A Better Tomorrow
Amazon.co.uk Review
John Woo’s forays into Hollywood cinema have revealed just how childish a lot of his material can feel when it is delivered without the clouding medium of subtitles. In his earlier Hong Kong movies it is possible to allow that the melodramatic, risible and at times confusing dialogue–a disgruntled gangster exclaims “Nobody dares not give me face!” and after being shot about 43 times two of the heroes concede “Yes. We’re not right”–is at least in part due to clumsy translation. However, when added to a complex plot of twin brothers, undercover cops and honourable gangsters in A Better Tomorrow II, it can often be quite difficult to keep track of what is going on, especially if you haven’t seen the original. Restaurant owner Ken (Chow Yun Fat), “secret” twin brother of the dead main character of the first movie, leaves New York and returns to Hong Kong after an old friend’s daughter is murdered. There he re-assembles the group of four heroes from the original movie to exact revenge and bring down a counterfeiting ring. The film loosely addresses Woo’s pet themes of loyalty, betrayal and honour but, as always, any exposition is merely the excuse for a series of violent and over-the-top shoot-outs. Here the action is a long time coming, but delivers much as you would expect–violent, explosive and with a nice line in tongue-in-cheek humour. Yun Fat is cool as ever, with shades and a toothpick, gliding through scores of faceless, blood-splattered henchmen with a gun in each hand. In fact, the final bloodbath is so frenetic that it seems to lack the deliberate and graceful choreography of other Woo classics, such as Hard Boiled and The Killer, but A Better Tomorrow II is typical enough of his work to easily satisfy all but the most unforgiving action fans. –Paul Philpott
Many before me have sung the praises of this movie and I completely agree with every word. No movie fans collection is complete without this classic of th HK action genre.
What I want to talk about is the appaling transfer on this DVD. The shortcomings of the HK movie industry when it comes to preserving film stock is well known but I was dissappointed to find that little or no restoration attempt had been made by the producers of this DVD.
The major problem is that the image is a non anamorphic transfer with burnt in subtitles that are positioned so that they get partially cut off if you’re viewing with a widescreen TV.
If you have a multi-region player, I’d advise getting the Anchor Bay release from America. It’s far superior.
Rating: 3 / 5
‘A Better Tomorrow’ is where it all started for John Woo’s now-signature style of filmmaking. Without this film, there would never have been ‘The Killer’, ‘Hard Boiled’ and who knows what else. Bringing the classic themes of brotherhood, redemption and loyalty to the modern day setting of Hong Kong, John Woo has made a film that will appeal to both fans of quality drama and action enthusiasts.
Ti Lung stars as a criminal named Ho, who along with his best friend Mark (Chow Yun Fat) are well-respected and live in luxury. Ho’s younger brother Kit is a police officer in training who is unaware of his brother’s illegal lifestyle. But when Ho is betrayed and sent to prison, Kit learns the truth and when their father is killed by Ho’s associates, Kit disowns his brother.
Upon his release, things have changed for Ho and his best friend is now a down-trodden cripple while Kit is a successful detective who still wants nothing to do with Ho. Very soon, Ho is drawn back into the criminal life and the loyalties of all three men are about to be pushed to the absolute limit.
The dynamic relationship between the three lead characters is utterly believable and is what makes the film work. By the end of the film, you are so anxious to see if the brothers can be reunited and you’ll even shed a tear or two. But let’s not forget that this is a John Woo film – the action sequences are entertaining but compared to his later films, they are quite static. The trademark dual-pistols makes its first appearance and Chow Yun Fat cements his long-standing relationship with Woo.
My one criticism of this disc, however, is the soundtrack. The audience has been short-changed, by having the original score replaced with modern library footage. At certain times, you’ll hear the music from films like ‘Speed’ and ‘Forrest Gump’, which have pretty distinctive tunes! Admitedly, the use of those scores do actually fit the drama very well and certainly don’t ruin the film – but they still stand out and it’s distracting. According to Bey Logan (who does the excellent commentary for this disc), you can actually send off to the manufacturers to have the original soundtrack re-inserted – whether this applies today, I’m not sure.
If you’re unsure about ‘A Better Tomorrow’ and haven’t seen it before, your best bet is to approach it as a thoughtful and engrossing drama WITH action rather than a straight-up action thriller (which it is sometimes considered).
Rating: 4 / 5
An OK Woo heroic bloodshed movie from the mid 80s. It’s very dated though. However, how on earth can the DVD be called ‘Ultimate’. The print of the movie is an old European copy – it’s very soft in places and some scenes just look horrible on the eyes. If you’re used to the superb ‘Hong Kong Legends’ titles this isn’t a patch on them. Extra’s wise it falls down too. There’s a ood Bey Logan commentary on disc one, disc two includes a John Woo documentary – not one specific to ‘A Better Tomorrow’ – it’s not that good either spending a lot of time on Woo’s Hollywood career. And there’s a couple interviews. Not so much Ulimate as the ‘That’ll do for now’ edition. However, the movies enjoyable enough and we’re unlikely to see a better copy in the near future. There’s just a lot of better examples of this kind of movie out there.
Rating: 3 / 5
So here we have (at last) a good looking transfer of this classic movie, with good subs, some good extras and at an affordable price.
This film has been mistreated on DVD for years, and only a very expensive OOP Asian release of all 3 “ABT” films gave it a worthy release.
So here we had a God send! An easy to get, affordable release…AND THEY BLEW IT!!!!!
For some reason known only to them they gave this otherwise fine release a totally messed up audio track that replaces most of the original well known music with stolen cues from the likes of “Speed” and….wait for it…”Forest Gump”!!!
So any fan of the movie will be sorely grieved to see so many scenes they know and love ruined by alien music gremlins!
I HATE them for messing up this essential release.
Rating: 1 / 5
Painted in a poetry of crimson blood-A Better Tomorrow is simply a brilliant film with an intense story that swims through the rocky waters of one mans attempt to get away from his Triad ties and come to terms with his brother whom blames him for the death of their father.
Ti Lung plays the lead character Ho and Chow Yun Fat, in a trade-mark role as Mark that won him to audiences from around the world, plays his loyal friend who wants to take back everything from the criminal world and once again be atop of every one. Leslie Cheung gives an emotion performance as Ho’s brother-Kit, whom blames him for the death of their father. Kit, being a Police Officer, finds that he’s after Ho for duty and hate alone. Another notable performance would be the sly and devious Waise Lee who plays the underling Shing who plots against Ho and manages to rise himself all the way to the top after Ho is sent to prision and Mark is crippeled in one leg. He is the villian and the one that Ho, Mark, and Kit must all wage their vengence against in the climatic finialy.
John Woo directs with grace and presence in this super-charged film of honour; loyalty; brotherhood; and revenge. He even makes a cameo appeance as the Taiwanese Detective determined that Ho is not sincere about his want to leave the criminal world.
Gangster and Triad films do not come any better than this.
Rating: 5 / 5