THE NATIONWIDE CONSTITUENCY 2


The Nationwide Constituency



Year: 1994
AKA: The National Constituency 2
Starring: Dragon Lee, Hyeon Kil-Su, Hwang Jang Lee
Directed by: ???


Dragon Lee reprises his role as Baek-chon in this follow-up to his 1991 gangster saga. The film opens with Baek-chon running into his old friend presumed dead (hereby dubbed "Fatty") at a club. Lee is still in the gangsta' business because he meets up with a dude who apparently is having problems with a new young punk (hence forth referred to as "Punk kid") on the scene. Dragon Lee shows the Punk kid who's who by showing up at his office and kicking the Punk kid in the head while he is masturbating to a Playboy magazine (the Punk kid is masturbating, not Lee...although that would be funny). Of course, this Punk kid runs to his gangster daddy, who in turn sends Hwang Jang Lee to beat up Dragon Lee. The two duke it out, but neither one goes down. The earn mutual respect for each other and even start hanging out. Hwang even gets Dragon to visit the Punk kid at the hospital and apologize. Of course, this doesn't sit well with Hwang's boss and does very little to cure the kid's ill mannered ways. The Punk kid kidnaps Fatty's daughter and tries to rape her. He is less than successful, only getting his shirt off before she bolts and Dragon Lee shows up to kick his ass to that roadside. Guess who that doesn't sit well with? The Punk kid's dad! It is the type of blind nepotism seen only in gangster movies and American politics. This, along with a tiny subplot about a stolen vase, all builds to a big showdown at a shipping dock.


Opening with clips of the ending of the first film, THE NATIONWIDE CONSTITUENCY 2 is a decent follow up to the first film. Of course, there are a few things I question. Much like the A BETTER TOMORROW series which it imitates, this series plays a bit with the events of the first film by having a character who ostensibly died in the first film (Fatty) return alive in this one. It is weird when Dragon Lee runs into him at a club. Weird because I could have sworn Lee carried out his friend's dead corpse at the end of the first film. I guess he was pretty popular so they had to bring him back. The filmmakers gave him a gimp arm to show at least he was hurt.

In terms of action, this one is pretty much like the first one: a few small fights in the first hour and one bigger one at the end. The best fight is probably when Dragon Lee and Hwang Jang Lee meet up for the first time. They duke it out in the middle of the street at night. As time goes on, they get more and more tired until they decide to quit. The climatic fight scene in the shipyard is also pretty good. Dragon Lee is still in great shape in this film. The biggest disappointment is the Punk kid's henchman. He walks around half the movie sporting a vest full of axes. But when he finally gets to use them (in a fight against Hwang Jang Lee), he chickens out and drops to his knees. Lee then verbally lays into the kid. I don't know what he was saying (my tape has no English subs), but it must have been hardcore because the kid bursts into tears. Sissy! Probably said something like, "You call that an axe? Your axe isn't big enough."


Once again, this is a decent action/drama. Of the three recent Dragon Lee films, I would say it is on the level with its predecessor, but both fall below the quality of EMPEROR OF THE UNDERWORLD.

Reviewed by William.