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Le syndicat du crime 2

Original title: Ying hung boon sik II
  • 1987
  • 12
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, and Lung Ti in Le syndicat du crime 2 (1987)
GangsterGun FuActionCrimeDramaThriller

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

  • Director
    • John Woo
  • Writers
    • Hing-Ka Chan
    • Suk-Wah Leung
    • Hark Tsui
  • Stars
    • Leslie Cheung
    • Chow Yun-Fat
    • Lung Ti
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    12K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • John Woo
    • Writers
      • Hing-Ka Chan
      • Suk-Wah Leung
      • Hark Tsui
    • Stars
      • Leslie Cheung
      • Chow Yun-Fat
      • Lung Ti
    • 77User reviews
    • 27Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 3:18
    Trailer

    Photos48

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    Top cast37

    Edit
    Leslie Cheung
    Leslie Cheung
    • Sung Tse-Kit
    Chow Yun-Fat
    Chow Yun-Fat
    • Ken
    • (as Chow Yun Fat)
    • …
    Lung Ti
    Lung Ti
    • Sung Tse-Ho
    • (as Ti Lung)
    Dean Shek
    Dean Shek
    • Lung Si
    Shan Kwan
    Shan Kwan
    • Ko Ying Pui
    Emily Chu
    Emily Chu
    • Jackie Sung
    Kenneth Tsang
    Kenneth Tsang
    • Uncle Ken
    Man-Tat Ng
    Man-Tat Ng
    • Boss Wong
    Ming Yan Lung
    Ming Yan Lung
    • Chong
    Peter Wang
    • Father Sam
    Shing Fui-On
    Shing Fui-On
    • Pui's Right-Hand Man
    • (as Fui-On Shing)
    Regina Kent
    • Peggy Lung
    Siu-Ming Lau
    Siu-Ming Lau
    • Inspector Wu
    Ken Boyle
    • Bearded Crime Boss
    Louis Roth
    • Protection Money Collector
    Ming Leung
    Ming Leung
    • Uncle Chan
    Mike Abbott
    • Assassin
    Chindy Lau
    Chindy Lau
    • Ken's Restaurant Worker
    • Director
      • John Woo
    • Writers
      • Hing-Ka Chan
      • Suk-Wah Leung
      • Hark Tsui
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews77

    7.211.9K
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    Featured reviews

    DJ Inferno

    Still better than Woo´s Hollywood standard!

    Even though "A Better Tomorrow II" is a pretty good sequel to its great predecessor, it is no masterpiece like "The Killer", but still much better than Woo´s awful Hollywood-garbage "MI:2"!!! Once more Chow Yun Fat´s giving an over the top performance, the gunfights are well choreographed and the score of Joseph Koo and Lowell Lo are real adrenalizers! This film doesn´t deserve the predicate "cult movie" and it will never reach the status of it, but nevertheless it´s a fine Hong Kong-actioner that lovers of Asian cinema should check out!
    8MovieMaster95

    A Far From Perfect But Satisfying Conclusion To The Original

    After the movie 'A Better Tomorrow' became a big success around Hong Kong, a sequel was inevitable to happen. Most of the original cast return, including Chow Yun-Fat as Mark Lee's twin brother Ken.

    Taking place a few years after the events of the first film, we see how things are finally starting to look up. Ho is in prison but he's finally re concealed his relationship with his brother Kit, who has become a loving husband and soon to be father. But like the first film, things get bad real quick. Ho's former master Lung has been framed for murder and even loses his mind as his life gets worse. He's sent over to New York to keep a low profile and to be looked after by Ken who owns a restaurant and lives there. Meanwhile Ho and Kit are working together to end the triad gangs.

    This is where the problem starts. The first film revolved around Ho and the people around him, but this film spends way too much time with Ken trying to get Lung back to normal. Ho and Kit's plot seems to delve deeper into the main story ark, yet they never seem to get enough scenes. Ken is pretty much similar to Mark although he may be a little darker and you can tell he's only in the film because of Chow Yun-Fat's character was so popular in the last film.

    The film doesn't seem to make a huge continuation onto the first film either. Instead of being it's own story, it seems to just be an expansion of the first film, but not in a good way. We don't delve too much into the characters and they seem underused. The film is also known for having a sillier feel in a few scenes(Famous Rice Scene), but it didn't ruin the experience for me. These flaws are apparently due to disagreement between John Woo and producer/second writer Tsui Hark about the tone of the film, causing Woo to disown most of the film, except the end shootout. John Woo's original cut was around 3 hours and is rumoured to improve on some of the flawed moments. A version I hope will appear in some future release of the film.

    Now for the goods. The film seems to get noticeable better during the second half, beginning with the amazing hotel shootout. The film is well known for it's exaggerated violence and blood and the film doesn't disappoint. The action is a big step up from the first and some of the best ever filmed for its time. Chow Yun-Fat is once again cooler than ice, with his trademark sunglasses, trench coat, matchstick and dual pistols and may be one of the main appeals of the film. The Climatic assault on the triad mansion is one of the greatest shootouts and one of the greatest ending ever filmed. It's no wonder that it's the only thing Woo likes about the film. The amazing soundtrack returns and their are a few emotional scenes that actually work well.

    With many iconic scenes (The stairs scene being one), the film is a lot better than it gets credit for. The film is no masterpiece and doesn't compare to the first but it has its moments. Silly and flawed moments aside the film is actually quite enjoyable and as long as you keep an open mind, I think you'll enjoy this conclusion to the Better Tomorrow saga. Part 3 doesn't count!
    5mjscarface

    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.
    7Leofwine_draca

    Ultra-violence, the Hong Kong way

    A BETTER TOMORROW II is the superior follow-up to the John Woo original. This time around, both Tsui Hark and Woo share directorial duties in a typical tale of gangsters. Betrayal, violent shoot-outs and madness are the order of the day, and for the most part you'll be watching for the exemplary action.

    Be warned: this is a film that requires you to suspend your disbelief. Chow Yun Fat's character doesn't return from the original - for obvious reasons - so instead his 'twin brother' makes an appearance here. Still, it gives Woo the chance to feature his favourite actor in more outrageous set-pieces, with the stair-sliding scene being a real highlight here.

    The storyline involves a couple of ex-cons given the task of going undercover to take down a suspected smuggler (Dean Shek, of DRUNKEN MASTER fame). They soon find themselves embroiled in a murky world where a crime boss is planning a massive takeover and murder is the order of the day. As in GOD OF GAMBLERS, one character's madness takes up a big part of the running time.

    What you get here are a number of Hong Kong megastars (alongside Yun Fat, Ti Lung has a welcome role, plus A Chinese GHOST STORY's Leslie Cheung) indulging themselves in some frenetically exciting shoot-outs. Woo's action choreography is superb, with hard-hitting bullets flying around the screen, slow motion blood sprays, and all manner of outrageousness. The ending, which is impossibly violent and over the top, proves a neat precursor to the later madness of THE KILLER and HARD-BOILED.
    7winner55

    fun ultra-violence - but not the Wild Bunch

    This film broke off a potentially very creative relationship between Tsui hark and John Woo; and it certainly feels like more than one film Certainly, until Chow Yun Fat shows up, the plot is a little complicated, and a little unbelievable. Once Chow appears, the plot becomes wildly unbelievable, but one can follow it with amusement and interest. Ti lung must also be credited with turning in a strong and well-grounded performance, even when the script calls for him to get schmaltzy.

    This is also the film that salvaged character actor dean Shek from obscurity, he wanted to prove he could act, and though he over acts occasionally, he actually does pretty well, especially in the final gun battle.

    It must be said that throughout his career, John Woo has repeatedly attempted to grasp the essence of the 'battle of bloody porch' from Sam Peckinpah's "the Wild Bunch" and duplicate it - and he has always failed. that's because (to be honest) Woo is a believing Christian; and although raised in the Calvinist tradition, Peckinpah clearly does not believe. Woo simply cannot grasp the basics of Peckinpah's existentialism.

    Consequently, the final battle here, while a lot of gory fun, doesn't really make the point Woo clearly wants for it (which is a believing Christian's interpretation of the Wild Bunch), but - never mind. On its own terms, as I say, it's quite fun.

    As for the 'serious' story concerning the young undercover cop and his pregnant wife, I didn't believe it for a moment, and, frankly, didn't care. I'm afraid I'm not a believing Christian, either.

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      John Woo's first cut was about 160 minutes long. He and producer Hark Tsui had disagreements over the focus of the film. Tsui felt that it should focus more on the Lung, while Woo's original version focused more on characters Ken and Kit. Hark also insisted that the film should be shortened to a commercially viable length, which in Hong Kong is considered under 120 minutes, so theatre owners could show the film at least eight times a day.

      Woo refused to cut it down and when he and Hark couldn't agree about the focus of the film and how it should be re-edited, Hark went and started secretly re-editing it himself, since he had equal control with the editing along with three other editors (Woo being the fifth). At the same time when Hark would cut some parts out, Woo would secretly put the missing parts back in. With only a week remaining before the film was to be released in theaters, and with pressure from the studio and distributors to trim the film down, Woo and Hark agreed to send the movie to "Cinema City Editing Unit", which meant that they sent each reel of the film to one of Cinema City's editors, who would then go to work on his particular reel. There was no overall supervision whatsoever by either Woo or Hark. Each of these editors just cut things out as they saw fit, then returned the reels. What they came up with is now the official released version of the film.

      When Woo saw this final version, which was 105 minutes long, in the theater for the first time he was so shocked to see how badly it was re-edited that he disowned the film; to this day the only part he said he considers to be his work is the final shootout sequence. Woo's director's cut was only shown once to film executives in Hong Kong, before all the re-editing problems began. The Hong Kong trailer--5-1/2 minutes long--is the only source to get glimpses of some deleted scenes; blood-covered Kit being brutally beaten up, Kit seeing his wife while still having injuries from the beating on his face, Ken and Lung playing with the bird.
    • Goofs
      Nobody ever told Lung that his daughter is dead. Yet even Ken acts like it's a given without being told by anybody from Hong Kong.
    • Quotes

      Ken: Eat the fucking rice!

    • Alternate versions
      All 5.1 and 7.1 sound mixes found on various DVD- and Blu-ray editions feature added and re-dubbed sound effects, and vary greatly from the original monaural soundtrack.
    • Connections
      Edited from Le syndicat du crime (1986)
    • Soundtracks
      The Abduction
      by Gary Chang

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    FAQ15

    • How long is A Better Tomorrow II?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 28, 1993 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • Hong Kong
    • Languages
      • Mandarin
      • Cantonese
      • English
    • Also known as
      • A Better Tomorrow II
    • Filming locations
      • Four Seas Restaurant - 366 West Broadway, New York City, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Film Workshop
      • Nova Media
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 45m(105 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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