Casino Raiders II (1991) User Reviews

An enjoyable movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 30 June 2020]

Granted, I haven't seen the previous movie in this franchise, but I was given the chance to sit down and watch "Casino Raiders II" (aka "Ji juen mo seung II: Wing ba tin ha") in 2020, and with my fascination of the Hong Kong cinema, of course I sat down and watched it.

Now, I am not sure how much of a continuation of the first movie this sequel is, nor am I familiar with the characters from the first movie and if they are making appearances in the sequel or not. But it hardly had any importance, it would seem, because "Casino Raiders II" managed to stand out on its own, functioning as a stand-alone movie that could easily be watched without having seen the previous movie.

The storyline from writer Kan-Cheung Tsang was quite good, and it is very archetypical for the early Hong Kong movies, for better or worse. I happened to enjoy it, so it was a nice movie experience for me.

"Casino Raiders II" has some nice acting performances by the likes of Andy Lau and Anthony Chau-Sang Wong.

If you enjoy Hong Kong cinema, then you definitely should take the time to sit down and watch "Casino Raiders II" if you get the chance to do so.

I am raiding this 1991 movie from director Johnnie To a six out of ten stars. Quite well-worth the time and effort.

The feelings that have passed together

[g-89622 · 7/10 · 23 October 2021]

The days we've been through together. From the mid-1980 s to the early 1990 s, the bloodiest and most poetic rivers and lakes and heroes of Hong Kong movies came forth in large numbers. Du Qifeng was not so weird as it is now, but affectionate and tragic. With the true nature of the hero, the blood of the two males, the sky if the love of the pearl jade in the front, the supreme supreme supreme eternal hegemony of the world is not very dazzling, but impressive. Through the loneliness of youth, the dream has been heavy rain, all rivers and lakes do not return. Life is the extension of the dream.

Classic noir-Esq Casino drama served up Johnny To style!

[desky1973 · 10/10 · 6 March 2005]

Chicken Feet (Andy Lau) assists in running an honorable gambling den owned by the crippled Uncle Fan (Siu-Ming Lau) and his son Kit (Wong Kit). Having previously tried to shut down the gambling den and take over by paralyzing Fan and framing Kit for another man's murder, ruthless local Triad boss, James (Kelvin Wong) goes a step further by murdering Fan. Driven only by money and the pursuit of two valuable 'Jade stones', James kidnaps Kit's daughter so he will surrender gambling in order for James to win the upcoming Championship. Despite Kit's wish to live a life of peace, Chicken Feet finds the Jade Stones and along with his partner, Lin (Wu Chien-Lien) plots his own revenge against James.

The sequel to the 1989 Hong Kong Modern Classic "Casino Raiders" was never going to be as well received as it's predecessor, yet, despite the criticism that this merely cashed in on Lau's fast on-screen success, this is nevertheless an interesting film to look at.

Foremost, director, Johnny To takes a somewhat more 'poetic' perspective than Wong Jing did on the original, focusing more on drawn out character emotions which can, however, sometimes fall backwards on style. There are some exceptional scenes though, such as the lynching on the cruise boat, the fight on the docks at nighttime, and, of course, the final showdown between Lau and Wong. These emphasize To's ability to maintain consistency of plot without relying on visual spectacle, but still including subdued rich imagery.

The always impressive Andy Lau is brilliant yet again, and the entire support cast, particularly Wong Kit and Wu Chien-Lien give strong performances. Kelvin Wong, it must be said, is also thoroughly convincing as the cold-blooded James and gives, quite possibly, one of his best-ever performances.

In terms of fallbacks, the film does, at times, rely slightly too heavily on assumed prior knowledge, particularly on playing cards. Therefore, while an uninformed HK film fan might wait it out and try and keep up, the half-interested modest might give up completely.

Although not a criticism of the film itself, this (as well as "Casino Raiders") are LONG overdue for a DVD Re-Release. Particularly in the UK, I'd hope the Hong Kong Legends label will show interest; re-master the film, re-dub and re-subtitle (the Laser Universe label subtitles are pretty bad) and of course throw in a handful of interesting special features. So, Mr. Bey Logan, if you're reading this, put in a good word! And, hey, you can do the commentary track, too!