What do you think of when you think of Asian gangster films? Operatic themes, beautifully choreographed gunplay, wild and graphic violence, triple digit body counts. philosophical main leads? A Better Tomorrow was the film to create all of those hallmarks of the Asian gangster film. This film created an entire genre and shattered all previous box office records in Asia. A Better Tomorrow was listed No. 2 on the list of The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures. This film also spawned huge trends all over Asia, which we'll get into later in this essay. A Better Tomorrow also served to launch John Woo and Chow Yung-Fat into becoming international stars. A Better Tomorrow is the Chinese Godfather (I think it's better personally and you don't have to sit through an hour long wedding scene) yet so many Westerns haven't seen it.
A Better Tomorrow follows the story of Sung Tse Ho (Lung Ti) an OG in the Chinese Triad who's going to pull one last job in Taiwan before retiring. With him is his partner of (at least) twelve years Mark Gor (Chow Yung-Fat) Together they're the most respected operations in an American currency counterfeit scheme. Ho and Mark have a young inexperienced operator with them named Shing (Waise Lee) who's learning the ropes. Ho also has a brother named Sung Tse Kit (Leslie Cheung) who's on the path to becoming a police investigator at police academy. On Sung Tse Ho's last job, someone from inside snitches on him which leads to the job becoming a mess and Sung Tse-Ho being sent to prison. Mark is subsequently crippled from the revenge hit on the rival gang who set Ho up. Shing goes from rookie to Godfather in Ho's time in prison and makes Mark a pan handler. And Ho's and Kit's father is accidentally killed when the triad sends a hit man to kidnap him for fear Ho will talk in prison. And that's just the first act....
A Better Tomorrow definately has a bit of a Chinese television soap opera feel to it. However what makes this movie so good is it's masterful story-telling by John Woo, and two excellent performances from Chow Yung-Fat and Leslie Cheung. A Better Tomorrow has a very opera like feel to it in the way fate handles each of the characters. John Woo said that he wanted to make a film about men of honor, and gangsters were the only kind in the Chinese consciousness at the time. This film deals largely with the concept of honor and loyalty and how those are the prime motivators for the film's characters. A Better Tomorrow was also the first Asian gangster film I had the pleasure of watching in my youth. The violence in it is shocking to a first time viewer. In Western movies, blood is almost non-existant. Watch any gangster movie before Bonnie and Clyde and you'll see hardly any blood or reality in the violence of those films. However in A Better Tomorrow's characters get shot multiple times, stabbed, thrown through windows and blood sprays with every injury. This would become a common trait of all following Asian gangster films. It's also interesting in Woo films how the choreography of the violence is more important than the realism. For instance I chuckled more than a few times in this movie when the lead character was shot in the stomach with a shotgun and then was fighting and jumping over a fence with not much difficulty. These scenes have become a staple of Woo movies and have gained the affectionate terms "Bullet Ballets" and "Woo Physics."
Chow Yung-Fat who plays Mark Gor absolutely steals the film. Fat's charatcer Mark became so iconic that wide spread trends broke out across Asia for young men to wear the same trench coat (which literally became known at the "Brother Mark Coat") chew on match sticks, and wear the same model RayBand glasses as the character in the film. Fat's performance in this film despite the cultural differences translates as cool in any language. It's largely his performance that made this film such an international success. Fat originally a television actor in Hong Kong, was initially thought to be not commercially viable enough to be in this film. However Director John Woo fought to have him in this part. What's funny is that Fat's character is dramatically killed off in this film. However, Fat's character proved such a popular character that in the sequels to this film... all of sudden he has a twin brother from Vietnam who looks and acts exactly as the character who was killed off.
Leslie Cheung turns in an exception performance as Sung-Tse Kit, the gangster's little brother who has to live down his brother's reputation in the police world. Cheung would go onto become a big star in China but didn't seem to ever translate in the international market. Cheung's character's turn from naive loyal brother to driven obsessed cop is the emotional driving force behind this film. It's his tenacity that gives this film it's energy.
John Woo is one of the finest directors in the world. Woo had made a few films before A Better Tomorrow, however this was his first worldwide success. The way Woo moves through this movie with so many sub-plots going on is absolutely masterful. The one thing that amazed me about this film is how it's able to transition between deep believable emotional scenes between characters into surreal amounts of violence in the next seamlessly. Many film aficionados out there feel that A Better Tomorrow is Woo's best film. I would defiantly say it's probably his purest.
A Better Tomorrow was the film that launched an entire genre in the Asian film markets and is largely considered to be one of the finest films ever made. If you have any interest in getting into Asian films, John Woo films, or Chow-Yung Fat films, you have to see A Better Tomorrow. It's also worth seeing to see what a Chinese gangster or what the Chinese lifestyle and culture looked like in the 1980s. A Better Tomorrow is one of the best cinematic gangster films ever made and should be considered on the same level as The Godfather, Scarface, and Goodfellas.
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| Every man who controls his destiny is a god. |
Additional Thoughts...
You know, I may do this quite often where I'll come back and add additional thoughts when I have them. However, one thing I forgot to mention in this article is just how dynamic the soundtrack is. I was working with some sound effects tonight and needed gunshots. I then realized I wanted to use the sound effects from A Better Tomorrow because the gun fights sounded so cool. Also the score is in perfect step and absolutely completes the emotion and world of this film. All day today two different themes have been stuck in my head (it's been a cool day) and the entire score is memorable. I really can't think of a single negative to this film unless you're not into subtitles (in which case leave my blog my now!) or Woo-Physics is too much for you.
NEXT MOVIE:
SCARFACE (1932)
Arguably (and in my opinion) the greatest gangster movie ever made.
