John Woo got the band back together for A Better Tomorrow II.

Ho (Lung Ti) is offered an early parole if he helps investigate his former mentor, Lung Si (Dean Shek). He turns it down, until he learns his brother, Kit (Leslie Cheung), a police officer is involved in the investigation.

Ho doesn’t believe Si is responsible for the counterfeiting ring that the police are investigating. And he’s right, Si’s rival Ko (Shan Kwan) is the real threat, and Ko is setting Si up for the fall. Ko is dangerous, and isn’t afraid to pile up the bodies to do it.

Si flees to America to stay safe, but when he learns that Ko has had his family killed he breaks down. He’s looked after by Ken (Chow Yun-Fat), Mark’s twin brother (a great if silly way to get Yun-Fat into the film).

Ko starts sending people after Si, and Ken gets pulled into the violent world of his brother. Back in Hong Kong, Ho works on the case, and tries to keep Kit safe – his wife is expecting.

Lots of violence ensues, and Si and Ken are forced to travel back to Hong Kong for a gun and explosion filled climax.

The body count is high for both the heroes and the villains.

There are some great moments, the climax is solid. Yun-Fat gets a chance to do more dramatic work in this film than in the previous one, before Ken is drawn into the action. He even goes so far as to don his brother’s bullet-riddled coat, blurring the lines between the films and the two characters.

It’s a solid, and violent film that definitely furthers the characters introduced in the first film. They’ve grown since the first film, and shows their changes in this one. But in the end, it ends up being about the balletic violence that John Woo excels at.

Once again, it doesn’t quite have the flow of his later films, but all the pieces are there. And, in this case, it may not be all his fault. His disagreements with his producer, Hark Tsui, made for some uneven moments, and caused Woo to leave the series before he moved forward with the third film.

And the way this one ends… did it need a third film? We’ll find out next time, when I dive into the Chow Yun-Fat driven prequel, A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon.