General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Running Out of Time 2 (暗战2)

Running Out of Time 2 (traditional Chinese: 暗戰2; simplified Chinese: 暗战2; original title Am zin 2) is a 2001 Hong Kong Cantonese action crime thriller directed by Johnnie To and Law Wing-cheong, produced by Milky Way Image Co. Ltd., and a sequel to the 1999 comedy-thriller Running Out of Time (暗战)¹^•². It stars Lau Ching-wan as Inspector Ho Sheung-sang, who is drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with a magician-thief played by Ekin Cheng¹. Released in Hong Kong on 27 December 2001, it earned less than half of the first film's HK$14.7 million Hong Kong gross, but won Golden Horse Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Action Choreography¹^•³^•⁴.

Key fact	Detail
Native and English titles	暗戰2 (traditional) / 暗战2 (simplified); original title Am zin 2; English title Running Out of Time 2; Russian release title Время кончается 2²^•⁵
Direction	Johnnie To with a first-time co-directing credit for editor Law Wing-cheong¹
Hong Kong release	27 December 2001; grossed less than half of the original's HK$14.7 million (about US$2 million)¹^•⁶
Lead cast	Lau Ching-wan (Inspector Ho), Ekin Cheng (the magician-thief), Kelly Lin (Teresa)¹^•²
Awards	Golden Horse Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Action Choreography; three wins and five nominations overall³^•⁴^•⁶
Running time	Reported variously as 91 minutes (Variety), 96 minutes (Korean Film Archive and Korean Cinematheque), 1h 35m (IMDb), and 1h 36m (iQIYI)¹^•²^•⁶^•⁷
Home video and streaming	Kam & Ronson Region-A Blu-ray (2012); Eureka two-film set; streaming on iQIYI in Cantonese with English subtitles³^•⁸^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Inspector Ho Sheung-sang (Lau Ching-wan) is called in to investigate the theft of three art works all insured by the same company, and finds himself in a cat-and-mouse game with a smooth magician (Ekin Cheng) who leaves clues for the police and always stays one step ahead¹. The thief's name is never mentioned in the film; he is a skillful magician with a seemingly endless arsenal of tricks, and Teresa (Kelly Lin), an executive of the targeted insurance company, is drawn into negotiation after the thief targets her corporation³.

The story opens when the mysterious criminal challenges Senior Inspector Ho Sheung-sang to play a "ransom retrieval game"; in their initial confrontation the two are evenly matched, and the criminal escapes, winning the first round⁴. In the first set piece, Ho tries to decode clues while the police scramble to make a HK$20 million handover; the magician then raises the ante to HK$100 million and leads Ho on a chase, with backpack, that ends with a surreal encounter atop a skyscraper at night¹. A coin toss device is a recurring element of the game, and may carry a twist the viewer does not expect⁶. When the magician (Ekin Cheng), a suave art thief with a talent for magic tricks and an array of heist plots, draws Sang into a hostage situation, the chase begins all over again³.

Cast and characters

Lau Ching-wan reprises his role as Inspector Ho from the first film⁸. Ekin Cheng replaces Andy Lau in the mastermind role¹. Kelly Lin plays the boss of the insurance company targeted by the magician, and Lam Suet plays a gambling-addicted cop who embodies the film's obsessive gambling-with-fate theme¹. The Korean Film Archive's cast listing records 유청운 (Lau Ching-wan), 정이건 (Ekin Cheng), and 임희뢰 (Kelly Lin)².

Identifiers and background

The film is the second of a two-film series, following Running Out of Time (1999)⁵^•⁶. The Korean Film Archive records it under the Korean title 암전 2 with the original title 暗戰 2 and import title Running Out Of Time 2, directed by Johnnie To (두기봉) and produced by Milky Way Image Co. Ltd. in 2001 as a 96-minute action/crime feature². Variety describes it as a follow-up to the 1999 comedy-thriller, released by China Star¹.

Production

The screenplay is credited to Yau Nai-hoi, Au Kin-yee, and the Milkyway Creative Team, with cinematography by Cheng Siu-keung¹. Variety noted that the script carries the strong imprint of Johnnie To's creative team at his Milkyway Image company, especially writer Yau Nai-hoi, with characters gambling with fate and living out their own self-created myths¹. To gave a co-directing credit for the first time to editor Law Wing-cheong, who had been billed as "associate director" on several recent productions¹.

Release and box office

The film premiered in Hong Kong on 27 December 2001, with a Guangzhou release on 24 December 2001⁴^•⁵^•⁶. By Variety's February 2002 review it had grossed less than half of the original's warm HK$14.7 million (about US$2 million) Hong Kong take, which the reviewer attributed to fewer action scenes and the substitution of Ekin Cheng for Andy Lau in the mastermind role¹. It later reached the Netherlands on 25 January 2007 and South Korea on 27 February 2014, where it ran 96 minutes and was rated 15세관람가 (suitable for ages 15 and over)⁴^•⁹.

Home video and streaming. Hong Kong-based Kam & Ronson Enterprises released the film on a Region-A locked Blu-ray (reviewed 22 November 2012) with a 2K transfer, Cantonese audio, optional English and Traditional Mandarin subtitles, and a single BD-25 disc whose only extra is the theatrical trailer³. Eureka Video released both Running Out of Time films together on home video⁸. The film is also available for streaming on iQIYI in its Cantonese version with English subtitles⁷.

Reception and awards

The contemporary trade response was positive. Variety's Derek Elley judged the sequel "better in almost every respect" than the 1999 original, with Lau Ching-wan "at the top of his game" as the patient cop teased by a larky villain¹.

Retrospective assessment has been cooler. A 2022 review argues that the sequel strips away everything that made the first film popular, focusing instead on small moments and big sequences, and that it retreads familiar material without the same emotional pressure within the narrative, leaving the audience more distant from it than from the first film¹⁰.

At the 2002 Golden Horse Awards the film won Best Film Editing (Law Wing-cheong, Qiu Zhiwei) and Best Action Choreography (Bruce Mang), with nominations for cinematography, sound effects, and visual effects; it was also nominated for Best Film and Best Director at the Chinese Film Media Awards⁴^•³. IMDb records three wins and five nominations in total⁶. On Douban, the film held a 6.6/10 rating from 50,170 ratings as of 19 September 2024⁴.

How it compares with the original

The two films share Inspector Ho and the cat-and-mouse premise but differ in cast, tone, and commercial outcome. The sequel replaced Andy Lau with Ekin Cheng as the mastermind and contained fewer action scenes, and its Hong Kong gross fell to less than half of the original's HK$14.7 million¹. Critical opinion divides along the same line: the 2002 Variety review found the sequel better in almost every respect, while the 2022 retrospective view holds that removing the first film's emotional core made the sequel feel more distant to its audience¹^•¹⁰. The Douban score of 6.6/10 places the sequel's standing among Chinese-language viewers well below a strong endorsement⁴.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026