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| A Better Tomorrow |
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| John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" is one of those typical Hong Kong flicks... with tons of guns, gangsters, ditzy girlfriends, a semi-digestable plot, and a soundtrack that makes you want to wretch. The guns and gangsters are essentially what made this movie otherwise bearable. The movie basically opens showing Mark Gor (Chow Yun-Fat) standing on the streets of Hong Kong. His black trenchcoat, shades, and devil-may-care expression put my mind at ease first... thinking, "Holy shit... this movie's gonna be awesome!" ... And... to a certain extent, it was. Although he was actually only a secondary character, Mark had all the cool scenes; from the ridiculous massacre in the restaurant, right up to his gruesome death at the end. The story itself had a lot of promise, but, in the end, contributed to this movie's overall crappiness. It focuses around Ho Tse Sung (Ti Lung) who is attempting to break his secret criminal ties for the sake of his younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung), an aspiring police officer. However, when Ho is set-up and sent to jail, his past comes all out in the open for his brother. Ashamed of his older brother's criminal ties, he refuses to speak to him ever again... and dedicates his life to trying to purge the disgrace from the family name. Ho is eventually released from prison and tries to settle down in a new life, but his old bosses are reluctant to let him go. Some stuff happens... then some more stuff... and eventually the movie ends in a HUGE all-out gang war at the harbor (which was pretty cool, actually). This basic premise was fine except for a few nagging problems: 1. They never really mention WHO the fuck actually betrayed Ho... I'm guessing it was that Taiwanese gangster, but WHY??? Some motive might be nice... Anyway, that confused the hell out of me... 2. If Chow Yun-Fat was supposed to be the real star, then why didn't they develop his character more? 3. Why was Kit's girlfriend even IN this movie??? And what the hell was up with that whole scene of her orchestra audition? The light-hearted humor she attempted to bring just pissed me off... Oh yeah ... the soundtrack deserves some mention. "A Better Tomorrow" manages to combine two main instruments into a horribly hideous and frightening composition: the harpsichord and the harmonica. Geeezus... just throw in an accordian, and you're set. In addition to this memorable score is a special guest appearence by a high-pitched child's choir singing entirely in Cantonese (yet another scene that seemed to have little relevance to the story). Aside from difficulties here and there, the movie does, for the most part, deliver a message promoting the concept of honor and loyalty among friends. I would still recommend giving this movie a shot if you have nothing better to watch... It's got some substance to it, and the problems I had with it may not be such an issue with all of you... and... if anything... maybe you'll gain some enjoyment from Mark's pretty cool scenes (when they actually GIVE him screentime). --- Boice |
| Bottom Line: 5.0/10 |
| Genre: Action/Drama Rating: Release: August 1986 Starring: Chow Yun-Fat; Ti Lung; Leslie Cheung Directed: John Woo |
| Milton believes that his opinion matters. Hah. |
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