Review of A Better Tomorrow II (1987) by Jonny C — 20 Mar 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010.

(1987) A Better Tomorrow II.

(Chinese with English subtitles).

ACTION.

I enjoyed this film more than I do watching the first. After the first was a monster hit in Hong Kong, audiences wanted the return of Chow Yun Fat, even after his character Mark couldn't be returned. And he does come back but as his twin brother Ken, this is yet another brilliant action film with some of the most near death experiences ever captured on film!!!

John Woo who was still making films in Hong Kong I had read almost killed some of it's co-stars like when Mark (Chow Yun-Fat) throws a grenade into a mansion- like house and of course a big explosion intensifies!! He drops the uzi that was on his hand because the explosion was so hot that he had to blow into the long overcoat he was wearing to cool down the grenades that was hanging onto the bullet holes (created from the first film) because he didn't want any of the grenades to be set off from the heat. I had read that as awesome as that looked, the explosion was so intensed that it singed the back of Chow Yun Fats hair as well as his eyebrows as he turned his back on it!! And Ti Lung whose been doing martial art films most of his natural career used a real Japanese katana on some of the men ( triad )characters and was only a few inches from really cutting them in real life. At the time John Woo loved reaslism in his films even if it means putting some of his actors in jeopardy. This is Woos first bloodbath film(which occurred at the end) and hopefully it's not the last!

Footnote: The scene when Mark was on a motel and had to shoot his way out of the motel was very similar from the ending of Sam Peckinpah's 1972 film "The Getaway". They're both different in terms of style but are similar because of the use of 'slow motion' on the scenes and both are well choreographed!!!

Action film.

4/4.