A Better Tomorrow

Chow-Yun Fat’s sleek underworld charisma and intense emotion still come through. As for the action scenes, the dubbing affects them not a whit: They’re as dizzying as any Woo has concocted, and the climactic gun battle has to be one of the most ridiculously exhilarating — or exhilaratingly ridiculous — sequences of its kind.

Woo's direction is clean and direct, with a clarity of purpose behind every scene that makes each wrenching development seem inevitable. It's strong stuff.

Floridly romantic and serenely excessive (men shot a dozen times don't die, guns never need reloading), it has the bravado of a minor classic.

A reminder of the astonishingly kinetic talent that John Woo maybe still possesses, this at times is on the verge of melodrama, but rescues itself from the brink with some fine gunplay.

Superlative action scenes, particularly a bloody guns-grenades-and-swords finale with a body count to rival the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, help wash away many of the flaws. Action for its own sake may not have been the film's intended point, but it'll do.

A Better Tomorrow isn't his best film ever -- that title remains securely attached to The Killer -- but it is required viewing for anyone remotely interested in Hong Kong cinema. After all, there might not be any filmmaking in Hong Kong come 1997.

The action is fast, tough, energetic and extravagant. It is smoothly and stylishly made but more inscrutable than intended. [28 June 1989, p.D05