The first live-action film adapted from the comic book “Teddy Boy” and written by Man Kai Ming, “Young and Dangerous” was a huge success and incredibly, within a few short months, its sequel hit the big screens. Again it became a massive hit which continued to generate more sequels and spin-offs.
By intercutting a series of flashbacks into the opening credits, director Lau is able to make his storyline flow smoothly and thus keeping his audiences up to date. Also by morphing the film's freeze frame image into the original comic, he ties in the storyline smoothly. What follows next also works as a prequel detailing Hung Hing society's “Chicken” Chiu's exile in Taiwan and how he becomes a branch triad leader of the local San Luen society.
The story then switches back to Hong Kong where the young triad leader Chan Ho Nam is celebrating the opening of his new bar. Meanwhile, Chiang Tin Sung returns to serve as the Chairman of Hung Hing Society. Besides trying to build a peaceful relationship with the San Luen triad from Taiwan, he is also keen to promote Chan as the new branch leader of Causeway Bay. However, eyeing for the same position is Tai Fei, another ambitious and aggressive member. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese triads are branching out into the casino business in Macau run by the Hung Hing and he seems to be on their side. So it looks like the Hung Hing are once again caught up in more rivalry standoffs both internally and overseas.
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As both director and cinematographer, Lau's second outing has a more lavish look to it, probably due to the Macau and other Taiwanese locations. Furthermore, the story has more depth and character-building this time around. His trademark use of creative lighting, jerky handheld camera work and slow motion still work to emphasize tension and grittiness. Action-wise it is the familiar slash and hack variety, but one street fight which involves the use of the katanas really stands out, thanks to the efforts of Dion Lam.
With the majority of the main cast back in playing their respective roles, Ekin Cheng seems more at home and is quite arrogant in portraying the main lead Chan Ho Nam, but then again, it is hard to imagine someone else playing his role. Even though his relationship with fellow triad member Chicken Chiu plays an important part in driving the plot, it is Chiu (Jordan Chan) who gets to shine with the most screen time since his character has become so popular. Chan indeed makes full use of his extended role as the sex crazy triad leader and effortlessly nails it again.
Unfortunately, the roles of the returning supporting members namely Pau Pan (Jerry Lam), Dai Tin Yee (Michael Tse) and Janson Chu who now returns as a new recruit “Banana Skin” are still underwritten. They are all pretty much portrayed as the same characters as they appeared before. That goes for Simon Yam too who makes his very brief appearance as the reinstated Chairman Chiang, while Spencer Lam's turn as Priest Lam is still a memorable one.
While the likable Gigi Lai returns in her small role as Chan's girlfriend Smartie, she still has very little to do. She later falls into a coma after a car ramping incident which is meant for Chan. Filmmaker Wong Jing's girl Chingmy Yau on the other hand, has a memorable role as mistress Ting Siu Yiu. Her portrayal of the power hungry villainess who will stop at nothing to rich the top is a better than usual performance for her, and her looks help too.
Having said that, the legendary Anthony Wong who shows up as the unpredictable, aggressive and equally hilarious long-haired triad member Tai Fei with a dirty habit of picking his nose is hard to beat and totally steals the show from just about everyone.
Overall, this stylish production has a more complex plot and concentrates more on developing the colorful and at times eccentric characters. The visuals are equally flashy and there are enough short bursts of action to keep the fans happy and the result is a sequel which is better than its predecessor in many ways.
