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Summary: Attention All Fanatics!!
Review: Two men bound with honor and loyality in an underground world of money, power, guns, and greed. Mark(Yun-Fat) sworn to revenge after a deal gone bad inwhich Ho Tse(Lung Ti) served time. A blood brother Kit(Leslie Cheung) who is a cop bond to uphold the law and punish all drug-lords. The death of Kit's father brings anger and hate upon Ho. Will this bring resentment onto both brothers or disownment? This is a jam-pack gun shooting explosive moive. A classic must have DVD collection. Director John Woo's superdom to fame before moving on to U.S films.
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Summary: Satisfying Gangster Film
Review: My first viewing of this just blew me away. Ti Lung was a revelation as the gangster older brother of a young cop. His eyes throughout the film break you heart. I originally bought the VHS for Chow Yun Fat since I had become a huge fan of his work in Anna & The King. I can see why this film took him to super stardom. You can't take your eyes off him when he is on screen. Together he and Ti Lung create a very affecting team - one gangster wanting to go straight after 3 years in prison; and the other who has been horribly wounded in a gun fight that left him crippled and doing menial tasks after being the top enforcer for the mob. The wild card in the story is Ti Lungs younger brother who is the cop trying to move up in rank, and who blames his brother for their fathers death. How it all comes to a climax is one great film story and the action sequences are almost too much for the eyes to take in and leave you with your mouth open. Highly recommended for action fans or anyone wanting to see a bit of film history - this was a landmark film.
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Summary: A good showing in the first outing of Woo and Chow
Review: While definitely not up to par with their later work The Killer (1989) A Better Tomorrow (1986) marks the first gunplay film of Chow Yun Fat and John Woo. Chow and Ti Lung play big time Hong Kong hoods in the money making business (literally - they're counterfeiters). Ti's younger brother Kit (Leslie Chung) is a police cadet and doesn't know what bro' is up to. Things come to a head when Ti takes a trip to Taipei with an underling and gets nicked (he underling escapes). Chow gathers some pistols and goes to avenge his pal. There is a great scene of him "planting" guns in flower plots for later use. Anyway he gets his man but gets clipped in the leg pretty harsh. When Ti gets out a few years later, Chow is a nobody in the gang, limping around and cleaning the windows of the underling that Ti took the rap for. Kit won't talk to him cause having a con for a family member has pretty much put the brakes on his career. A job at a taxi stand won't do it and Ti and Chow decide to get a little revenge! Great flick followed by two follow-ons. Decent transfer (looks just like it did in the theatre - which wasn't Hollywood quality but hey that 's not important) playable on all DVD's and subtitled in maybe a dozen different languages (including English). NOTE: My copy (media asia) had the original soundtrack (in cantonese or mandarin dialog) or at least the one that was on the theatrical release i saw 'bout 10 years ago. HK movies are often released dubbed into mandarin - i stick with the cantonese track and it seems the same to me. Yes the subtitles are bad at times, but not to the point of incomprehension, just funny, and that's the way they were in the theatre too.
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Summary: Remarkable film, HORRID translation job.
Review: I'm sure if you're familiar with anything Chow Yun Fat then you know that this is the film that launched his career (in America at least, my Asian friends introduced me to him & Jet Li at least 5 years before they became household names). Great action, great acting, great story... Now let's talk about the DVD itself. I've been receiving these same all region silver DVD editions for years. They're usually sold to travelers & vacationers in Asia since every one comes there looking for HK Kung Fu & action films as well as the occasional Kurosawa flick. The English subtitles and translations suffer greatly because these versions sometimes have up to 11 OTHER languages and dialects on them to maximize selling potential. The English translations and subtitles suffer not always because the translators don't know English well but because some things just don't translate at all and it would be extra legwork to add in stuff off the top of your head(For one thing many of these languages have NO possessive form and English is the planet wierdest language, IT CHANGES DAILY!) . All in all if you love HK cinema you'll be soooo damn happy you have on DVD and not VHS that you'll overlook all the little stuff because it's not really the distributors fault, they had a deadline. love
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Summary: A Cinematic Wonder!
Review: The film that gained stardom from people like Chow Yun Fat and John Woo. It's a story of two of the closest brothers, seperated by their careers. Though mostly dramam in the middle, there is enough action to keep your attention, along with some great action.
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Summary: Great film...mediocre subtitles
Review: I saw this in a Chinese Cinema course at university recently, and I really enjoyed it. The acting is very good, and the cinematography is also good, though at times the night scenes are so dark that it is hard to discern what is taking place. The action sequences are especially impressive, and there's no shortage of realistic wounds or ridiculous amounts of automatic weaponry. The gun-fighting is not for the faint of heart. Unfortunately, the subtitles on the version we saw were not too accurate. I'm no connoisseur of foreign cinema--I have no clue what is standard when it comes to subtitles--but we had to wade through a translation riddled with improper contractions ("I'll!" instead of "I will!") and some other unintentionally funny comments ("I am not a dumb"). At many times in the film the atmosphere was obviously supposed to be grave or serious, but the words on the screen made it humorous. At any rate, it's a fine film with minor "technical" problems. Chow Yun-Fat is charming as Mark. His role alone is worth a viewing, if not the cost of purchasing a copy.
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Summary: Still holds up
Review: Still is a really good movie. Like the rest of the ABT series its more melodrama then action, but not to say there is no action. This movie is still a really good one because of the great honesty and rawness of the film. Chows performance was awesome even though he was not allowed to be cool during the midle parts. Woo's direction is top-notch. The character relationships were nice and defined. Why not five stars? Because while the movie is really good it does fall short because of pacing problems and the fact the action scenes are not good. Woo had not yet perfected his technique, the scenees here are merely OK but not great. Im sure at the time they were amazing but when viewed w/ Hardboiled they really s***. Just not polished. But if u can get beyond that this movie is a real pleasure. If u like this, see ABT 2. That movie is great!!
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Summary: What happened to the original soundtrack?
Review: First off, I LOVE this movie in its original form (Cantonese version way back in the 80s). The DVD version suffered from a few FATAL flaws: the Cantonese version had a different soundtrack for a few scenes, the Cantonese version had a mis-dubbed Mandarin dialogue (the scene in the bar with Mark, Ho and Shing was in Mandarin!).
Good thing is, the English version had the original soundtrack but nonetheless, the dubbed version never captured Mark's (Chow Yun Fat) outstanding use of tones and pitches.
This re-release really disappointed me, and destroyed a masterpiece that I loved.
Rating:
Summary: The re-release is well worth it
Review: After hearing about the anamorphic re-release of "A Better Tomorrow" by Anchor Bay, I cancelled my purchase of the TaiSeng version. And after watching the new version I have to say I'm very satisfied. The transfer was done well, and the original Cantonese soundtrack also holds up. What can I say about the movie? John Woo and Chow-Yun Fat's early work together signalled the start of something greater, and the coming of age of Chow-Yun Fat as an action star and a great actor. Still awaiting delivery of "A Better Tomorrow Part II". Must be delayed b/c of problems Anchor Bay is having with the Cantonese soundtrack they received from the Asian distributor. I can't wait!
Rating: 
Summary: A Better Desicration
Review: 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.
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