This story is the tale of two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter and the younger a fledgling graduate of the HK police academy. The plot revolves around the split when the younger brother learns the other is a criminal and the efforts of the criminal brother to reform. Along the way are plenty of heists, double-crosses, and shoot outs.
- jackmeatJanuary 9, 2026My quick rating - 7.6/10. I recently acquired a remastered edition of this classic flick out of Hong Kong that put Chow Yun-Fat on the map as the premier action star of Asia. I doubt my rating will change much. This one is a bit more dramatic than his offerings that immediately followed and earned him his cult following, namely The Killer and the absolute masterpiece Hard Boiled. Basically, anytime John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat teamed up, they made memorable flix that are still some of the best you can find. Later on, I assume most of you finally caught up with Chow Yun-Fat in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Either way, this was the first flick I saw of his, and if you do take a look, he has been in PLENTY, especially around that time. In this film, a recently reformed gangster (Ti Lung)attempts to reconcile with his policeman brother (Leslie Cheung), but as per the norm, cutting ties with those gangs is never that easy. Yun-Fat plays a disabled assassin who teams up with them to protect them from the mob boss looking to remove them from the equaA Better Tomorrowtion (Waise Lee). Without this and other works from John Woo, there would not be any Matrix flix let alone the John Wick series, which heavily borrows many aspects of his style and creativity behind the camera. The movie itself blends the drama of the family trying to make amends with the action of the gang's relentless pursuit of Lung regardless of his rehabilitated ways. If you have seen his films, the profound violence in the scenes is present and well-choreographed. The signature dual gun shooting, along with creative gun-fu battles, is included in his early development. Yun-Fat does steal the show as the friend who, along with acceptance, just wants to make things right for his friend, but the acting throughout this is surprisingly well done. There isn't much more to say aside from must-see for fans of action, since I bet some of your favorites were all inspired by this flick.
A Better Tomorrow Trivia
A Better Tomorrow was released on August 2, 1986.
A Better Tomorrow was directed by John Woo.
A Better Tomorrow has a runtime of 1h 35m.
A Better Tomorrow was produced by 温嘉文.
This story is the tale of two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter and the younger a fledgling graduate of the HK police academy. The plot revolves around the split when the younger brother learns the other is a criminal and the efforts of the criminal brother to reform. Along the way are plenty of heists, double-crosses, and shoot outs.
The key characters in A Better Tomorrow are Sung Chi Ho (Ti Lung), Mark Lee (Chow Yun-Fat), Sung Chi Kit (Leslie Cheung).
A Better Tomorrow is rated R.
A Better Tomorrow is an Action, Crime, Drama film.
A Better Tomorrow has an audience rating of 9 out of 10.
A Better Tomorrow has made $4.5M at the box office.