BetterTommorrow2

A Better Tomorrow II (1987)

As with the review for the original A Better Tomorrow, I apologize in advance for any misspellings of any character names due to a poorly translated DVD import of the film. Also, there are some spoilers for the first movie contained within.

It’s been an undetermined amount of time since the events of the first film, and we find Ho still in prison, serving his sentence. There has been a new counterfeiting ring set up since Ho, Mark, and Kit brought down Shing’s empire, and Ho has a chance to be released to infiltrate it. The only catch is that he’d be working against his old mentor, Lung, a man he still cares a great deal for. Ho refuses.

Kit is doing well on the police force. So well in fact, that he’s undercover attempting to gain access to Lung’s operation under the name of Billie. He woos the reputed gang lord’s daughter, Peggy, to get closer, while Ho agrees to be a part of the investigation when he finds out his brother’s involvement. Ho wants Kit to go home, to be with his pregnant wife, and see the birth of their first child.

Lung, as it would turn out, is actually a legitimate businessman with a failing shipyard. The life of crime he was once part of keeps trying to reel him back in, and he’s trying his best to be straight. Of course, this never works like the characters hope it would. After Lung is set up, Ho convinces him to leave Hong Kong and find refuge in New York, which he does. And again, trouble keeps following him.

Moving along, we’re introduced to Ken, twin brother of Mark, who met an unfortunate end in the first film. One of the mistakes A Better Tomorrow II makes is pulling the ‘twin brother’ card to have a reason for Chow Yun Fat to be there.

Ken wanted to live a life free of the crime and make an honest living, so he opened a Chinese restaurant where he goes out of his way to keep his employees happy and help them with the transition of life from Hong Kong to the United States. Ken is not a man to cross, though, and we see this firsthand when a pair of thugs start making a ruckus and demanding he pay them for protection. The scene speaks for itself, and it shows that though Mark and Ken look the same, they’re two different people. Where Mark would take the violent approach immediately, Ken uses it as a last resort.

That’s enough about the plot, and quite frankly, that’s because it isn’t all that great. The original was, dare I say it, a masterpiece of Asian cinema. It was also a pretty big success, both for John Woo and the star power of Chow Yun Fat, who was considered box office poison prior to the original’s release. And we all know successful films get a sequel.

If the stories and rumors surrounding this movie are true, John Woo and producer Tsui Hark had differing viewpoints regarding the direction A Better Tomorrow II should take, which turned into a falling out between the two. The end result was Hark re-directing at least 50% of the movie, and splitting the editing duties with Woo. Reportedly Woo’s cut of the film had a run time of approximately three hours, which I’m inclined to believe, because his cut of Mission: Impossible II was also about the same.

If I may be so bold to make a comparison, A Better Tomorrow is First Blood, where A Better Tomorrow II is Rambo: First Blood Part II. The plot is given a back seat for more action sequences, which aren’t bad by any means, but if I don’t care about the characters as I did for the ones in the original, the action sequences aren’t as meaningful.

Kit and Ho don’t get as much screen time as compared to Ken and Lung, and after seeing Lung catatonic and infantile once, the point is made, get on with it. Instead it’s rehashed several times. You can almost sense some of the trademark Woo symbolism in those sequences, however, and for me that gives the rumors more weight. That just isn’t John Woo’s style; surely he wouldn’t have left them in.

A Better Tomorrow II still tries to keep in place the themes of the first; honor, loyalty, brotherhood, and family. The events of this film take away what means most to the characters of Ho, Lung, and Ken, to the point where they have nothing but each other. And Ho’s cab company boss from the first, film, of course. Together, these men embark on a mission of bloody vengeance in exactly the style of what you’d expect from John Woo.

The final fifteen minutes of this movie contain perhaps one of the best shootouts ever captured on celluloid. If you feel that it pales in comparison to the first, this gunfight is what you came for. It by no means justifies the inconsistencies or leaps of faith the rest of the film require you to take, but it’s worth the price of admission. To be slightly crude, it’s an orgasm for the eyes.

To be completely fair, this movie usually induces one of two reactions, love it or hate it. I can honestly see why it’s loved by some, among those Quentin Tarantino, who cites it regularly as an inspiration. But it’s just up to snuff for me.

2 out of 4

reviewed by Seth Moore