John Woo's forays into Hollywood cinema have revealed just how childish a lot of his material can feel when it is delivered without the clouding medium of subtitles. In his earlier Hong Kong movies it is possible to allow that the melodramatic, risible and at times confusing dialogue--a disgruntled gangster exclaims "Nobody dares not give me face!" and after being shot about 43 times two of the heroes concede "Yes. We're not right"--is at least in part due to clumsy translation. However, when added to a complex plot of twin brothers, undercover cops and honourable gangsters in A Better Tomorrow II, it can often be quite difficult to keep track of what is going on, especially if you haven't seen the original. Restaurant owner Ken (Chow Yun Fat), "secret" twin brother of the dead main character of the first movie, leaves New York and returns to Hong Kong after an old friend's daughter is murdered. There he re-assembles the group of four heroes from the original movie to exact revenge and bring down a counterfeiting ring. The film loosely addresses Woo's pet themes of loyalty, betrayal and honour but, as always, any exposition is merely the excuse for a series of violent and over-the-top shoot-outs. Here the action is a long time coming, but delivers much as you would expect--violent, explosive and with a nice line in tongue-in-cheek humour. Yun Fat is cool as ever, with shades and a toothpick, gliding through scores of faceless, blood-splattered henchmen with a gun in each hand. In fact, the final bloodbath is so frenetic that it seems to lack the deliberate and graceful choreography of other Woo classics, such as Hard Boiled and The Killer, but A Better Tomorrow II is typical enough of his work to easily satisfy all but the most unforgiving action fans. --Paul Philpott
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