A Better Tomorrow
Directed by John Woo
Starring Chow Yun Fat, Ti Lung, Leslie Leung and Emily Chu
Produced by Tsui Hark
It had been a while since I last watched this movie (well over ten years).
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen A Better Tomorrow but I’d say at least five times. There are scenes in this movie that are unbelievably campy where your eyes roll up but maybe that’s what I like about this movie. It’s so overdone that you just have to smile and enjoy it.
The movie is about two brothers. Ho is a gangster (Lung Ti) and Kit is a cop (Leslie Leung). Ho gets arrested after a deal goes wrong and is send to prison. Later their father is murdered by the people that Ho was dealing with. This is the first half of the movie.
There are a couple more important characters in the story.
Mark (Chow Yun Fat) is Ho’s best friend and partner in crime and they’ve been through a lot together (Mark tells a very dramatic story about being forced to drink his own piss when they had problems dealing with some rough characters in Indonesia). He is an old school type of gangster and swears by loyalty.
Shing (Waise Lee) is a young gangster. He was with Ho before Ho was arrested but manages to escape. Several years later, he has a lot more power in his organization and later causes problems with Ho, Kit and Mark.
The second act brings all of the above together and we have the usual spectacular (and horribly) violent ending.
As I mentioned above, there’s lots to like about this film. Some things that made me laugh were the white suits that the characters have to wear (they’re perfect for showing lots of blood!), the brick cellphones of the 80’s and the overtly sentimental music. You’ve also got to laugh when the two brothers play-fight with big smiley faces in a park along the shore of Hong Kong...
Chow Yun Fat is brilliant in this movie. His lines are said with conviction and acts with a lot of swagger in the first half.
The director John Woo, who also does a bit of acting in the film, sure made great movies back then. Lots of slow-mo... each scene is set up in unique ways... and all those unique camera shots... it’s all very entertaining.
Most of this movie is pretty implausible (the guns that seem to never run out of ammo) but I’d give this film four star out of five.
For more information about this movie, please click here.
