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A Better Tomorrow II (1987)


A Better Tomorrow II (1987)


6/10

Starring
Dean Shek
Ti Lung
Leslie Cheung
Chow Yun-fat


Directed by John Woo

A Better Tomorrow: Part 2 was nowhere near as good as the first one. The acting and the story were a step up, and I didn’t have to deal with the annoying character Kit (Ho’s brother), who in the first film overacted his anger at his brother to the point where I wanted him shot. Kit here is still headstrong and refuses to do what he’s supposed to, but at least his overacting of an angered brother is gone.

The first film was so well done that Chow Yun-fat was catapulted to the limelight, even though his character played a supporting role.

If you recall, at the end of the first film, his character Mark dies. The way they bring him back for this film is by saying that Mark had a twin who lives in New York, and he’s just as good, if not better, with a gun. The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw that was how much this reminded me of soap operas.

Like in the first film, there’s a lot of gunplay in the end when the men have to take on the main villain.

The movie is set years after the events of the first film. Ho and Kit are now reunited as brothers, and all is well in the family at the moment—except Ho is in jail. Ho is serving time for his role in the crimes he committed in the first film.

Ho is then approached to help bring down his old boss and mentor, Lung. He initially refuses out of respect for his mentor, but when he hears that his brother Kit is already undercover in Lung’s organization, he agrees.

When he approaches his mentor, Lung tells him that he’s abandoned the illegal business and is now going legitimate. The problem is that counterfeiting is happening, and all traces lead to him and his organization.

Things get crazy very quickly, and soon we land in New York, where Lung is trying to get control of things. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Ho is rising up in the organization, wanting to know more about the dealings. It’s in New York that Ken (Mark’s twin brother) takes care of Lung until they both return to Hong Kong.

How everything hits the fan and blows up is left for you to see when you watch this movie. For me, see the first one and leave this one alone.

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