A Better Tomorrow Reviews

Director John Woo's first foray into the Hong Kong gangster genre, A BETTER TOMORROW was an enormous hit in its home country, spawned several sequels, and essentially launched the contemporary Hong Kong action craze. The title expresses the desire felt by the movie's lead character, a former criminal named Ho (Ti Lung) now determined to go straight. He was once part of a counterfeiting ring, which also included his partner Mark (Chow Yun-Fat, later to star as THE KILLER) and a young up-and-comer named Shing (Waise Lee). In a flashback, Shing talks Ho into letting him come along on a job, but the deal goes bad and the cops are soon trailing the pair. Telling Shing to hide, Ho sacrifices himself to police custody, and emerges from prison years later to a drastically changed world. Shing, whom he left wide-eyed and wet behind the ears, is now a vicious crime boss; Mark has been crippled; and Ho's brother Kit (Leslie Cheung from the CHINESE GHOST STORY movies), whom he last saw graduating from the police academy, is now a cop determined to bring the gang down. Ho takes a job with a taxi company and tries to resist Shing's increasingly violent overtures to return to work for him. But the more he tries to escape his past, the more it snaps at his heels, and it all comes to a head in a gun-blasting showdown pitting Ho, Mark, and Kip against scores of Shing's thugs. Mark is killed in the shootout, but Ho and Kit hold their own together, defeating the other gunmen and, ultimately, Shing. A favorite on the Asian festival circuit and among underground video collectors in the US, A BETTER TOMORROW finally surfaced in the mainstream American video market in 1994. Neither as violent nor as melodramatic as Woo's later epic THE KILLER (which introduced the director to US audiences and is generally considered his masterpiece to date), A BETTER TOMORROW is arguably a stronger film in some ways. The drama is less extravagant and more plausible than in the later film, as Woo explores the themes of loyalty, friendship, honor, and male bonding that would become his trademark. For the most part, the director refrains from taking these elements over the top as he did--albeit with extraordinary panache--in THE KILLER, though here Woo was clearly sowing the seeds for his later success. The film has moments of humor, such as a subplot about Kit's musician girlfriend and her wildly unsuccessful audition (producer Tsui Hark, one of the leading lights of the contemporary Asian film scene, has a funny, reflexive cameo as one of the men she plays for). Mostly, though, this is grim, intense stuff, with strong performances by all involved. Ti Lung expressively conveys the anguish of his conflicted character, and Chow ably demonstrates the charisma that would serve him well in his later roles. Best of all is Waise Lee, who expertly handles Shing's transition from eager criminal-in-training to ruthless kingpin. Woo's direction is clean and direct, with a clarity of purpose behind every scene that makes each wrenching development seem inevitable. It's strong stuff, and even the occasionally dubious dubbing job on the US version (actually done in London) can't mask the power of Woo's work. (Graphic violence.)