Now Viewing: a_better_tomorrowTag type: Copyright Tag refers to images referencing this iconic 1986 Hong Kong crime action drama written and directed by John Woo. It was produced by Tsui Hark. Music was composed by Joseph Koo and the film's theme song is sung by Leslie Cheung who also plays one of the main characters of the film, Kit. The film's original Chinese title is 英雄本色 or Yīngxióng běnsè (True Colors of a Hero). It was remade as a Korean film with the same English name but the Korean name is Mujeokja (Invincible). The original Hong Kong film spawned a sequel and a prequel. Sung Tse-Ho is a high ranking Triad member who closely works with his best friend and gunslinger Mark Lee in the distribution of counterfeit money. Despite his lifestyle, Ho is a man with a strong sense of honor and loyalty and he is very very close with his family, particularly his younger brother Kit who is an aspiring police officer and does not know that Ho is a gangster. The two brothers' father knows that Ho is actually a gangster and tells him to quit. Ho and Mark's lives go downhill after Ho is assigned to complete a deal in Taiwan. Ho is accompanied by a newbie gang member named Shing and the two of them are betrayed by the gangsters they're dealing with. Ho ends up surrendering himself to the police so that Shing can escape. After reading about what happened to Ho in a newspaper, a furious Mark avenges his best friend and kills the gangsters who betrayed him but is unfortunately crippled while doing so. Kit, for the first time, suffers the consequences of Ho's lifestyle as he and his father are attacked by a hit man. While the hit man is eventually killed, he successfully assassinates Kit's father who pleads with Kit to forgive his older brother. After spending three years in prison, Ho tries to start a new life working at a taxi company. Unfortunately, Ho is faced with a life crisis. Feeling betrayed by his older brother, Kit has refused to listen to his father's dying wish and his former brotherly love for Ho has turned into hatred. Ho witnesses his best friend Mark being humiliated by Shing who has become the boss of Ho's former group and has also become much more coldblooded and ruthless. Mark, although he claimed otherwise in the letters he wrote to Ho while Ho was in prison, is now on the bottom rung of the gang hierarchy and is treated as a poor errand boy by Shing. Mark, filled with hope upon reuniting with Ho, wants to get revenge on Shing and asks for Ho to work with him in doing so but that would require Ho, who wants to quit, to become a criminal once again. Kit is also going after Shing and is burdened by the fact that his brother was a gangster which prevents him from rising the ranks in the police department. Ho is once again torn by conflicting loyalties and tries to figure out how to rebuild his life. The film had an enormous pop cultural impact upon release. It was one of the most financially successful Hong Kong movies and launched the film career of Chow Yun Fat, who played Mark, and saved him from his reputation as 'box office poison' as his previous film were much less successful. Although Mark was not the protagonist of the film, he became the most iconic character. Mark is famous for his costume, sunglasses and black long coat, which was emulated by people in real life as well and inspired many other creators to create action oriented heroes wearing similar outfits. The character Mr. Chang from Black Lagoon is essentially an animated version of Mark in terms of his physical appearance. Mark has become synonymous with the sunglasses and long coat look within Hong Kong pop culture and the long coat is often referred to as 'Brother Mark's coat.' The film also revived the careers of its star Ti Lung (who played Ho) and director John Woo. Lung was a popular martial arts film star during the 1970s but his career went downhill during the 1980s before this movie. Woo, who had previously directed many comedies and some martial arts movies and whose career was also floundering prior to this movie, became synonymous with the exaggerated, balletic, and bloody gunplay action popularized by this film. With this movie, Woo popularized having gunslinger characters using two hand guns simultaneously in combat which Mark famously did in this movie amongst other gunplay tricks. There was also heavy use of slow motion during the film's gun battles for dramatic emphasis. The film is also credited with popularizing the Heroic Bloodshed style movie which are often crime stories with contemporary settings that thematically revolve around honor and loyalty and feature plenty of gunplay action. These elements of the movie have been emulated by many subsequent films, video games, animation, and comics. The film was also the first collaboration between Woo and Chow Yun Fat who would work on quite a few heroic bloodshed films together. Other Wiki Information Last updated: 11/07/13 7:03 PM by jojosstand This entry is not locked and you can edit it as you see fit. |
     
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