| An empty shell of what definitely seems like a more solid movie, yet again one of Chu Yen-Ping's Taiwanese creations was deemed too long for Hong Kong so viciously a shorter edit was created. But as opposed to the likes of Island Of Fire and A Home Too Far (which End Of The Road is a sequel to) that had Taiwan released alternatives on home video, End Of The Road has yet at the time of writing had that blessing so 95 minutes of potential is all we get here. The strengths of A Home Too Far was in the downtime between war mayhem, the quiet moments if you will but its short edit contained little of it. So a product of glimpses it became and incoherent in the process too. Much seems alike in the sequel where Tok Chung-Wa and O Chun-Hung return. They're stationed in the Golden Triangle while trying to maintain safety of their fellow men and families. A tear in the group occurs as one (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) wants to acknowledge the possibilities of joining forces with the drug dealers in the region. It ultimately leads to former soldiers turning enemies as O Chun-Hung's men are fighting against communists with the Thai who also want to eradicate the drug dealers.
Structurally similar as the big Hong Kong talent on display breaks loose (in the first film it was Andy Lau) and again about the little people fighting for survival amidst the dirt and blood, the choice of theme has been handled well by Chu and probably was here as well before the scissors came in. So as it stands now, End Of The Road never lingers on its possibilities before moving on so we're never emotionally involved in any of the war mayhem or the over the top melodrama. In fact, now the latter is up for criticism while more elaboration on scenes with for instance Ng Man-Tat and Jimmy Lin would've become more felt come ending time. One performer seriously left out is lead Tok Chung-Wa though who compared to mentioned performers screen time is seriously more of a side character (as is O Chun-Hung). I so seriously doubt anyone cutting this film down thought of filmmaker's original intentions. Watch the end credits for snippets of deleted footage. Also with Ray Lui and Rosamund Kwan. |
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