Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Anssi Vartiainen Director John Woo's first big breakthrough movie and still considered to be one of the best Hong Kong action movies. A movie that helped popularizing Hong Kong action in the West and is still, after multiple decades, an iron hard nailbiter.Sung Tse-Ho (Ti Lung) is a member of the Triad in charge of their money deliveries. With him he has his trusted partner Mark Lee (Chow Yun-Fat). But things take a turn for the worse when his last deal goes south - don't they always - and he is caught by the police, thus letting his younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung), a freshly graduated police officer, know about his criminal tendencies. And thus Ho's life is completely ruined, for even when he gets out of prison, he has lost his position in the Triad, his brother has cut all ties with him and even his partner isn't doing as well as he used to.What I like the most about this film is its ability to mix crazy, completely wild action scenes with scenes of surprising depth and character. Ho and Mark's struggle to regain their footing and position in the world is very identifiable, and Ho's willingness to at least try to straighten up makes him an admirable character. We also have Mark, whose character arc isn't as defined and deep, but who works as a good counterpoint to Ho because of his innate coolness and entertainment factor.John Woo is a legendary name in the action genre, and for a good reason. All the fight scenes are amazing, the special effects have withstood the test of time surprisingly well and you're never lost in space, even though the fights are very energetic and fast-paced.Woo has an instantly recognizable style and if you haven't seen any of his movies, this is a great place to start. It has it all. Great characters, even better action scenes, scenic locations, high stakes and boiling tension. Definitely recommended.

museumofdave Its odd how some gangster films from the 1970s and 1980s have dated more than those made in the 1930s and 1940s, probably because the pacing and the snappy dialog crammed into 80 minutes wears much better than long stretches of attitude and out-of-date clothes and second- rate music.The main reason folks seem to watch John Woo is for his grasp of kinetic gun play and maximum explosive violence, and that said, he does it infinitely better in his later films, mainly Hard Boiled, in which the last 30 minutes is absolute dynamite. There are a few scenes in A Better Tomorrow worth wading through in this film, and Chow Yun-Fat is persuasive as a silent gun man with a strong personal code, but you just want to smack the kid brother, whose petulance and whining grows tiresome after about ten minutes, and the final shootout, even though dozens of whirling bodies go flying through the air, is fairly predictable to seasoned viewers. This is a good film to watch to see where Woo was grounded, but I think his mature work shines in comparison

Michael Neumann Hong Kong movies are not unlike Hong Kong itself: loud, brash, fast, and furious, and the Crown Colony's biggest box office hit is more or less representative of its type, offering unsophisticated escapism with energy to spare. The formula is simple: mimic time-tested American movie clichés, but blow them out of any realistic proportion; the result in this case is a whipcrack action adventure beginning where most Hollywood thrillers end. The sometimes incomprehensible plot follows two underworld 'brothers', betrayed by their own syndicate, who embark on a bloody campaign of revenge against the silky-smooth crime lord (once their apprentice) responsible for setting them up. Separate credit is given to an 'action director', and for good reason: the violence is often incredible, but is presented on an unreal and almost theatrical scale, with lots of balletic slow-motion shoot-outs and artful camera choreography. Even more entertaining are the odd malapropisms in the Cantonese-to-English subtitles of the original theatrical import, in which 'legal evidence' is translated as 'hints', and the macho threat "don't f*ck with me!" emerges as a somewhat less intimidating "don't depress me!"

freemantle_uk Since Bruce Lee reinvented Hong Kong and material arts cinema Hong Kong's film industry became one of the biggest in the world. Hong Kong cinema became well known for doing through different phases, from Jackie Chan comedy action, John Woo's heroic bloodshed films, historical material arts films and Hollywood influenced films like the Infernal Affairs series.In the mid-eighties John Woo, one of the most popular action directors in the world, reinvented Hong Kong cinema with producer Tsui Hark to create the heroic bloodshed genre, bloody action films set in the world of organised crime. A Better Tomorrow is the first of it kind, and became a popular in film in both Hong Kong and internationally.A Better Tomorrow tells the story of Sung Tse-Ho (Ti Lung), a captain within the Triads and running a successful counterfeiting operation. He is aided by his loyal lieutenant and best friend Mark (Chow Yun-Fat), he is handy with guns. Ho's younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) is training to be a police officer, and the two love each other every much. They both help take care of their sick father. But Ho's life of crime is destroyed when he gets arrested in Taiwan. His father is murdered in front of Kit, and when Mark gets revenge he is crippled. Three years later Ho tries to go straight, getting a job as a taxi driver. But his younger brother, now a rising cop hates him and Mark is a low ranking Triad member, forced to work for Shing (Waise Lee), Ho's replacement. Shing asks Ho to rejoin the Triads, and run the counterfeiting operation. When Ho refuses Shing threatens Kit and Mark, forcing Ho to take action to safeguard his loved ones.The mid-eighties and early nineties was when John Woo was at his creative powers, making very well known films and ended up getting calls from Hollywood. He because a director respected by his peers like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarrantino. A Better Tomorrow shows Woo's skill. He crafts out some every exciting, through, bloody action scenes. There are well managed gun and fist fights, and this should be shown to editors in Hollywood to show how to cut and action sequence. Woo also knows when to slow things down to allow the plot and characters to develop. The plot is a simple affair, it's an action film with gangsters, not a gangster film. But the plot is done well enough to keep you interested, and character are developed to give the story drive. Ho is an decent man who wants to pay for his crimes and forced back into action, whilst Kit starts off as a clumpy kid who turns into overzealist cop.A Better Tomorrow does start with some physical humour, but that quickly dies down and the film takes a more serious tone. It was also refreshing for me to see a John Woo film without his usual trademarks, the only one is a character using two guns.The acting is decent, Ti Lung was good lead, and Leslie Cheung was showed some range in his supporting role. This was Chow Yun-Fat's first major role and obvious this leads to bigger things for him. He too show's his skills as an actor. Waise Lee was also perfectly sinister as the villain of the piece.However, when the film does show English speaking characters, the dubbing makes them sound so fake, especially compared to the Cantonese characters.A very entertaining film and a must see for action fans. 8.3 out of 10.