Well after reading the earlier 2 reviews I feel like I must be more vocal on my review than I originally planned. Let me first say that I usually agree with the other 2 reviewers but not this time.
This was not a bad film, so before I address my problems I'll first give some praise. Francis Ng was incredible in this movie. One of the best performances I have ever seen. Carina Lau was also excellent. Actually pretty much great performances throughout. Unlike the first film, this one gave time to the side stories in a much more adequate fashion. I felt the first half of the movie was well paced, smart & provoking. Then came the second half.
The movie turned into a bootleg version of the Godfather Pt.II. They even played the theme music! They somehow managed to take the edge off Sam's character that he gained in the first film. Then there was Anthony Wong's character. Mr. Wong is one of my all-time favorite actors but the scene of the car fire(dont want to give away any plot) was horrible, unrealistic overacting. On top of that, it makes no sense that Yan would be so close to SP Wong in the future following the events of this film. There were other plot holes but they were minor so i wont get into them. The mother of Yan's child in Part 1 shows up here for about 1 minute. I'm hoping to see more of her in part 3. Overall, a good movie, but one that seemed to lose focus in the second half. Definatly not better than part 1 IMO.