A Better Tomorrow - B
Now Playing: (1986, John Woo) [seen on DVD]
This isn't up to the caliber of the best Woo films I've seen to date, but for an early work it's pretty solid. Was more than a little surprised that Chow Yun-Fat was somewhat incidental to the main storyline, which deals with a former gangster (Ti Lung) trying to go straight while his cop brother (Leslie Cheung) holds him responsible for their father's death. Aside from the "doubles" plot, other famous Woo tropes are on display here- two-gun killers, speedboats, slow motion, and birds (there's a pretty gratuitous shot of birds on the water that got a chuckle out of me). This film really doesn't pack as much of a punch as it should, mostly because Woo overdoes on the sentimentality when he should let up a bit (especially in the Cheung scenes), but Ti Lung acquits himself nicely as the older brother trying to do good for once in his life. With all the pyrotechnics of the film's climactic action scenes, nothing works quite as well as the nervy early scene in the restaurant where Chow executes a room full of turncoats. Pretty cool nonetheless, though Woo newcomers might be advised to start elsewhere (say, The Killer).