A Better Tomorrow was a great movie in the way that it made you want to know what happened after it was over. That is why this works as a sequel, because if the two films were pieced together, it would create a single coherent film. That is the problem that many film-makers have with sequels. More often than not, it feels like the add-ons to film series don't make sense in the context to the originals. A Better Tomorrow 2 puts the viewer back into familiar territory from the get go, but also manages to not come off as more of the same.

Now here is the genius aspect of this movie that separates Woo and Hark from the rest of us. They realized that the main attraction of this series to many people is Chow Yun-Fat. But what to do after the unfavorable conclusion to the first film? Who could possibly replace him on the movie posters? There can’t be A Better Tomorrow without Fat now can there? Well, they obviously thought this exact same thing, because they came up with the idea that Mark (Fat from ABT1) should have a twin brother named Ken in this film, thus allowing Chow Yun-Fat to star! Genius I tell ya. So that problem is solved, and it doesn’t ever come off as a stupid idea, because Chow Yun-Fat works so well in this series. He returns with the same amount of grit and charisma as he had before, but still seems like a different character than Mark.

Then there is the character of Ho’s old boss Lung. Once this man goes bonkers, you get kind of a Chinese “I Am Sam” thing goin’. Which is fine and all, but it took me off guard at first. He’s like a foaming at the mouth version of Sammo Hung in Heart of Dragon. These scenes weren’t boring in the least, though, because him and Chow Yun-Fat pull off some memorable performances together. And once he snaps out of it, things get back up to speed again.

Since some scenes take place in New York, we are guaranteed to hear some great lines spoken in English. Alot of these are horribly dubbed over, but Fat had so many badass lines in English that made these scenes worth watching. One of my favorites is, “For you, rice is nothing. But for us, rice just like my fada and mudda. Don’t fuck with my family!!”. The English actors were godawful though, and I couldn’t help but cringe everytime they opened their pie-holes.

The action is more or less what you would expect from Woo. It’s all really well done, but like the first film, the focus is less on the fighting than it is the story. This is very important, because it wouldn’t work out the other way around. The story flows well and leads up to inevitable action, instead of violence being thrown in for the sake of it. One of the most impressive scenes was when Ken was trying to get the still-insane Lung out of his apartment, while being attacked by tons of guys. He busts out the infamous shooting-two-guns-while-sliding-backwards-down-a-staircase move, that people like me made famous. And as usual it all boils down to the balls to the wall finale, where anything can happen. It gets to the point where if I don’t see an over the top ending battle like this I feel cheated. It seems that a lot of people are unsure about the ending, but I think it is clear enough as to what happens.

According to the back of my DVD, this is “Considered by many fans to be superior to the original”. I’ve heard a lot of people say this, and I can see why, but I would say I prefer the first one. That doesn’t make this movie bad in any way, because the two films connect in the way they should, sort of like the Ring series. This second film is a necessary piece to the story line, and a damned good movie at that.