Young and Dangerous 2

DVD Released by : Mei Ah

Player reviewed with : Malata DVD-N996

Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925

Features:

Cantonese and Mandarin Soundtracks

English and Chinese Subtitles

Not enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs

Running Time : 99 mins.

YOUNG AND DANGEROUS 2 takes off just about were the first one left off. Jordan Chan and Ekin Cheng reprise their roles as Chicken and Nam. This movie follows Chicken and his exploits in Taiwan. He meets the first woman he actually falls in love with, played by Chungmy Yau. Meanwhile, Nam competes with Dai Fai (Anthony Wong), for control of a territory.

Fans of the Y&D series will enjoy this installment. There are a few twists and turns that keep you guessing throughout the movie. Once again, Jordan Chan steals the show as Chicken. His performance is excellent. The characters are very interesting and it adds to appeal of these movies. There are some action scenes but they wouldn't mean a thing if the characters weren't fleshed out. Even though you know these people are really bad guys, you sympathize with them. This isn't really different than American made Mafia movies.

The first thing you will notice is that there is no menu or options. To change the audio, you will need to change it with your DVD remote. The English and Chinese subtitles are burned in so there is no option to change subtitles.

The picture quality is about average. The source print that was used is in pretty good shape. The transfer itself is well done but could be better. There are some minor artifacts but nothing too distracting. The transfer isn't bad on the 47 inch TV. Overall the picture is about average.

The audio is mixed well. The sound comes mostly from the two front speakers and very little if any from the rear. The sound effects and music never overpower the dialogue. Overall, the sound quality is average and like the video, much like the other early releases.

As mentioned before, the subtitles are burned in the picture image. The spelling is sometimes a little off but never too distracting. They are readable throughout the movie.

Though rather bare bones as afar as DVD's go, Y&D 2 is a good movie that will please fans of the first film. The characters grow on you. If you haven't watched the first movie, it's not really necessary to follow this one but it helps. If I had to explain what the lure of these films are I think the best way would be to compare these movies to American Mafia movies. I am not saying they are of the same caliber, but the Y&D movies have the same feel.