What do you want me to do take on the whole gang...get myself
killed at the same time...
This second installment picks up several years following the goings on in Once Were Warriors, with the focus perhaps less on an individual family life and more on the spread of gang warfare among the modern day Maori.
Jake and Beth Heke, the couple from the first movie, have now split up - it seems that Beth had finally lost patience with Jake's alcoholism and violent temper. Beth has now moved on - she lives with her new boyfriend, and whilst Jake has attempted to do the same, his new relationship is once again characterised by his binge drinking and violence. Jakes eldest son, Nig, has grown up witnessing the violence perpetraited by his father, and in an attempt to move away from this he joined the Maori in the first film - his new family. However in this movie Nig is killed in a fight with a rival gang member
At Nig's funeral, Jake is confronted by Beth and his younger son, Sonny, who feels Jake abandoned his family and doesn't mind telling him so. Sonny decides he must avenge Nig's death and joins forces with Nig's girlfriend Tania and his pal Mookie to exact their own kind of justice. Unfortunately a run in with the Black Snakes gang only manages to bring them more enemies.
Jake Heke meanwhile goes through a period of hopelessness as he tries to restore his family to a functioning state after his anger and drinking tore them apart in the first film. He still has trouble accepting the old traditional ways of the Maori people but he starts to realise the importance of family and regrets what his former actions have done to them. Towards the end of the film, Jake does his best to reconcile with his family, even going so far as to save his son's life despite great personal risk to himself. This action, along with several others occurring throughout this film, serve to highlight Jake's changing characteristics.
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| Directed by | Ian Mune |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Bill Gavin |
| Written by | Alan Duff |
| Starring |
Temuera
Morrison Clint Eruera Nancy Brunning Julian Arahanga Rena Owen |
| Music by | David Hirschfelder |
| Distributed by | South Pacific Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget |