A Better Tomorrow

Plot

Sung Tse-Ho ( Ti Lung ) works for the Triad , whose main operation is printing and distributing counterfeit US bank notes. Ho is a respected member of the organization and is entrusted with the most important transactions. Mark Lee ( Chow Yun-Fat ), another high-ranking member of the group, ^[7] is his best friend and partner in crime.

Ho is close to his younger brother, Kit ( Leslie Cheung ), who is training to become a police officer. Ho keeps his secret life from his brother and encourages Kit’s career choice. Ho’s father is aware of Ho’s criminal activities and appeals to him to go straight. Ho agrees, deciding that his next deal in Taiwan will be his last one before leaving the Triad. Shing ( Waise Lee ), a new member, is sent along as an apprentice. The deal turns out to be a trap by the Taiwanese gang. A shootout in which Ho and Shing flee, pursued by local law enforcement.

Meanwhile, a gang member attempts to kidnap Ho’s father to ensure Ho’s silence if he is caught by police; in the ensuing fight also involving Kit and his girlfriend, Ho’s father is killed. Just before dying, he pleads with Kit to forgive his brother. Ho eventually surrenders to the police in order to buy time for Shing to escape. After learning of Ho’s capture, Mark finds and kills the Taiwanese gang leader and his bodyguards. However, Mark’s leg is shot in the gunfight, leaving him crippled.

Ho is released from prison three years later. Remorseful and determined to start a new life, he finds work for a taxi company, run by another ex-con. Ho Mark spots during one of his shifts; in contrast to Mark’s letters, he realizes that Mark has been reduced to an errand boy for Shing (who is the new leader of the Triad). During an emotional meeting, Mark asks Ho to take revenge on Shing and reclaims their positions in the organization, but Ho refuses.

Ho seeks Kit out and tries to reconcile with his brother (but who is now a police officer), who is responsible for their father’s death. In addition, Kit is resentful that his family ties to him. In his effort to prove himself to his superiors and further distance from his brother’s criminal past, Kit becomes obsessed with bringing down Shing’s criminal group, despite Ho’s warnings to stay away from the dangerous case.

Shing finds him and presses him to come back to his organization, offering to reinstate Mark if he returns. Ho flatly refused. Consequently, Shing begins with a harassing attack, including luring Kit into a trap and injuring Kit, attacking Ho’s co-workers, and having Mark beaten severely. Ho is dismayed but is still hesitant to take action, but an impassioned speech by Mark finally convinces Ho to join Mark in taking revenge on Shing.

Mark steals a computer tape with a shot of the gangster , with Ho arriving to help Mark’s escape. The film then reveals that it was Shing who betrayed Ho three years ago in Taiwan. Ho and Mark use the tape to blackmail Shing in exchange for money and an escape boat. However, Ho ensures that the tape is passed to the police. Using Shing as a hostage, Ho and Mark take the money to a pier, where Shing’s men await. There, Ho persuades Mark to escape by himself in the boat.

After Mark leaves, Kit arrives on the scene intending to make an arrest where he is captured by Shing’s men. A deal is made to exchange Shing with Kit, but the trade explodes into a wild shootout. Ho and Kit are wounded, but Mark returns with guns blazing out of loyalty to Ho. After Ho, Kit and Mark kill many of Shing’s men, Mark berates Kit, telling him that Ho’s actions had been atoned for whatever wrongdoings he had done in the past . Mark is in turn killed by Shing.

As the police approach, Shing mocks Ho (who has run out of ammunition), stating that he will surrender, but he will not surrender. Kit, finally seeing eye to eye with his brother, Ho hands to revolver, with which Ho kills Shing. Immediately afterwards, Ho to himself to Kit, expressing his desire for redemption and his admiration that Kit always walked the right path. The film ends with the reconciled brothers walking together towards the crowd crowd of police.

Cast

• Ti Lung as Sung Tse-Ho
• Leslie Cheung as Sung Tse-Kit
• Chow Yun-fat as Mark Lee
• Emily Chu as Jackie, the girlfriend of Kit
• Waise Lee as Shing
• Shing Fui-On Shing’s right-hand man
• Kenneth Tsang as Ken, the leader of the taxi company
• Tien Feng , the father of Ho and Kit
• John Woo , the movie director, plays the bespectacled Taiwanese police chief
• Tsui Hark as a music judge (cameo)

Theme song

The film’s theme song is “In the Sentimental Past” (當年 情), performed by lead by Leslie Cheung , composed by Joseph Koo and written by Wong Jim .

Box office

A Better Tomorrow grossed $ 34,651,324 HKD at the Hong Kong box office. ^[1]

Musical references

• During the nightclub scene, the song being played in the background (幾許 風雨, Gei2 heoi2 fung1 jyu5) is the Cantonese version of a classic South Korean song called ‘Hee Na Ree’ (희나리) sung originally by Goo Chang-mo ( ko: 구창모 ) in 1985. The Cantonese version in the movie was sung by Roman Tam , considered the “godfather” of the musical genre Cantopop .
• In the scene where Jackie rushes to a music recital, the violinist plays Jackie plays the theme song of the movie.
• Also heard in the soundtrack is “Sparrowfall 1”, a track from Brian Eno’s 1978 album, Music for Films .
• The film also contains “Birdy’s Theme” (from the movie Birdy ) by Peter Gabriel incorporated into the soundtrack.
• In the scene where Ho meets Jackie back stage of the music, the children’s choir is singing Tomorrow will be Better , written by Lo Ta-yu . This is the origin of the film’s English title.

Film references

• A Better Tomorrow was inspired by The Brothers (1979), a Hong Kong crime film with a similar plot on the two brothers on the sides of the law, the elder brother a mobster and the younger brother a cop. ^[8] In turn, The Brothers was a remake of Deewaar (1975), a Bollywood crime movie written by Salim-Javed . ^[9]
• Woo’s movie Was Partially inspired by the 1967 Lung Kong movie 英雄本色 ( pinyin YingXiong Bense ) qui Has the Saami Chinese name order a different English name: Story of a Discharged Prisoner , qui is # 39 on the Hong Kong Film Awards list of the Top 100 Chinese Movies.
• Chow Yun-fat’s entrance to the restaurant before the shoot-out is John Woo’s homage to Mean Streets .
• The scene in which Mark Lee tells the story of being forced to drink urine is apparently based on a real incident involving Chow Yun-fat and director Ringo Lam , according to Bey Logan on the DVD commentary. This scene was recreated in Woo’s Bullet in the Head .

Cultural impact

• After the movie, teenage boys in Hong Kong leave the climate subtropical. In fact, in Cantonese colloquial, trench coats are called “Mark Gor Lau” (literally, Brother Mark’s coat).
• The Wu-Tang Clan has a song named after the film on their 1997 album Wu-Tang Forever .
• The Wu-Tang Clan 20th Anniversary album also shares the name A Better Tomorrow .
• The anime series Cowboy Bebop has many references to the movie series, including the last fight between Spike and Vicious in the episode “The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)” which parallels the final shoot out in “A Better Tomorrow 2”.
• The character Mr. Chang from the Black Lagoon is closely patterned after Chow’s character Mark in both visual design and characterization.
• Chow wore Alain Delon sunglasses in the movie. After the movie, Hong Kong was sold out of Alain Delon’s sunglasses. French star Alain Delon feels Chow a personal thank you note.
• In 2009, Empire Magazine named it # 20 in a poll of the 20 Greatest Gangster Movies You’ve Never Seen * (* Probably)
• The 1994 Bollywood film Aatish: Feel the Fire (1994), directed by Sanjay Gupta , was an unofficial remake combining elements of both the Bollywood classic Deewaar (1975) ^[10] and John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow . ^[11] Aatishwas an acclaimed, popular film starring Sanjay Dutt , Atul Agnihotri , Aditya Pancholi, and Shakti Kapoor .
• In September 2010, prolific Korean filmmaker Song Hae-Sung released Mujeogja (Invincible) , which was an official Korean language remake of John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow . It opened to a positive response at the Korean box office. John Woo and Terence Chang also serve as Executive Producers for Mujeogja; which was a joint production between South Korea, Japan and China.

Remakes

See also

• A Better Tomorrow 2
• A Better Tomorrow 3
• Heroic bloodshed

References