A Better Tomorrow 2

Plot

Several years after the events of A Better Tomorrow, Sung Tse-ho (Ti Lung) is offered early parole by the police in exchange for spying on his former boss and mentor, Lung Sei (Dean Shek), who is suspected of heading a counterfeiting operation. Inspector Wu (Lau Siu-ming), the leader of the crime task force, wants to mark his retirement with the capture of a high profile criminal like Lung.

However, Ho, still loyal to Lung, initially declines. He changes his mind when he discovers that his younger brother Sung Tse-kit (Leslie Cheung) is working undercover on the same case, and agrees to go undercover to protect his brother, who is expecting a child along with his pregnant wife Jackie (Emily Chu). While working the case, the two brothers meet and agree to work together on the investigation.

After being framed for murder, Lung seeks Hos help. Ho is able to help him escape to New York, but Lung suffers a psychotic break and is institutionalised after receiving news of his daughters murder and witnessing his friend being killed.

Meanwhile, Ho learns that Mark Lee has a long-lost twin brother, Ken (Chow Yun-fat), a former gang member who went legitimate and left Hong Kong as a teenager to travel across America, eventually settling and opening a restaurant in New York City. However, Ho tracks down Ken and enlists his assistance in freeing Lung and nursing him back to health.

Targeted by both assassins hunting for Lung as well as American mobsters looking to extort Kens business, Ken and Lung (who is still catatonic) go into hiding in an apartment building, and where Ken arms himself. During a shoot-out with the mobsters, but Ken and Lung find themselves cornered. Seeing Ken wounded and in trouble, Lung regains his sanity and kills the last of the Americans pursuing them.

The two return to Hong Kong and link-up with Ho and Kit. The group discovers that one of Lungs employees, Ko Ying-pui (Shan Kwan), is responsible for trying to kill Lung and has taken over the organisation in Lungs absence. Lung resolves that he would rather destroy his organisation by his own hands than let it fall into dishonor and ruin, and the team starts planning to act against Ko.

After doing some reconnaissance in Kos mansion alone, Kit is fatally wounded, roughly at the same time his daughter is born. He is rescued by Ken, who attempts to rush him to the hospital. Knowing that he wont make it, Kit persuades Ken to stop at a phone booth to call his wife. He manages, just before he dies, to name his child Sung Ho-yin (in Cantonese, "the Spirit of Righteousness").

After attending Kits funeral, Ho, Ken, and Lung take revenge on Ko by attacking his mansion during a meeting with a counterfeiting client. An enormous gun battle ensues. The three, assisted by Hos former boss in the taxi company, kill approximately 90 others (including Ko) but are all severely (perhaps mortally) wounded in the process. After the shootout ends, the three sit down in the mansion and are surrounded by the police, led by Inspector Wu. Upon seeing the condition of the men, Wu motions to the other officers to lower their weapons. Ho remarks that Inspector Wu shouldnt retire yet as there is "much work left for [him] to do."

Cast

Theme song

Music cues

This film contains music cues from other films:

Release

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on DVD in the US in January 2001. Extras include the trailer and biographies. In June 2004, HKflix.com released it again on DVD along with its two sequels in a boxed set. Hong Kong Legends released a special collectors edition in the UK in September 2006.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 83% of six surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 7/10. Writing in Sex and Zen & A Bullet in the Head, Stefan Hammond and Mike Wilkins describe the film as "gorged with Woos trademarks" and "a funhouse exaggeration of its central motifs".

Award nominations