A Better Tomorrow: John Woo’s first classic gets its due in Shout’s 4K set of the trilogy
We’ve been posting loads of stories here on JoBlo about Shout Factory’s Hong Kong Cinema Classics line, which features 4K restorations of gems from the Golden Princess catalogue. These movies have long been out of print in North America because The Weinstein Company owned the rights to many of them and, as was their custom, kept everything on the shelf. Some of the key titles included John Woo’s entire Hong Kong output, including The Killer and Hard-Boiled.
Where You Can Watch the Restorations
One of the cool things about Shout is that they’ve made the restorations easy to see. They’re streaming on Shout’s FAST channels, on Tubi, and on The Criterion Channel. At the same time, they’ve also been re-releasing the movies on 4K Blu-ray in feature-heavy editions.
Why A Better Tomorrow Is the Standout
Of their various releases, one of the most essential is the A Better Tomorrow trilogy. Not only are the three films included in new 4K transfers, but the set also includes some real treasures in the special features, such as a revelatory workprint cut of the second film (which I wrote about at length HERE).
Primer on the Films
For anyone unfamiliar with the films, here’s a quick primer. In 1986, John Woo was a fairly middling Hong Kong director, but everything changed when he made A Better Tomorrow. Inspired by Jean-Pierre Melville and Sam Peckinpah, Woo moved away from the kung-fu action Hong Kong cinema was known for and embraced gunplay instead, helping give birth to the Heroic Bloodshed genre.
One of the key ingredients was the against-type casting of Chow Yun-Fat as Mark Gor, a triad gangster in a trench coat and sunglasses with a matchstick hanging out of his mouth. Inspired by the cool of Alain Delon, the character was technically a supporting role, but it turned Chow into an overnight star and eventually one of the biggest global Chinese actors ever.
The movies themselves set the template for the style Woo would later perfect with The Killer and Hard-Boiled. The trilogy is inconsistent, since Woo only had full creative control over the first film, which is melodramatic and ragged but still an undisputed classic. The sequel resurrects the long-dead Mark Gor by giving him a twin brother, and although the film was hacked to pieces in the editing room, it still features one of the greatest action climaxes of all time — a sprawling final shootout where Ti Lung’s Ho, Ken (Chow), and Dean Shek’s Lung unleash brutal vengeance.
The Elusive Third Film
The Better Tomorrow films were previously released in North America by Anchor Bay, but their versions didn’t include the third movie, A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon. The main reason is that John Woo didn’t direct it. Tsui Hark took over, using Woo’s original Vietnam-set prequel idea, which features Chow as a younger Mark Gor hustling weapons in Saigon near the end of the Vietnam War. Woo later revisited the concept with his own masterpiece, Bullet in the Head.
A Better Tomorrow III isn’t on the same level as the first two films—Hark didn’t have Woo’s flair for gunplay—but it’s still worth seeing for its vivid finale set during the fall of Saigon and the strong performances by Chow and co-star Anita Mui, who sadly passed away young (as did A Better Tomorrow I & II star Leslie Cheung).
Final Thoughts
The set is on the pricey side, but if you’re a fan of Hong Kong action cinema, it’s a must-have, especially for the A Better Tomorrow II workprint, the longer cut of the third film, and the candid John Woo interviews. If you have someone in your life who loves action movies, this is the Christmas present to end all Christmas presents. BUY IT HERE!
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