They may have each been working diligently in the industry beforehand, but it was A Better Tomorrow and its sequels that catapulted both to international superstardom. Now, courtesy of Fortune Star's A Better Tomorrow Trilogy box set, we can revisit what made their partnership so special. When, for instance, Chow walks onscreen in his long woolen coat, sunglasses on and unlit matchstick gritted between his teeth, a pistol in each hand blazing away, the movie instantly transcends its B-movie origins and becomes a thrilling pop phenomenon. It's an iconic image, courtesy of Woo, and at that moment Chow Yun-Fat is undeniably the coolest motherfucker on Planet Earth.

A Better Tomorrow from 1986 is still the defining example of the HK "Heroic Bloodshed" genre. The picture was designed as a sort of Chinese Scarface, in which Chow's character Mark start as a low-level hood rising through the gangland ranks via his money-laundering operation, only to be betrayed from within by his own partners. His best friend Ho tries to go the straight and narrow after a few years in prison, but the down-and-out Mark soon drags him back into the action for some bloody retribution. The plot is pure pulp and in any other movie the loud ‘80s fashion and colors would be too horribly dated to endure. There's even a direct rip-off of the famous Godfather restaurant scene that is pretty shameless. But in Woo's hands the film becomes a paean to the virtues of brotherhood and misguided honor. The movie features what can be described as no less than an orgy of violence, each gunshot and blood splatter fetishized in Woo's trademark slo-mo ballet of bullets and bodies. The gunfights are simply awesome, and Woo uses them to elevate the dramatics to operatic proportions. It's a remarkably delicate balancing act and an amazingly entertaining joyride.

As with anything so wildly successful, a sequel was inevitable. Under pressure from super-producer Tsui Hark, Woo cranked out A Better Tomorrow II in time for release the following year, 1987. Chow Yun-Fat also returns to star, and anyone who actually saw all of the first movie probably wondered how the hell that could be possible considering…. well, if you've seen it you know. The cop-out explanation is that Chow now plays Ken, identical twin to his previous character Mark. Yes, it's lame, but it had to be done. There could be no sequel without Chow Yun-Fat, and frankly any excuse to put him and Woo back together can be easily forgiven.

Once you get over this basic contrivance, though, some other disappointments set in. In order to make the lead more identifiable for the audience and friendlier for international distribution, Ken is a much softer, less devious character than Mark. He's basically just a good guy who gets reluctantly dragged into his brother's old life. The movie's action is more ambitious in scope than the last picture, spread out between Hong Kong and New York, but after a strong start the story gets sidetracked in a lengthy and frankly asinine subplot about one of the main characters having a nervous breakdown. Woo and Tsui Hark reportedly clashed over the direction the series should take, and this results in a wildly uneven picture. On the other hand, when it works it really works. The action is again spectacular, and by its latter half the plot finally settles down into a basic but functional revenge tale that is perfectly sufficient to build up enough momentum for the intense climax in which Ken, returning sidekick Ho, and Ho's little brother Kit (also returning from the first movie) lay siege to a mansion full of gangsters and turn it into a grisly abattoir of close-quarters machine gun fire. Part II is not nearly as good as part I on the whole, but it has more than enough highlights to make it a satisfying follow-up to the original.

By the time A Better Tomorrow III came around in 1989, John Woo had left the series and producer Tsui Hark (a prolific A-list director himself) took over the reigns. Chow is back as Mark again, which can only mean one thing; yes, the third entry is a prequel, showing us the origin of the character we met in the first film. Set entirely as a flashback to the Vietnam era, if part III has one fundamental problem it is that the movie has next to nothing to do with either of the first two pictures. Sure, the character shares the same name, and Tsui throws in a few token references to the sources of his famous coat, sunglasses, and dual-pistol shootout technique, but otherwise any connections are tenuous. Mark here acts nothing at all like the Mark of the first film; he's more of a good-natured fellow like Ken, whose existence by the way is never mentioned a single time. Nor is there any reference to vital characters Ho and Kit. There are other characters named Kit and Ho in this movie, completely unassociated with the originals (maybe that's meant as a joke, or maybe the filmmakers never even made the connection). It's as though the film began life as an unrelated Vietnam project that Tsui decided to shoehorn into his popular franchise.

The third movie is by far the weakest of the trilogy. Although Tsui has made more than his share of action movies and knows a thing or two about putting together an effective shootout, he's more concerned with setting up flashy "hero" shots of the actors posed with their guns firing that look good on posters and in movie trailers. The violence here is much less bloody and intense than what Woo had established for the series. Tsui tries to make the plot into a larger-than-life love triangle between Mark, friend Mun (Tony Leung Ka-Fai), and mutual girlfriend Kit (the late Anita Mui), but only achieves mixed results. His attempts at social commentary also come across ham-fisted, and the big climax goes too far over the top with its ridiculously staged action and heroics. Tsui wants the movie to be an epic, but it almost turns into a parody. There are a handful of good moments in the film, and if it were released as an independent picture without trying to be a Better Tomorrow sequel it might be OK, but the storyline is just too inconsistent to be considered a legitimate prequel to the other movies, and it comes out as a big disappointment.

What is not disappointing is the totality of the A Better Tomorrow Trilogy as a single package. Despite their ups and downs, the movies are great and easily repeatable entertainment.

Final Thoughts:
The films in the A Better Tomorrow Trilogy are undisputed landmarks of Hong Kong action cinema...

At the end of A Better Tomorrow, Ho is captured by the cops and sent to prison. In ABT2, Ho is offered early parole if he works with the police to take down a crime boss named Lung. Since Lung gave Ho his start in the "business," he refuses out of loyalty to his former boss. However, once he finds out his brother Kit (who is now married, with a child on the way) has taken the case, he reverses his decision and takes the job.

After Lung is framed for the murder of another crime boss, he escapes to New York, where he ends up in a sanitarium after learning of his daughter's death. He is eventually nursed back to health by Ken, who is Mark's (from ABT1) twin brother. Ken is a former gangster trying to go straight, but when he learns of Lung, Ho and Mark's relationship, he decides to back to Hong Kong with Lung. The four friends join forces to get revenge, leading up to a high-powered, blood-spattered finale.

While not as powerful as the first film, ABT2 is still a high-powered crime drama with incredible gunfights. I think most of the problems in the film come from the fact that ABT became so synonymous with gunfights that the realtionships Woo wanted to stress became lost in the shuffle, so he kind of over-compensated for it in ABT2 by developing the characters more fully. While there is nothing wrong with dramatics, I think the beginning of the film is too slow and really only appeals to fans of the first film (though the famous "rice" scene where Ken force-feeds a local gangster is great). I also think the whole "twin" angle is kind of stupid and undermines the credibility of the story, and some scenes come off as really melodramatic (even when compared to some other Hong Kong movies). The final half of the film, where the plot really starts to move, is pure Woo all the way and quite enjoyable to watch. Though not his best work, ABT2 is still definetly above-average and worth watching.

Interesting trivia:

Many people say that this sequel to the film that redefined action is better. I couldn't agree any more. The story, consisting of many subplots combine with some powerful gunblazing action that will take you off the edge of your seat. Dean Shek, usually the comic butt of HK films, takes a serious turn as the depraved and betrayed Lung, and the films proves of his excellent acting skills. Chow Yun-Fat is back as Ken, the twin brother of Mark, the hero who dies at the end of Part 1. Ti Lung and pop star Leslie Cheung are back as well as former gangster Ho and his brother, Policeman Kit. The highlight is the finale of the film. For 15 minutes, you see people getting blown away with guns and grenades galore. The walls are literally blood red by the end of the film. A must see for all fans of John Woo, Chow Yun-Fat, and pretty much ALL ACTION FANS!!!!!!

John Woo ups the ante with the action and the scope of the film which switches from Hong Kong to the States and then back again for the fantastically violent climax. Sadly the film doesn't hang together as well as the original and it seems at times as if some scenes are missing. I've read that John Woo lost control over the editing of the movie which might explain things.

Still there's no faulting the action especially in the ending which sees Ti Lung, Chow Yun Fat and Dean Shek storm a mansion full of armed killers. The scene includes one of the finest stand off shoot-outs ever filmed when Chow faces the villains right hand man in a duel. This scene was featured in 'True Romance'. The closing shots of the heroes sat amongst a roomful of dead bodies is one of the most enduring images ever seen in Hong Kong cinema.

The film begins with little time having elapsed from the end of the first. Ho is imprisoned and Kit is still a police officer. The police approaches Ho with an undercover assignment that Kit is unaware of: They want Ho to “escape” from prison and find out if his old mentor, Lung, has returned to crime. Ho refuses, so they get Kit to do it. However, when Ho finds out that Kit took his place, he changes his mind and agrees to go undercover. They discover that it isn’t Lung that’s counterfeiting the money through his shipyard though, its Ko, Lung’s right hand man. Ko sets Lung up, forcing Lung to flee to New York, where he runs into Ken, Mark’s twin brother. Ho and Kit continue the investigation into Ko and the shipyard, while Ken and Lung deal with Ko’s men in New York. Eventually, they all meet up in Hong Kong to get revenge on Ko in one final climatic battle.

The plot for A Better Tomorrow II is pretty threadbare, and at times, is hard to follow. The relationships between the characters are a bit confusing, as Ho, Kit, and Ken all refer to Lung as “uncle,” though not all of them knows each other. Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung are again both great in this movie; Chow Yun Fat’s character is developed more and given more screen time in this one as well. Of course, the action scenes are great, especially the one at the end...

Why Would I Like This Movie? The rice scene: a wild defense of Chinese values against stereotyped Western thugs. The twenty-minute adrenaline-fest that is the ending. The now-endlessly-copied gun trade during the final scenes. The melodramatic madness & loyalty interlude (if you like melodrama, as I do).

Why Wouldn't I Like This Movie? The ludicrous plot devices. The melodramatic madness & loyalty interlude (if you don't like melodrama). The rice scene: some people can't get past Chow Yun Fat's subservient smile and broken-English to see the defiance underneath, so they are uncomfortable with him in this role. Also, definitely not a movie for people who don't like blood. But no action fan will regret having seen this movie: the bloody finale will compensate for the melodrama.

Sung Tse Ho (Ti Lung) and his brother Tse Kit (Leslie Cheung) are undercover police agents collecting evidence of the counterfeit activities of Lung's (Dean Shek) ship company. Lung's assistant, Ko Ying Pui, is the one running the counterfeit operation and he wants to kill Lung to take over the company. The two brother save Lung and escort him to New York to be taken care of by Ken (Chow Yun Fat), an ex-killer living a quiet life in New York City. Later, Ken decides to help Lung return to Hong Kong. Moreover, Ken, Ho and Kit are determined catch Ko even at the price of losing their lives HKFlix Rating: 7/10: (Arthouse Rating: 2.5/5. Entertainment Value: 4.5/5.)