it is almost two years since the end of the first film: lok's (simon yam) time as chairman has been peaceful and prosperous for the wo shing society, although talk of who should be a candidate in the next election is starting to cause a little tension. kun (gordon lam) wants the position, lok suggests jet (nich cheung) and jimmy (louis koo) is also mooted. kun seems like a bit of a hothead, jet seems merely to be a puppet of lok, unknown to most society members, whilst jimmy, whose power and reputation has grown thanks to his shrewd business sense and huge financial clout, seems like an extremely popular choice.

jimmy doesn't want the position. jimmy wants to be a legitimate businessman, he wants to make a lot of money and have a family. kun and jet don't seem like viable alternatives and, with his tenure drawing to an end, lok decides that maybe he doesn't want to give up power after all, despite the fact that this goes against the traditions of the family. however, when jimmy discovers that his business being effected by his lack of power, the idea of being chairman seems like one he can't refuse: it looks like there's going to be trouble on the horizon...

a more straight-forward triad movie than the first film in this series, and slightly weaker as a result, but still a very good film. again, the fact that honour and righteousness go out of the window when it comes to getting one's hands on money and power is explored. and here, we have a battle between someone who is reluctant to give up the seat of power and someone who is just as reluctant to take it up, with the focus of the film most definitely switching to louis koo's jimmy and his campaign.

i think what i find most interesting about the film is the perception of the good guys and the bad guys, and how this is played with. in the first film, there was definitely a sense that the audience was to adopt the calm, almost boring figure of lok, as he struggled to overcome the underhanded, brashness of tony leung's, cartoon-like, big d. here, lok appears corrupt and manipulative, hungry to hold on to power and has lost his appeal.

jimmy, being the younger, more handsome man, a man who wants simply to do business and is using his relationship with the society to do this, rather than being a fully fledged gangster, seems to be who johnnie to is pushing both into the limelight and into the role that should be gaining the audience's support in this conflict. however, as the film progresses, it becomes very difficult to find anyone with any real sense of a moral code, whose life is not simply ruled by the desire to grasp hold of as much money and power as they can. in a way, the film is a tragic meditation on what a reluctant gangster puts himself through in order to strike a business deal...

as you'd expect from everyone involved, this is a very watchable film (despite the unwatchable nature of some of its scenes), with a very high quality of production, extremely well performed and slickly executed by the milkyway team, be they in front of or behind the cameras.

very good.