A BETTER TOMORROW Movie Review

Ying Huang Boon Sik
Gangland Boss

Two brothers—one a mobster who longs to again be a decent citizen, the other a cop who's convinced that their father's death is his brother's fault—live to see their combined rivalry and affection explode against a backdrop of Hong Kong mob violence. If it sounds like you've been there and done that, you're not taking the most important element into consideration; A Better Tomorrow was directed by John Woo, who may be the most brilliantly gifted director of genre action films of his generation. A Better Tomorrow marked the first appearance in a Woo film of Chow Yun-fat, the sullen, handsome, stoic actor who would instantly become director Woo's alter ego. With a gun in each hand and an forbidding, Elvis-like sneer, Chow makes a socko impression here as a syndicate enforcer who may break the laws of the state, but whose sense of outrage and personal honor will never let him knuckle under to real scum. Woo and Chow were an unbeatable boxoffice combination, and A Better Tomorrow quickly spawned two sequels, as well as such now-classic Woo/Chow action films as The Killer and Hard-Boiled. Both men eventually made the trip to Hollywood, with Woo achieving spectacular commercial and artistic success with Face/Off, and Chow making his first major U.S. appearance opposite Mira Sorvino in the stylish, Woo-produced The Replacement Killers.

NEXT STOP … The Killer, Hard-Boiled, The Public Enemy

1986 95m/C CH Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Ti Lung; D: John Woo; W: John Woo; C: Wing-hang Wong; M: Ka-Fai Koo. VHS REP, FCT