Yun-fat to the series. The story moves through the framing of a shipyard boss, an escape to New York, and the recovery of a man who has lost his mind. The script is scattered, and Woo himself disagreed with the producer Tsui Hark over the edit; two ideas of what the film should be collide inside the same text. The last forty minutes are another matter. The finale, in which three men enter a mansion and kill everyone in it, is the purest form of Woo's slow motion, two-gun, decelerated violence. That sequence set the terms for the next twenty years of Hong Kong action. Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-fat star. A necessary stop for anyone who loves Hong Kong action and Woo. For anyone who has not seen the first film, or who wants a coherent story, the first hour is a mess.