Sinking under the weight of its own ambition

IN The Crossing II, director John Woo finally depicts the actual event - the real-life sinking of a passenger ship during the tumultuous final days of the Chinese Civil War - that The Crossing (Part One), released in December 2014, merely alluded to. Unfortunately, it hasn't been worth the wait.

The earlier film, heavy on melodrama but a lightweight in every other respect, introduced three couples whose destinies converge aboar…