Rating:  Summary: 3.9 out of 5 Review: Here it is, folks: John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW, the classic action/drama that started it all. The film stars Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung as two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter, the other a newbie police officer. Their friendship seems like it will never die; until on one fateful night, Ti Lung turns himself in. From there it's a violent, double-barrelled gangster flick of a film that remains one of the biggest hits ever released into Hong Kong. Chow Yun Fat is especially superb, however, and no doubt the highlight of the film, as Lung's best friend and an enforcer. He has such a star presence to him you can't help but like him. Woo's directing is also superb in his breakthrough film: the action sequences are rarely rivaled. Action fans can't miss this ultimate slice of Hong Kong cinema.
Rating:  Summary: 3.9 out of 5 Review: Here it is, folks: John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW, the classic action/drama that started it all. The film stars Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung as two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter, the other a newbie police officer. Their friendship seems like it will never die; until on one fateful night, Ti Lung turns himself in. From there it's a violent, double-barrelled gangster flick of a film that remains one of the biggest hits ever released into Hong Kong. Chow Yun Fat is especially superb, however, and no doubt the highlight of the film, as Lung's best friend and an enforcer. He has such a star presence to him you can't help but like him. Woo's directing is also superb in his breakthrough film: the action sequences are rarely rivaled. Action fans can't miss this ultimate slice of Hong Kong cinema.
Rating:  Summary: A Better Version Available. Review: I bought this when it first came out. Up till then, it was only available as A: Horrible Boot-leg or B: Horribly Translated English-Dubbed VHS. So I bought thinking I hit the motherlode. It did have a pretty decent transfer & was letterboxed in it's 1.85:1 ratio instead of it's usual boot-leg 1.77:1. However, the first thing I noticed was that all the original score had been replaced! I don't know if this was corrected later or what, but I was very disappointed. Not only was the original good music gone, but it was replaced with sound-alike versions of the score from "The Terminator" and "Forrest Gump." AHHHH, the agony. Anyway, it was just re-released not too long ago by a different company, and though I haven't picked it up, I've heard it's there in all it's glory. Trust me, stay away from this version.
Rating:  Summary: A Classic Review: I consider this Chow Yun-fat movies of them all. this movie made him a star and he made this moviea instant classic. Every body in this film were perfect in this movie, and this movie is tragic. i watch this movie when i was 10 years old and rented again yesterday to watch it, and i still loved the movie and that rarely happens to me. Anyways It would be a good idea to check it out or i rather you buy it cause it will be worth every single penny.
Rating:  Summary: Great Movie is ruined! Review: 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.
Rating:  Summary: Not as good as A better Tomorrow 2 but worth it regardless Review: I personally like part 2 better but that doesnt mean this isnt a good movie, the acting is great and under the direction of john woo how can it [be bad]? Not as much action as the other 2 movies but geat anyway. If you like chinese action movies go buy it!
Rating:  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.
Rating:  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
Rating:  Summary: The tour de force which started it all... Review: In 1986, an unknown movie titled "Yong Huang Boon Sik, A Better Tomorrow" was released in Hong Kong. It brought laughs, sweat and tears to an audience larger than any HK film made before, also gaining blockbuster status in many other Asian countries, especially in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It also started a huge wave of Hong Kong crime films, a feat even George Lucas would have been proud of. For people who have never seen this film and wonder why, as you read this, it accomplished all of these amazing feats, is this film represents honor, loyalty, fate, and brotherly love more honestly and brilliantly than any other film, ever. This movie also catapulted the Chow Yun-Fat era, which since then has become an equal or maybe even surpassed that of the legendary Bruce Lee. See this movie for yourself, it brings out the best in your emotions.
Rating:  Summary: Great film, DVD will "tramp" you. Review: In case you didn't get the message from the last few reviews: do NOT buy this DVD unless you have no other option for seeing this film and can't wait for a better release to come along. The subtitles are so bad as to make certain scenes incomprehensible; the audio transfer is terrible (the characters sound like they're in a tin box, the vocal track is out of sync, etc.); and the print is faded and it looks like no attempt was made to clean it up in digital transfer. Nevertheless, the film is a blast, and you don't really need to understand the dialogue to follow the plot. To quote from the subtitles, you don't "loose" much and you won't feel "dump" if you can't understand exactly what's being said.
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