A Better Tomorrow II (Yinghung bunsik II, 1987)
More guns, more blood, more angst. This is a worthy sequel to the first ABT, though the premise does stretch credibility a lot, pulling a twin brother for Mark out of nowhere for seemingly no other reason than Chow Yun Fat is kick-ass cool. I wanted a lot more interaction between Ken (the twin brother) and Ho Tse Sung...wouldn't it freak the shit out of you if your dead best friend (or more than friend, slash fans) had a twin brother who showed up out of nowhere, who'd been out of the country for years living a straight life and suddenly he's travelling down the same path Mark did? There's barely any time for any real interaction between these characters, which is a shame--though I guess that leaves the door open for some fan-fiction to pick up the ball and tell the rest of that story.
Anyway, the plot, such as it is, involves Ho Tse Sung (Ti Lung) having a chance to get out of jail by going undercover to bust his old gang. Turns out his younger brother Kit is working undercover on the same operation. More complications ensue when the boss of the gang (Dean Shek as Si Lung) is set up to be wiped out, has his daughter killed, and takes shelter in New York with Mark's brother Ken. It all ends in a big bloody mess...as you might have expected, given the fact that this is a John Woo film we're talking about here.
The emphasis here in ABTII is more on Kit and Ho Tse's relationship, and there isn't nearly as much overtly slashy goodness as in the first ABT. Kit's wife Jackie gets the total shit end of the stick again...now she's pregnant, Kit's running around with another gal while undercover, and...well, I won't say no more, but it's once again a pretty thankless role in this world where brotherly (blood or not) ties mean all. It's absorbing, it's violent, it's over the top, but it's worth at least watching once. Too much John Woo, though, makes me yearn for more Jackie Chan, just to see something less depressing and with a happy ending again!
And I just have to say, holy shit, that's the same Dean Shek as Si Lung who was in "Drunken Master" and all those other old school flicks?! He was most impressive here.
SUMMARY:
Overall rating: B+ Woo's visual style and the great performances win out over the unbelievable and sometimes sloppy plot.
Droolworthiness: A- The guys all look good. Slurp 'em up with a spoon.
Slashiness: B- Nothing nearly as intense as the Ho Tse/Mark dynamic of the first ABT...though Kit and Ken seem to have a little somethin' going on between them...
Action: A If you like guns, blood, and lots of it.
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