Ying hung boon sik II (1987)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

John Woo

Writers:

Hark Tsui (story)
John Woo (writer)

Release Date:

17 December 1987 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A restauranteur teams up with a police officer and his ex-con brother to avenge the death of a friend's daughter.

Plot Keywords:

Brother | Police | Mafia | Boss | Twins

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Dean Shek	...	Lung Si
Lung Ti	...	Sung Tse-Ho (also archive footage) (as Ti Lung)
Leslie Cheung	...	Sung Tse-Kit (also archive footage)
Yun-Fat Chow	...	Ken / Mark Lee / Mark 'Gor' (also archive footage) (as Chow Yun Fat)
Emily Chu	...	Jackie Sung
Fui-On Shing	...	Ko's Right-Hand Man
Kenneth Tsang	...	Ken
Regina Kent	...	Peggy Lung
Sing Chau Wai
Marco Wo
Ken Boyle	...	Bearded Crime Boss
Ming Yan Lung	...	Chong
Sammy Lee
Chindy Lau
Shan Kwan	...	Ko Ying Pui
Paul Francis
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mike Abbott
Dean Harrington	...	Hitman in the hallway
Mark King	...	Shotgun Pete
Siu-Ming Lau	...	Inspector Wu
Waise Lee	...	Shing (archive footage)
Ming Leung
Man Tat Ng	...	Mr. Wong
Peter Wang	...	Sam
Charles Dumas	...	New York Cop (uncredited)

Directed by
John Woo

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Hark Tsui		story
John Woo		writer

Produced by
Paul J.Q. Lee	....	associate producer
Hark Tsui	....	producer

Original Music by
Joseph Koo
Lowell Lo

Cinematography by
Wing-Hung Wong

Film Editing by
David Wu

Production Design by
Andy Lee
Chi Fung Lok

Costume Design by
Pauline Lau

Production Management
Tony Chow	....	post-production manager
Kar Man Won	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Randy Ostrow	....	assistant director: New York

Stunts
Siu-Tung Ching	....	stunt coordinator
Phil Neilson	....	stunt performer
Peter Rocca	....	stunts
Chi-Lung Wu	....	assistant stunt coordinator
Tak Yuen	....	assistant stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Jonathan Burkhart	....	assistant camera
Kim-Kit Chik	....	lighting technician
Jules Labarthe	....	director of photography: second unit
Clay Liversidge	....	gaffer: New York

Editorial Department
Simon Broderick	....	colorist

Music Department
David Wu	....	music editor

Other crew
George Camarda	....	location manager
Siu-Tung Ching	....	action choreographer
Siu-Tung Ching	....	action director
Hark Tsui	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Cinema City Film Productions
• Film Workshop

Distributors

• Golden Princess Film Production Limited (1987) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• STAR TV Filmed Entertainment (1993) (worldwide) (all media)
• Intercontinental Video (2004) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS) (retail)
• Fox Crime (2007) (Japan) (TV)
• Gordon's Films (USA)
• Hong Kong Legends (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• Manga Films
• Reserva Especial (Brazil) (VHS)
• World Wide Cinema (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS) (rental)

Special Effects

• Cinefex Workshop Co. Ltd.

Other Companies

• Cinema City (Film Production) Co. Ltd. Editing Unit  editing
• Cinema City Film Productions  equipment provided by
• Cinema City Recording Studio  sound re-recording
• International Subtitle Co.  subtitles
• Salon Films  equipment provided by
• Universal Laboratory  film processing

Also Known As:

A Better Tomorrow II (Hong Kong: English title) (USA)
Better Tomorrow: Rapid Fire II (Philippines: English title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | Cantonese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:R (Ontario) | Malaysia:18PL | France:-12 | South Korea:15 (2008) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) (re-rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Hong Kong:IIB | New Zealand:R18 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (cut) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | USA:R | Japan:R-15 | Ireland:18

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Cinema City Film Productions

Trivia:

Director 'John Woo' and producer 'Tsui Hark' had disagreements over the focus of this film. Tsui felt that the film should focus more on the Dean Shek character. This led to the film being edited in halves by both Tsui and Woo. Woo has all but disowned this film apart from the final gun battle.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Kit gets shot in the basement, we can see a shadow of the camera.

Quotes:

Ken: [To Ko and Sung, after a bloodbath] We're dying; can we leave now?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Matrix (1999)

Soundtrack:

Forward To The Days In The Future

Misses the Mark, in too many ways

The first 'A Better Tomorrow' was a stunning, kinetic and emotional roller-coaster that changed the face of HK cinema. The success of ABT meant a sequel and some bright spark decided that Chow Yun Fat (whose character was definitely quite dead at ABT's finale) should make a return.

A prequel would have made more sense, but instead Chow yun Fat returns as dead Mark's identical twin Ken. Holy plot contrivances Batman! After reformed gangster Ho is sent to prison at the end of ABT, his brother Kit has gone undercover to investigate a suspected counterfeiter. Given the chance to join the investigation, Ho is released to act as an informer, if only so he can protect Kit.

All good so far right? The film does well to pick up from where last time left off, thankfully bringing back Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung... but then totally takes the wrong direction. To me, Chow Yun Fat may have been the charismatic centre of ABT but it was always about the brothers Ho and Kit. In ABT2, the film spends way too much time on two NEW characters - the twin brother Ken and framed gangster Si Lung, who is gradually going insane after falling foul of Hong Kong's triads. For every tense sequence of Ho and Kit's investigation, there's two or more scenes or Si Lung's shaking and shuddering and Ken's attempts to snap him out of it.

As far as the action goes, there are no complaints here. The finale is top-drawer chaos on behalf of John Woo and at least gets a great build up sequence to lead into it. But the story focuses on characters and subplots that, to be frank, are mostly irrelevant. Before you criticise me, I love Woo's other work. But saying 'this is a John Woo film' and that 'action is the priority' would do a disservice to the original, which may have changed action cinema, but always kept in mind the story and characters at hand.