TIFF’s A Century of Chinese Cinema Review: A Better Tomorrow (1986)

Cast: Lung Ti, Leslie Cheung, Yun-Fat Chow
Director: John Woo
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: The following review of A Better Tomorrow is apart of our coverage for TIFF’s A Century of Chinese Cinema which runs from June 5th to August 11th at TIFF Bell Lightbox. For more information of this unprecedented film series visit http://tiff.net/century and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.

At one point, near the end of John Woo’s masterful A Better Tomorrow, Sung Tse-Ho (Ti Lung) asks his partner-in-crime and best friend, Mark (Chow Yun-Fat), if he believes in God. Mark replies “I am the god”. In the context of the conversation and the film, he is talking about agency – Mark believes that by simply being able to control your own life, you can become a god. It’s not far from the literal truth, either - this is a man, after all, who can explode a single barrel with a shotgun from about 100 yards away while driving a boat.

A Better Tomorrow, made in 1986, was a pet project of sorts for Woo, made while he was on a break from filmmaking. As a result, the film had virtually no advertising, and was unheard of until it hit the theaters in Hong Kong.

The difference between Hong Kong John Woo films and American John Woo films is as disparate as any within a single filmmaker’s canon. Known for phenomenal action films in East Asia, he came over to the States in the early 1990s, where he has seen considerably less critical success (including three of the worst films of the 2000s, all in a row – Windtalkers, Bulletproof Monk, and Paycheck).

A Better Tomorrow, made in 1986, was a pet project of sorts for Woo, made while he was on a break from filmmaking. As a result, the film had virtually no advertising, and was unheard of until it hit the theaters in Hong Kong. Naturally, it broke the Hong Kong box office record, resulting in sequels, rip-offs, and an entire generation of action films largely influenced by it (perhaps most notably, The Matrix).

While Woo’s trademark style is there, complete with intense and inventive action filmmaking, A Better Tomorrow has more substance behind it than any of his other films. Woo’s imagery translates perfectly to the non-action scenes as well, and a healthily complex narrative is supported by dialogue that, for a change, doesn’t bring the whole thing down.

The film starts out as a buddy movie of sorts, with Ho and Mark working for the Triad. Both are incredibly charming to the point that it’s refreshingly goofy, especially Mark – Chow-Yun Fat absolutely kills it in a supporting role, and it’s easy to see why this was the role that brought him international star power*. The real conflict of the film, however, arises between Ho and his brother Kit (Leslie Cheung, best known as a C-Pop star).

 The film starts out as a buddy movie of sorts, with Ho and Mark working for the Triad. Both are incredibly charming to the point that it’s refreshingly goofy…

While Ho works for the Triad, Kit is a quick riser in the Hong Kong police force. Kit only finds out about his brother’s work after the murder of their father, and can not bring himself past contempt for his sibling. Woo is most effectively able to show this through their professional lives, as neither can separate their brother’s work from their own – Ho wants to go straight and work a legal job, but the Triad blackmails him back in, (misguidedly) seeing his brother as an opportunity to get an “inside man” on the force. Meanwhile, Kit is denied a promotion because of his brother’s criminal dealings, and is taken off his biggest case due to the conflict of interest. From Hard Boiled to Face/Off, Woo has long been interested in the intersecting roles of police officers and criminals, and this is by far his greatest success in that regard.

The visuals are still very much there for Woo – it opens with an incredible visual sequence as Ho has a nightmare that his brother dies, and ends with typical Woo impeccable action staging and choreography.

Perhaps most interesting is the relationship between Ho and Mark, which seems very romantic in nature although the subject is never broached. They very clearly have feelings for each other, but it’s so subtextual that it’s impossible to tell whether it was intentional on Woo’s part or the actors’ (or for that matter, even the characters, who seemed to be unaware of their own feelings).

*SPOILER NOTE: Chow-Yun Fat’s Mark was such a hit that for the two following A Better Tomorrow films, they had to figure out a way to bring him back. In the second, he plays Mark’s twin brother, and the third travels back in time to tell us the origin of Mark.

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Pete Volk

Staff Movies On Demand and Film Critic: I'm a student in my senior year at the University of Maryland, where I study journalism and film. I love the Coen Brothers and science fiction films, and am excited to be a part of the Next Projection team. I was raised in North Hollywood but currently live in Washington, D.C.

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