Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take a John Woo's best adrenaline HK classic action sequel flick , ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off.A Better Tomorrow II (1987) is an adrenaline action sequel flick the best one of the two from John Woo. I know that the first one is an action classic for many of the people and they always going for the first one, but my favorite flick is this sequel. I know that The Godfather (1972) is my favorite film in the series but from John Woo's A Better Tomorrow is actually A Better Tomorrow II my favorite John Woo film. I love this movie to death, the acting is wonderful, believable and very realistic and Chow Yun-Fat which is my favorite actor gives one of his best convincing performances I have ever seen as Mark Gor's twin brother Ken. Not only he but everyone of the cast gives a wonderful performances on a screen which I love it.Plot: Restaurant owner Ken Gor, twin brother of Mark Gor, teams up with police detective Kit and his struggling ex-con brother Ho to avenge his old friend's daughter's death by a Triad gang.What I love about this movie is: Chow Yun-Fat does not die in this movie he acted wonderful his different character Ken. Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung are back as the brothers from the first film which I am not sure but I have saw a lot of actors from The Killer in this movie. This movie was also filmed in New York which you can see Twin Towers from the distance before it was destroyed in 9/11 terrorist attack. John Woo made one of his best action debut and making a perfect shots with the camera of this film. I admitted I am not a the biggest fan of the first and the third movie but this one surprised me which I loved it. In my opinion this film is better than the original. Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung's characters Ho and Kit are actually more well written than they were in the first. I hated it how Kit was treating his older brother beating him in the rain, treating him like a peace of garbage I hated that. In this film we see Kit's love and compassion toward his older brother Lung. Both of their characters were well written.This film is about a counterfeit dollars that are produced in the business and a new boss from Ho took over Lung Sei's business while framing Lung for a triad gang member's boss murder which he did not committed in which Lung had to flee to America New York, but his daughter was killed. The plot is about a revenge: Lung Sei (Dean Shek), Ho (Ti Lung) and Ken (Chow Yun-fat) are taking revenge against new triad boss Ko Ying-pui (Kwan Shan) and his group of army killers. Lung Sei want's revenge for the murder of his daughter Peggy (Regina Kent), Ho want's revenge for Kit's (Leslie Cheung) murder and Ken want's revenge for his restaurant in New York that has been destroyed. That is the film about. It has a lot of action and kick ass scenes and it also has a human emotional portrayal from the actors.I love the action sequences in New York from Ken (Chow Yun-Fat) in the hotel a group of assassins comes to kill Ken and Lung Sei (Dean Shek) Which Ken (Chow Yun-Fat) uses shotgun Franchi SPAS-12 and kills several mafia gangsters in the hotel New York. He fires several rounds with two Berettas 92F on a gangsters than flees while he fires another round with another gun on an assassins car. The final showdown and the last stand off with two Berettas between Ken (Chow Yun-Fat) and Chong (Lung Ming-yan) the firing scene was outstanding performed I have ever seen. John Woo tried that scene in Hard Boiled but he didn't want to copied his own work so he change it. Ti Lung uses a samurai sword and he kills bunch of gangsters. The trio of friends uses a lot of guns and grandees while killing a bunch of gangsters. The final showdown for me was spectacular.Overall: This flick get's a perfect 10 by me. Chow Yun-Fat and Leslie Cheung's screen time was beautiful shot, well written and acted perfectly. Theme score from the first movie was also beautiful, the action scenes where incredible. They don't make action movies like this one today. This flick is far way better than John Woo's Once A Thief. With Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Hard Boiled, Paycheck and The Killer would be a Better Tomorrow II my sixth John Woo favorite film that I love to death.A Better Tomorrow 2 is a 1987 Hong Kong action film written and directed by John Woo. A follow-up to its popular predecessor, A Better Tomorrow, the film stars returning cast members Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung alongside new cast member Dean Shek. The film was released in Hong Kong on 17 December 1987.10/10 Grade: Bad Ass Seal Of Approval Studio: Cinema City Film Workshop Distributed by Golden Princess Film Production Starring: Dean Shek, Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Emily Chu, Kwan Shan, Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui-On, Lam Chung, Ng Man-tat, Peter Wang, Lung Ming-yan, Louis Roth, Regina Kent Director: John Woo Producer: Tsui Hark Screenplay: John Woo, Tsui Hark Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 45 Mins. Box Office: HKD 22.700 (Hong Kong)

A Better Tomorrow 2 The hardest part of being an undercover cop is toning down your evilness to fit in with low-level thugs.Fortunately, it's a former Triad member doing the masquerading in this action movie. After years in prison, Ho (Ti Lung) is released and recruited by a task force intent on taking down a reputed counterfeiter, Lung (Dean Shek).With his brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) already under Lung's command, Ho agrees to help the police.But it's not Lung, Ho and Kit must worry about, it's Lung's lackey (Shan Kwan), who's usurping their leader.With help from an old friend's twin (Chow Yun-fat), Lung and his loyalists set out to ruin his former empire.While closely related to the characters from the first film, this John Woo helmed sequel doesn't require previous knowledge to impress viewers with its stylized gunfights. Incidentally, the best way to resolve Asian gang disputes is over karaoke.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

I will admit I was expecting better from this film as lots of people say this film is better that the first one.The only reason people say that is because of the climatic Shoot-out in the end that last for about 10 to 15 min of nonstop action. besides the ending is the film any good? It's hard to tell I will admit I felt the film was a lot longer than the first film.It was too melodramatic and the whole Twin brother idea was very out of place.Though this film has some good scenes a Apartment shootout by chow Yun fat and A very memorable scene that involves Chow-yun fat and a bowl of rice.but let's get to the review.For those that don't know whoever has not seen the first film I suggest you don't read my review because it is full of spoilers.In the first film Ho(Ti Lung) and Mark(Chow-Yun Fat)were involved in a shootout with mob boss Shing though they killed him and his gang in the end, still both paid a price. Ho was sent back to Jail and Mark was killed in the end.Now the police want to make a deal with Ho. The police want him to get close to his old boss Lung(Dean Shek) because there's reasons to believe that he's been doing illegal things.At first Ho refuses but when he finds out his Brother Kit(Leslie Cheung) is on the case he changes his mind.Now Lung has been framed for murder and goes to new york to hideout.until his assassins find him and kill his daughter and his best friend in front of him.He goes insane and loses his mind.after what happened Ho goes to reminisce of the past and finds out Mark had a twin brother name Ken who also lives in New York.Ho contacts Ken and now Ken has to protect Lung from his assassins and other enemies.Now you think this already starting to get good until it gets to some melodramatic scenes that mostly involve Kit and Lung and I feel It's a waste of time because the sub-plots interfere with the pacing of the film but it's all worth it in the ending.as for character development it's decent but not as stand-out as the first film to me I felt the film was focus more on Kit than anyone else.The problems he's going through his life having a baby, his wife thinking he's having an affair and feeling guilty for the death of lung's daughter.Though he has mature too be honest the audience dosen't care.Ho before being the main character he has dropped to a supporting character.and someone that's bad.Also the new Character the guy That's on the cover of the DVD? Ken; He's not worth mentioning he doesn't stand out like mark did.to me it's just a fake mark.as for the acting it's sub-par but it could of been worse.First i'll start with Chow Yun Fat. what can I say about Chow-yun fat I mean he's a great actor but It feels like he's on cruise control in this film to be honest I feel like chow wasn't giving his all. Ti Lung I mean he gives his usual solid performance but it's far from noteworthy or even stand out as his performance from the first film.Leslie Cheung has improved in his acting to be honest he performance of the lot was one of the memorable performance from the film.Dean Shek was too over-the-top for me his insane scenes were bad and could of been a lot better I wish the film wasn't really focusing on him.but when's normal he gives a solid performance.overall just watch the ending to be honest I was going to give this film 4 stars but save the film from the ending and chow-Yun Fat's Rice scene.

I mean if you haven't go watch that one and than come back. Did you like what you saw? If you did than rent this one. Since they do have something in common (I won't tell you what, because that would be a spoiler), you will have a blast watching this one too ... maybe you'll even watch them back-to-back! :o) Since I do expect you to have watched at least one John Woo film before reading this complete review (read above for details, if you skipped the first paragraph), than you know all the ingredient a Woo film has and I won't have to tell you much more. Only that a shoot out, that is seen here, is easily in the top 10 of all times! Again don't let any kids watch it and especially don't try anything at home! ;o)