Feted as the very best Hong Kong gangster movie ever made, A Better Tomorrow launched the careers of John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat into the stratosphere. On the face of it, it's merely an explosive retelling of a classic story, betrayal and vengeance in the shady world of organised crime, but thanks to excellent perfomances by Lung Ti and Yun-Fat, and some well-choreographed (but ridiculous) gunfights by Woo, it rose above the average to become the benchmark for all future crime-flicks. I'd just like to point out right now that the copy I have is dubbed, not subtitled, and as such the pisspoor quality of the English speech might well affect the final score.
Mark (Yun-Fat) and Ho (Ti) are important lieutenants in a powerful crime syndicate. Used primarily to negotiate dealings with other gangs, their fearless skills come in useful extorting money for their bosses. Ho however leads a double life, at the behest of his dying father, in order to protect his younger brother who is training to become a Police Officer. When Ho is doublecrossed in Taiwan he gives himself up in order to save the protege of the syndicate, Shing, and spends the next 3 years in prison. The repercussions of this are felt by everyone who knows him. His father is killed, his brother comes to realise the truth and Mark is badly wounded seeking revenge against his friends doublecrossers.
Released from prison he attempts to lead a normal life but his brother, now a Policeman, refuses to have anything to do with him, blaming him for their fathers murder. Shing also reappears, now in sole control of the criminal operations, and offers him and the now-disgraced Mark a way back in. Unwilling to return to his past but shadowed at every turn by his suspicious brother the scene is set for a series of violent showdowns between the four principle characters.
Looking at this film now I have to conclude that it is overrated. That's not to say it's bad, far from it, but the dialogue (dubbed or not) is cheesy to say the least, the action scenes are utterly unbelievable and the editing amateurish. What is good though is the story, John Woo delivering a script full of peculiarly Chinese honour, dignity and bloody vengeance. The characters are well-rounded and given depth by the cast. The feelings of each, remorse, rage, vengefullness, are superbly delivered and constant throughout the second part of the film and Woo's direction, though poor in the fight scenes, keeps the film moving along quickly whilst giving full attention to the plot-building, dialogue-rich scenes which power the heart of the film. Unsurprisingly, after it's smash hit success it spawned two sequels, the second being almost as good as the first. |
