A Better Tomorrow II details
| Format: | 18 DVD |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Chow Yun-Fat, Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Emily Chu |
| Director: | John Woo |
| Genres: | Action/Adventure - Romantic, Thriller, War, Drama - Crime, World Cinema - Chinese |
| Original title | Ying hung boon sik II |
| Collections: | Exclusive Films, Number 2s |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
A Better Tomorrow II |
18 Feature |
DVD Information
| Rental release: | Currently unavailable |
|---|---|
| Main languages: | Cantonese |
| Dubbed: | English |
| Subtitles: | English |
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Most helpful review
Awesome & Ace Addition!
By Joseph Kuby from Colne, Britain , 11 Jul 2005[Highly rated reviewer]
This film was originally over 3 hours in length and the studio balked at Woo for its length. The problem is that Woo was given a very short time to edit the film and to make matters worse both Woo & producer Tsui Hark had clashed as to how the film should be made so with Tsui being the producer, he had equal control with the editing of this film along with 3 others (Woo being the 5th editor). Woo didn't even know who was editing what.
Needless to say, the editing makes the film incoherent, incomprehensible, inconsistent, inane and insane (not to mention irresolute); which is really a shame as if it was left uncut, it could have been a classic. At best, the recent/regular version is a cult classic but even in it's hideously cinematically disfigured form, the film still has shades of bravado even if those shades are merely shadows of its former brilliant self.
The music cues from 52 Pick-Up are inspired and really help to elevate the excitement and adrenaline rush (particularly during a prolonged shootout/car chase in the streets of daytime New York).
Besides having one of the most bloodiest shootouts ever shot on film, it also has one of the best set-ups/double crosses I've ever witnessed on celluloid.
It helps that Chow Yun Fat's usage of a shotgun rivals that of Bronson's in Mr. Majestic and Arnie's in Terminator 2.
The addition of comedy was a welcome touch to this film and just seeing Chow, Leslie, Ti, Kenneth Tsang and Dean Shek side by side in the same scene (and shot) really gave it that special event feeling and thus increasing the momentum & fun factor of the story - leading to the build-up of a horrific yet hilarious showdown.
The killer with the white gloves is a nice throw-back to Le Samourai, whilst also a foreshadowing to The Killer (a Chinese remake of Le Samourai).
The shot where Dean Shek's character Lung is sprayed in the face with a hose by a little girl was influenced by one of the first short films ever created, the Lumiere brothers' Watering The Gardener (a.k.a. The Sprinkler Sprinkled).
The scene where Leslie faces off against the hitman (with intercutting shots of his pregnant wife in hospital giving birth) was no doubt taken from the Spaghetti western, Keoma.
A Better Tomorrow 2 not only inspired the dual gun action and looks of the Reservoir Dogs characters (although the look initially came from Le Samourai), but even the crazy dialogues which Tarantino is infamous for as seen & noted in the rice scene where Chow force-feeds an Italian New York-based mafioso to devour rice (the humourous black cop was a wonderful addition as well as Chow's comic touches - which is saying something as I was really just expecting it to be more of a serious scene with brief touches of darker than dark/black & bleak humour).
I think even the ending inspired Tarantino's for his directorial debut although the ending for Ringo Lam's City On Fire (the main inspiration for Reservoir Dogs) equally holds that honour as well!
This is just proof that Woo is capable of inspiring people through words besides actions.
Though speaking of actions, not only did Woo inspire himself for the sliding-down-a-staircase-with-dual guns for his action masterpiece Hard Boiled but even Keenen Ivory Wayans decided to follow suit for his film A Low Down Dirty Shame.
Considering the usage of irony in this film (which I mentioned in my review of the first film), it's ironic that Ng Man Tat gives a villainous performance which foreshadows his comic genius in his Stephen Chow outings (funnily enough, Stephen had appeared in Woo's Just Heroes).
The film is certainly not action lacked as there's 13 action sequences as opposed to the 5 in A Better Tomorrow.
Fun, funny, frenetic, fast-paced, feverish, fervent, furious and utterly & ultimately fantastic......what more could you possibly want?!
Overall a great follow-up to a classic film!- Was this review helpful to you?
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All reviews
(9)Mad but well made
By Combers (13 reviews) from Salford , 08 Feb 2008This is well made and entertaining but if piles of deaths are not for you, avoid.
The director, John Woo, is a legend.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Can't do better than to say this is silly
By a customer from London , 27 Jun 2007Although the original was passable, with a nice touch of pathos between Chow Yun-Fat and Ti Lung, this one is comic-book daft (and not in a good way). The hit ratio of good guys' bullets to bad guys' is once again ludicrously high, but in addition to that, apart from Ti Lung's, the characters are largely unsympathetic.
If you haven't seen it yet, I would recommend 'The Killer' over this, although there is a good chance you probably came to this one from that. If that is the case, I can recommend 'Infernal Affairs'.- Was this review helpful to you?
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why cant John Woo do this anymore.
By a customer from Guildford , 15 Jun 2007Apparently John Woo hates this film ,but it has to be said it works a helluva lot better than some of his American films.
You can also see where directors like Tarantino take there inspiration from and where Woo takes his from as well including Peckinpah and other American Directors.
See Woos Hong Kong films and see how far the Mozart of Mayhem has fallen in the past few years- Was this review helpful to you?
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all heart slow mo gun ballets and brotherly love
By andyhammond999 (67 reviews) from london , 09 Jun 2007up their with all the damn fine sequels that people should rave about. i liked this more than the original even the director didnt like his own film silly john woo this is much better than his american outing violent tradition, broken arrow and the awful ben affleck poop pile anyone? this has old characters getting totally destroyed and chow yun fat coming back as his characters twin bro. its about being redeemed and helping your friends and getting revenge sweet revenge. john woo at the moment will never come back from his poor films as of late windtalkers had some soul but it was so bad to watch face off is 10 years old in 2008 he needs to grab chow yun fat and make tequilla a sequel to hard boiled but we will have to just play on the game he has made of it instead boohoo. great energy in this film eventhough the first one had a shock ending this had shocks all the way through and a huge battle at the end which was pure action mayhem. a fun film to kick back and watch, the music is funny and over the top but its the 80s if rocky can do it so can john woo.- Was this review helpful to you?
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disapointed
By a customer from cornwall , 11 Dec 2006i have seen better john woo's films than this one acting was very poor, action was minamal overall a disapointing film.- Was this review helpful to you?
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