A BETTER TOMORROW
(Chinatown Video)
Reviewed by Jonathan
Marshall
With the gangster morality tale A Better Tomorrow I, director John
Woo had yet to fully develop the operatic, bravura visual style he realised with The Killer, Face/Off and A
Better Tomorrow II. Where ABT II is visually and narratively more
satisfying, ABT I is a sonicly superior work. Joseph Ko’s
score traverses a bewildering array of wannabe Michael Mann (Miami
Vice) synth music, souped up harmonica, liturgical strings and pre-techno electric
funk, giving the film an early ‘80s feel - though ABT I is slightly later
(1986). This creative use of scoring is coupled with a strange exaggeration of sound
effects: bullets echo endlessly and eerie wind adds a sense of stillness and portent to
visuals which otherwise remain remarkably active. This adds to the exploded, mythic
quality of ABT I, despite its gritty, bloody feel. Moreover while Mark (Chow
Yun-Fat) is retrospectively depicted as the epitome of gangster cool in ABT
II and III, in this first film Mark is in fact a wonderfully tragic
creation. Although the other flawed characters eventually learn to change, their
redemption sealed in the bloody finale, Mark cannot - he constantly speaks of a return to
the halcyon days of his gangster life. It is no accident that Mark does not survive this
film, whereas the others emerge to struggle towards the new life alluded to by the title.
The narrative follows the Scarface tradition of depicting the
heights and demise of a dynasty, but in reverse. Mark and Ho (Ti Lung)
live the good life for only 20 minutes of the film before their kingdom collapses. The
rest of the narrative explores the possibility of their return, and the conflicts between
Ho’s friendships and obligations towards the unreformed but pathetic Mark, versus
Ho’s police investigator brother. Woo has borrowed freely from
movies including Taxi Driver - especially a pan down a corridor showing the
destruction wrought by Mark - and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - the
crossing between frames of the wounded camaraderie of the heroes and the numerous forces
surrounding them. ABT I also includes one of Hong Kong cinema’s finest
gimmicks for a gun-fight with the now famous ‘pistols in the pot-plants’
sequence. The real highlight of ABT I though is that in portraying such a
shattered character, Chow reveals a depth few of his more cool,
stylishly-defined roles allow.
© 2000 Jonathan Marshall
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