Customer Reviews

A Better Tomorrow [VHS]

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Okay... so if you're only interested in the movie, of course this is quintessential John Woo melodrama-action. Chow Yun Fat is the master of matches mouth moving and handgun hysterics. But the DVD is badly flawed. The subtitles are too big as the other review said, but they're also late (show up after the dialogue) and inaccurate (its text from the original) *I'm Chinese so I know--I just turn it off*. In addition, the description is incorrect--there's no "additional footage" or "behind the scenes stuff." Only the lightest production notes on the cast and crew--stuff you could get from IMDB. Also the transfer is a bit faded and lacks real richness that DVD is suppose to provide. In addition, the annoying startup promo (which lasts over 3 minutes) before the actual menu starts can't be skipped. I had rated this as 3 stars, but changed it to 2. I still love the movie, but feel a little jipped--especially since I bought the entire trilogy. Where's Criterion when you need them?

This movie is just awesome. It's not the action packed thriller you'd normally expect from John Woo, but it's one of my all time favorite movies. Chow Yun-Fat offers yet another brilliant performance in this drama about an aging gangster (Ti Lung) torn between his best friend (Chow Yun-Fat) and his brother (Leslie Cheung).

What keeps this product from a five star rating is NOT the film itself. The subtitles are so horrible, I can't understand how any professional film distributor could release this is as a finished product. Spelling mistakes and ridiculously poor grammar litter this otherwise great film. Who did they hire to translate this? Whoever it was obviously had only known the English language for approximately 3 weeks. In addition, the subtitles often appear AFTER the dialogue is spoken- which can ruin the effect of a couple of key scenes (if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean).

Besides the subtitles, the DVD itself is nothing special. In fact, its not even average features wise. It has basic chapter selection, an ad for other film's the "Media Asia Group" offers, and the trailer for the film. That's it. The "About The Film" section isn't even worth mentioning, it's just extremely brief information on those involved with the film. You would get much better information (and in more detail) from the IMDB (www.imdb.com) or any fan site.

The subtitles alone were so bad that I was tempted to return this, but since there is no other version available that I am aware of, I guess there isn't much choice. As a big fan of both Chow Yun-Fat and John Woo, this product was very disappointing. It's a shame- this movie deserves much better.

A wonderful movie overall, but the subtitles are terrible and distract from enjoyment of the film.

The letters are too big, and often only four or five words are fitted per line, so an additional line of subtitles is necessary, taking up the bottom 25 to 30% of the screen. Can't see the movie for the words! The same holds true for the sequels.

I'd buy another copy if only they'd fix this aweful production flaw.

DON'T BUY IT! Wait for an improved edition! Too high a cost for such a faulty product.

Let me just say, I love this film. Now that that's out of the way , let's talk about this DVD.I had seen this film many times before buying it on disc, and I was very dissapointed by two things. One. They changed alot of the original music and replaced it with movie themes from, yes, Forrest Gump, Speed, and one or two I couldn't recognize. This is unforgivable. Second. In an attempt to take advantage of DVD Dolby Digital sound, they've remixed the gunfire to constantly come from the rear channels, which is both unrealistic and extremely dissorienting. As much as I love hearing a great stereo mix, this film was not meant to be heard this way, and this is a very sloppy attempt to create true stereo sound.The picture, on the other hand looks better than previously available, but I found myself having to turn my black level all the way down to make the picture look natural. It is very bright, to the point of washing out color.So the 2 stars is for this DVD presentation, not the film. A Better Tomorrow is the movie that launched a thousand two fisted gun battles, and caused every actor in Hollywood to secretly want to be Chow Yun Fat.

First off, I would like to say that I love this movie. The movie is very dramatic, and full of action. This film revolutionized action movies, and lifted John Woo and Chow Yun Fat's career to new heights. It also exsploded the heroic bloodshed genre up through the underground to the main stream. Perhaps without this movie to start it all, there would be no Killer or Hardboiled, ect. So the movie itself is not in question. With that being said this DVD is very disapointing. I am easy to please, to have this film on DVD is enough for me, BUT.....Anchor Bay or whoever changed the audio tracks on this film. At first this seemed like an ok idea, I actually liked how they did the beginning. But that is about it. Part of the greatness of this film is its soundtrack, the hypnotic, dramatic scores John Woo uses are sensational. When you change them, you change the feel of the entire movie. They took out crucial musical scores in certain scene's and added them in ones where it was not needed. After watching this I was throughly disapointed instead of exilarated as I usaully am. (I've viewed this movie about 25 times in the past.) Fortunatly, the changed audio is only on the cantonese lanuage version so the English dubbed version is the original. Being somewhat of a purist though, I hate the lack of realizm and feeling dubbed verions portray. I recently showed The Killer to my girlfriend in the English dubbed version (I was lazy and didn't feel like reading) and regreted that I didn't select the original launage with subtitles because it lacked the emphasis and power that the pure language brings. The picture quality is fine and the sound on this English version is good, the sound on the Cantonese version has ALSO BEEN CHANGED! Why? I have no idea, I was going to give this a 3 star but I am changing it to a 2. I highly doubt that John Woo was for these changes, and the bottom line is that you cannot change a masterpiece, that is like painting stick figures on one of Michaelangelo's paintings. Avoid this DVD unless you like the English Version. Mark D rates this movie a 2 out of 5 on the hypeness meter.

"A Better Tomorrow" is John Woo's first tense, bloody gangster epic, and while it wasn't his best it certainly shows the potential that would be fully realized later. It's here that Woo started developing the themes that he later explored further in "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer." Like those movies, "A Better Tomorrow" is a compelling tale of honor, loyalty and devotion set against the unlikely backdrop of the criminal underworld. The movie's principal plot, the relationship between an ex-gangster and his detective brother, is ideal for the sort of Shakesperean moral conflicts that are always at the center of Woo films. And like any movie, this one benefits immeasurably from the brooding, intense presence of Chow Yun Fat, even if his character is often in the background in this movie. Fat isn't quite the indelible leading man he would become a few years later, but his Mark does have his moments, most notably when cutting down a room full of enemies early on and later during the obligatory climactic shootout.

Strangely, though, "A Better Tomorrow" isn't quite as violent as I was given to expect after having previously seen Woo's later classics. Aside from the two aforementioned shootouts, the film is generally pretty subdued for something with Woo's stamp on it. Fortunately, the plot and characterization are more than sufficient to carry things along during the down time. Much of "A Better Tomorrow" explores the relationships among its three central characters. There's Ho, the ex-gangster and extremely tortured soul who gets out of prison three years after being betrayed by his apprentice to find out that going straight isn't going to be easy. There's his detective brother Kit, the kind of guy that practically squeaks when he walks, sees everything in black and white, and still bears a grudge against Ho for his criminal past. And of course, there's Mark, crippled during the aforementioned shootout scene and none too happy about it. This guy's got plenty of rage bottled up inside him, and you know it's just a matter of time until some unfortunate people wind up on the receiving end.

Unfolding around these three guys, the movie's action is vintage Woo, plot twists and all, as Ho's cartoonishly evil ex-protege Shing tries to consolidate his power in the underworld. Allegiances shift, the line between good and bad is repeatedly blurred, and bullets fly everywhere. Played in a sufficiently brooding manner by Ti Lung, Ho eventually emerges as one of the most compelling characters in action movie history, a guy who struggles mighty hard to maintain his dignity and his principles even after his old life has been pulled out from under him. Kit's sanctimony occasionally gets so irritating that even I wanted to punch him in the face, but Ho still manages to remain loyal to his brother. The naive Kit doesn't want to see the world in shades of grey, but of course his brother knows better.

In any Woo movie, the plot is all but bound to be resolved with a frenetic shootout, and this one is no exception. Apparently, there's nothing to help two feuding brothers get over their problems like being in a sustained gunfight together. Anyway, while not as impressive as the legendary church battle in "The Killer" or the full-scale war in a hospital that ends "Hard Boiled," this movie's final standoff does provide an early glimpse at the talent for staging ultraviolent gun battles that would make propel Woo (and Fat) to international renown. At a mere ninety-four minutes, "A Better Tomorrow" is a bit on the short side, and occasionally somewhat amateurish, but it still showcases all of the elements that Woo fans would come to know and love. It was up to later movies to do a sleeker and more professional job, which they certainly did.

This is my second favorite John Woo movie with great touches of action and drama, When I first saw this film (about 5 years ago) I wasn't used to seeing this much violence on screen (And I thought Lethal Weapon was extremely violent at that time) I was in shock and more then once my jaw dropped. This film is VERY violent But compared to other action films this is REALLY tame nowadays. The minor points of this film would be some bad acting to some worse acting in some spots, some weird cuts and editing, the subs were terrible, as the same with the audio quality and some of the camera work is bad, but this is John Woo's first (if you can count heroes shed no tears) landmark heroic bloodshed film so we all know he could have done worse MUCH worse. Yun fat chow, Ti Lung and Leslie Chung have their good moments to bad moments, most of the good moments goes to Chow and Ti while Leslie had only one or two moments. The plot is like this A cop must confront his criminal brother. That's it. If your the typical Hollywood action goer this is your perfect find. But as I said if your new to the heroic bloodshed films don't make this your first one, I'll say stick with the killer and hard boiled for a few weeks then move on. But if your the Hollywood action movie goer make this your first if you can handle it move on to the other heroic bloodshed films and so on. This film is a big landmark in the action genre and a even bigger landmark to the underground action genre. I really recommend this film to any action fan!!!!!

John Woo has made better films since (The Killer, Bullet in the Head), but A Better Tomorrow epitomizes everything about him that has captured the imagination of both Hong Kong and America. The influence of this film has been felt in films as far-ranging as Reservoir Dogs, Dead Presidents, Desperado, and The Matrix.

In terms of filmcraft, there are still rough edges to this film that make it less than perfect. The romance between Jackie and Kit is silly and the humour not as funny as it thinks it is. Emily Chu overacts badly and all of her dialogue is soullessly overdubbed, and Leslie Cheung has not yet gotten in touch with the simmering complexity that will eventually make him into a fine actor. He is embarrassing in the first half of the film.

But these flaws are easily negated by the full-grown, powerful mythology that Woo crafted out of his experience in martial-arts film. Chow Yun-fat and Ti Lung's characters, loosely related to the characters in Woo's best martial-arts film Last Hurrah for Chivalry, are heroic swordsmen trapped in the bodies of gangster gunmen, and in this film Woo debuts the balletic gunplay which becomes his trademark. The first occurrence of this -- Mark (Chow)'s hit on a traitorous business partner -- is simply exhilarating, both because of its historical context and the meticulous execution, which rivals the best rhythmic action scenes of Akira Kurosawa and Sam Peckinpah. And Chow and Ti's performances, early corny humour aside, are terrific, sustaining the ultra-romantic sense of honour, friendship and loyalty which is directly interpreted from historical martial-arts epics in Chinese literature and film. Woo's mentor Chang Cheh was a master at these stories, and Woo himself has enriched it greatly by successfully adapting them to a modern setting.

This DVD edition, despite cheap presentation (Anchor Bay should be ashamed for the chop-suey DVD menu design), is somewhat decent. Unlike the VHS editions which bear the same artwork, this DVD *does* contain the original dialogue and music track. A very good thing, for the earliest American VHS editions of this film had godawful dubbing. Not a danger here, though, and the picture and sound quality I heard on this disc seem quite okay.

A key film for anybody even remotely interested in Hong Kong cinema, or action films in general.

What can I say? I love John Woo, and this is an incredible movie, but please do not buy this DVD. Buying this DVD will tell Anchorbay that what they did was forgivable, and it (I am referring to their God-awful remix of the soundtrack) is a travesty, a crime against mankind, and hell-worthy trespass. Words cannot express the anger I have towards whoever thought that it would be a good idea to remix (if this is indeed a remix or just a gross oversight) this film's soundtrack with music from Forrest Gump, Speed, and several other cute movies. Apparently they for saw this situation and planned for it by not including the credits on this DVD!... Be warned, and wait for a rerelease.

I have to say first and foremost that I love this movie and have loved it since the first time I saw it. The story is great, and it has everything I expect to see in a good John Woo movie. The performances by Leslie Chung, Chow Yun-Fat and Ti Lung are all great, and the action is stylish and exciting. This movie is a fantastic introduction for anyone who hasn't seen a John Woo movie before that he himself wrote.

But I give this DVD one star for the reason that on this DVD they completely ruin the movie by cheapening the moments which originally had no music by sticking in music from "Forrest Gump" and I'm pretty sure during one action sequence they REPLACED original music with music from "SPEED" which I find in notoriously bad taste since the music is so distinctive when you hear it. The music ruined it for me and my friends who hadn't seen this great movie before, but couldn't help but laugh at the terrible music that fades in with disgustingly absurd music cues and random fade outs.

Not only do they stick in random music, but they cut off the final song during the end credts which don't exist in this version of the movie! I wanted to see the name of the person(s) responsible for butchering this movie, but alas they felt it more fitting to cut straight to a screen saying who the DVD was authored by.

The menus write the headers in English letters made to look like Chinese characters which is pretty absurd, and the movie logo looks ridiculous.

However, the English language trailer gives a good sample of the absurdity of English dubbing, and what happens when you have badly written voice over for movie trailers.