MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Tiger Cage 2’ Packed With Adventure

Never mind that the title of “Tiger Cage 2” (at the Sunset 5 Fridays and Saturdays at midnight) remains inscrutable or that you may well not have seen No. 1, for sequels in the vital Hong Kong cinema are invariably self-contained. What counts is that it’s a smart, brisk martial-arts action-thriller (made in 1990) that’s fun throughout. Since the body count is high, it’s good that it is screening well past children’s bedtime.

Writer-director Yuen Wu Ping sets up his story with admirable speed and economy, handcuffing a sharp attorney (Rosamund Kwan) and a surly ex-cop (Donny Yen)--a nod to Hitchcock’s “39 Steps”--who are on the run after innocently witnessing an underworld shootout during which $7 million winds up missing. The catch is that only moments before Kwan had presided over Yen’s final divorce papers--alas, representing quite forcefully his estranged wife. In short, there’s no love lost between them, but since this is most emphatically a genre film, you can be sure that their mutual regard for each other will warm up considerably as they go about at once fleeing for their lives and trying to nail the bad guys.

“Tiger Cage 2” (Times-rated Mature for martial-arts violence) gains some complexity when Kwan and Yen are forced by circumstances to throw in their lot with a young gang underling (David Wu) charged with getting back the $7 million for his boss; Wu is an especially effective good-bad guy, and his rivalry with Yen for Kwan gives the film extra dimension.

‘Tiger Cage 2’

Donny Yen: Dragon

Rosamund Kwan: Mandy Chang

David Wu: David

Robin Shou: Waise Chow

A Headliner release of a Dale Gasteiger & Gregory Hatanaka presentation of a D&B; Films Co. production. Writer-director Yuen Wu Ping. Producer Stephen Shin. Executive producer Dickson Poon. Cinematographer Lee Ping Bing. Music Richard Yuen. In Cantonese, with English and Chinese subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Times-rated Mature (for martial-arts violence).