A Better Tomorrow
![Watch film A Better Tomorrow — Official Trailer [Subtitled]](https://www.acmodasi.in/amdb/images/posters/1/14/a-better-tomorrow-1986-TkTKg.webp)
Short description
A Better Tomorrow follows Sung Chi Ho, a man who has risen through Hong Kong's criminal underworld but now wants out. His younger brother Kit has built a career in the police and has no idea how his older brother actually makes his living. Ho's closest ally in the gang is Mark Lee, and the two work alongside a boss whose ambitions extend well beyond them. When an operation goes badly wrong, Ho takes the fall and goes to prison, and Kit discovers the truth about him. Years later, Ho is released and returns to a brother who wants nothing to do with him, while the gang's new leadership is determined to pull him back into the life he is trying to leave behind.
The film is John Woo's third feature as director, arriving between Heroes Shed No Tears and A Better Tomorrow II, and he also shares screenplay and production credits with Tsui Hark among others. Ti Lung and Chow Yun-fat play Ho and Mark, with Leslie Cheung as Kit, Emily Chu as Jackie and Waise Lee as Shing.
Made for about one million dollars and taking roughly four times that worldwide, it was a commercial success. On IMDb it holds 7.4 from around 29,000 votes, with the same figure on TMDB from far fewer votes, while critics' reviews average 7.6 from 20.
What's left behind the scenes
- Some cinema owners, in conversations with producer Tsui Hark, expressed concerns about Chow Yun-Fat's participation in the film. They emphasized that while Chow is truly popular as a television actor, films featuring him consistently fail at the box office. In cinematic circles, he was even nicknamed "box office poison."
- Chow Yun-Fat is now known as an action hero, but John Woo cast him in his film precisely because the actor didn't resemble a tough macho man at all.
- Chow Yun-Fat wears Alain Delon sunglasses in the film. After the film's release, all such glasses in Hong Kong were bought up by his fans. Delon sent the actor a letter of thanks.
- The character played by Chow Yun-Fat became so popular among Hong Kong youth that they began to imitate his style of dress (a black coat and sunglasses) and the habit of holding a match in his teeth. All the sunglasses in stores were sold out in less than a week after the film's release. As a result, director John Woo was heavily criticized for allegedly promoting the lifestyle of triad members.
- John Woo chose criminals as the main characters because he believed that there were simply no other active and energetic people in the public consciousness of Hong Kong.
- The scene in which Mark is beaten by Shing's men turned out to be excessively violent, but John Woo specifically appealed to the censorship authorities to leave the scene unchanged in order to show the audience how far criminals are willing to go.
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