Go for Broke 2
重生2
China, 2026, colour, 2:35:1, 131 mins.
Director: Ma Yuke 马浴柯.
Rating: 7/10.
A hyper-intense, all-action wild ride, centred on a former assassin avenging her son’s death, marks a gangbusters return to a leading role by Liang Luoshi [Isabella Leong].
STORY
San Diano, an English-speaking country bordering the Atlantic Ocean, the present day. During a nighttime school outing in the city, Paka (Liu Yuze), a young boy, falls behind the group and is abducted. He is held captive, dressed in angelic white by a team of female nurses, led through a space with other similarly dressed children, and taken to the room of a man who is waiting for him. Meanwhile, his mother Xi La (Liang Luoshi) frantically searches for him in the rainy streets. She hears he’s been taken to a hospital, following an accident in which the car taking him and a young girl, Su Di (Najiya), home had crashed into some rocks on a coastal road. Su Di’s elder brother, Su Cheng (Wen Junhui), also arrives at the hospital. He and Xi La are told both children are unconscious in an ICU, and both have signs of having been physically and sexually abused before the crash. While waiting, the two are caught up – separately and then jointly – in an attempt by the kidnappers to snatch the children away to conceal the crimes against them. In a car chase, Xi La and Su Cheng manage to foil the criminals, though the two children die in the process. The following morning, Zuo Lun (Wang Longzheng), CEO of JE Finance and the organiser of the paedophile ring, is breakfasting with his father, JE Finance chairman Zuo Man (Hong Jinbao), and younger brother, JE Finance security consultant Zuo Ke (Bai Ke), when Zuo Man receives news of what happened. Zuo Man punishes Zuo Lun for going too far the previous night: Zuo Lun’s usual supplier, Old Jack, usually delivered children of illegal immigrants, but Paka and Su Di were the children of locals. Xi La, who is in her mid-30s, was adopted when younger by the boss of the ruthless Nuquantang 怒权堂 gang and raised to be a professional assassin; the gang has since been disbanded, but she leaves the two children’s bodies with a trusted former colleague, doctor Uncle Chen (Qiu Bichang), and has a loyal former sidekick, Dongxi (Aruna), bring her the tools of her trade, in order to take revenge on her son’s killers. Su Cheng insists on joining her, as he says he’s been searching for Su Di for 10 years. Zuo Lun’s men arrive just after Xi La and Su Cheng have left Uncle Chen’s, and are gunned down by him and Dongxi. Xi La and Su Cheng find Zuo Lun, who is high on drugs and watching a video of himself and Paka. Xi La starts torturing him for information but is interrupted by the arrival of Zuo Ke and his men. Xi La, Su Cheng and Dongxi scape, though Xi La is wounded and rquires emergency surgery by the devoted Dongxi afterwards. They all hide out in the holiday home of Su Cheng, who discovers that one of JE Finance’s activities is abducting children by pretending to run a charity promising free education to kids from neighbouring countries. JE Finance also co-owns, with Feynman Biosciences Laboratory, something called Project Genesis, as well as regularly holding feasts on Carnival Island. The trio decides to find and visit the island the next day, when a feast is due. Meanwhile, that evening Xi La and Dongxi go for a walk around town, while Mexican immigrants celebrate the Day of the Dead. Zuo Ke learns that Xi La is there, and he manages to capture her and bury her alive in a coffin.
REVIEW
The adrenaline is all over the screen in Go for Broke 2 重生2, a hyper-intense, all-action wild ride in which a mother (who also happens to be a retired professional assassin) takes revenge on the child-trafficking gang responsible for her young son’s death. Though Mainland-funded and made, this is in the long tradition of Hong Kong’s Girls With Guns movies – this time in overdrive. Equally notably it also marks a gangbusters return to a leading role by Macau-born actress Liang Luoshi 梁洛施 [Isabella Leong] after a decade in semi-retirement. This third feature by Mainland actor-turned-director Ma Yuke 马浴柯, 47, is unconnected with his previous Go for Broke 重生 (2024) but shares the same dark, rage-fuelled approach that’s also evident in his hard-driven debut Wolf Hiding 怒潮 (2023). Both earlier films used star names – Hong Kong’s Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung] and Taiwan’s Ruan Jingtian 阮经天 – in the leading roles, and performed more than respectably at the box ofice, with Go for Broke taking a very nice RMB465 million, almost double that of Wolf Hiding. Alas, GFB2 has flopped badly, with a mere RMB72 million.
The Portuguese-Chinese Leong, now 38, has had a bumpy career, starting as a singer and then switching to acting. But despite occasional lead roles (Bug Me Not! 虫不知, 2005; Isabella 伊莎贝拉, 2006; Spider Lillies 刺青, 2007; and most notably, Murmur of the Hearts 念念, 2015, her best performance to date), her career has never really taken off. GFB2 comes after a supporting role in the tough crime drama Bursting Point 爆裂点 (2023) – directed by action veteran Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam] and Tang Weihan 唐唯瀚, and starring Liang Jiahui and actor-singer Chen Weiting 陈伟霆 – in which she showed potential for tougher stuff.
In a film that’s entirely action-driven, with very little downtime for character development, the role of the vengeful mother doesn’t extend Liang much as an actress, largely requiring her to look glacial and unblinking in between occasional tears for her son. But without any physical gymnastics, she does manage to create a forceful, sometimes scary screen presence, taking as well as giving plenty of beatings, and also managing to carry the movie against some strong acting opposition. Most of all she manages the tricky job of making the grieving mother sympathetic in her mission, even when the audience is reminded via flashbacks that she was once a manic, cold-blooded assassin.
As her chance partner, looking to avenge his younger sister’s death, Mainland-born boybander Wen Junhui 文俊辉, 30, is okay but, in his biggest and most emotional role to date, permanently struggles to overcome his boyish looks, especially in the more emotional later scenes. Liang’s main acting competition comes from Bai Ke 白客, usually in light-comedy roles but here cast against type and physically almost unrecognisable as one of the main villains, investing his role with a kind of weary resignation at having to kill people. Action-movie regular Aruna 阿如那 has some nice human moments as the mother’s devoted former colleague in crime, while Hong Kong veteran Hong Jinbao 洪金宝 [Sammo Hung], now 74 and strikingly white-haired, pops up now and then as the smiley-confident head villain (but with no fighting).
After an intense and explosive opening 40 minutes, the film briefly relaxes for some smidgeons of character development and story background without losing any tension. Fine details of the mother’s background are rather blurred, but nagging questions like, “How come Wen’s character is such a good fighter?”, are finally answered, and a late-on twist gives the extended finale a shot in the arm just when the gun battles are starting to become repetitive. The story’s paedophilia angle is not avoided but is also not dwelt upon at length, as also are some strong parallels with the late Jeffrey Epstein’s pleasuring of international elites. Unlike many Mainland films, GFB2 does justify its two-hours-odd length.
Behind the camera, the film features many of the same names as on GFB, from the screenplay, through editing, to music and art direction. All are solidly pro, especially the shaping of the action by experienced Hong Kong cutter Kuang Zhiliang 邝志良. Fight choreography is unflashy and in-your-face brutal, as befits South Koreans Gim Sang-hun 김상훈 | 金详勋 and Gim Ji-u 김지우 | 金志禹, and the level of violence is always visceral and often extreme. GFB2 is the first film, in memory, to portray torture with a corkscrew.
The film’s Chinese title means “Rebirth 2”. Like Ma’s previous two features, the story is set in a fictional country, in this case one that is multi-racial but where English is the official language. Filming took place from mid-Jan to Mar 2026, mostly in Guangzhou city, just across the border from Hong Kong.
CREDITS
Presented by Foshan CMC Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Cultural Media (CN), Ruyi Film & Entertainment (CN), Shanghai CMC Pictures (CN), Guangzhou Maoyan Pictures (CN), Beijing Happy Film Industry (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Bad Boy (Beijing) Media (CN).
Script: Ma Yuke, Zhao Haozhe, Gu Haoran, Guo Ruoxian. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Kuang Zhiliang. Music: Ding Ke. Production design: Zhao Xuehao. Styling: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Wu Jingjing. Action: Gim Sang-hun, Gim Ji-u. Visual effects: Liu Hao, Dou Yuqing.
Cast: Liang Luoshi [Isabella Leong] (Xi La), Wen Junhui (Su Cheng), Hong Jinbao [Sammo Hung] (Zuo Man), Bai Ke (Zuo Ke), Aruna (Dongxi), Chen Guokun (Tian Mu, Nuquantang boss), Liu Zihao (Chen Jin), Gu Yan (female doctor), Wang Longzheng (Zuo Lun), Chu Xiaoxiang (Niusen), Liu Yuze (Paka, Xi La’s son), Najiya (Su Di, Su Cheng’s younger sister), Qiu Bichang (Uncle Chen), Han Man (young Xi La), Julian Zhu (young Su Cheng), Mario Cavala (Leo, senator), Andrew Stokes (Borg, secretary-general), Teresa Dowling (Jenny, Cosmos Real Estate CEO).
Release: China, 3 Oct 2026.