LORD OF EAST CHINA SEA II, with Ray Lui Leung-wai (right), Kent Cheng Chuk-see, Chui Kam-kong and Cecilia Yip Tung. Directed by Poon Man-kit. On Golden Harvest circuit.
PART two of producer Johnny Mak's saga of Shanghai gangster To Yuet-gang comes as an incredible letdown to viewers.
The sequel deals with a fascinating era: starting in 1936 when To (called Luk Yuet-sang in the film) and his gang controlled Shanghai it continues to his death 16 years later, a relatively impotent resident of Hongkong.
The film purports to present a complex slice of contemporary Chinese history - embracing the Sino-Japanese War and the civil war between the Kuomintang and the communists - as experienced by a complex man, but the movie ultimately fails to provide the keys to Luk's character.
One hoped part two would be a summing up of the questions and issues raised in part one, but instead it peters out to a clumsily-staged finale - the elderly Luk's marriage to his childhood sweetheart (Cecilia Yip) - that moved the theatre audience to laughter rather than tears.
Take the treatment accorded one of Luk's central dilemmas: whether or not to collaborate with the Japanese after their occupation of Shanghai.
