It's time for an english review of John Woo's first mega-hit. A Better Tomorrow launched his career and did in some ways change the market for action movies. Even if he had a smaller fallout with the producer Tsui Hark, as in who was responsible for the success of the film.

 

Ho and Kit are brothers. While Kit is a more innocent man, studiyng to be a cop, Ho, is secretly a big name in the mafia. It's not easy for Ho to hide his line of work from his brother. But when a deal goes wrong he's forced to spend three years in prison. Coming out, he finds himself in a new world. Ho's gangster-friend, Mark, was injured and is a worthless butler for the new mafia-leader. And Kit is an adult who refuses to have any remorse for who Ho used to be. Ho decides to leave his past and start a new future. But it ain't easy. So who can live to see a better tomorrow?

 

 

Action/gangster/drama hybrids are usually a bit too long and uneventful. But Woo captures a great sensibility where he focus more on character and drama. And the action takes second priorities. It's not often it works for Woo, but it works stellar here. Chow-Yun Fat became a huge star after this film as the more action-orientated hero of Mark. 

 

With some great soundtrack, good action and gun-fu, that sort of changed the game for this type of films, A Better Tomorrow has it's fanbase. Overall, it's almost perfect in my eyes and I have seen it a tons of times and always felt the same emotional attachment to the characters.

It leads to say that this is John Woo's best work.