A Better Tomorrow is one of the most influential films in Hong Kong film history, a massive hit which launched the "Heroic Bloodshed" genre, made an instant superstar of Chow Yun Fat, set director John Woo on a path to Hollywood blockbusterdom, and spawned a series of hit sequels starting with the inevitable A Better Tomorrow II (1987). The story is a gangster archetype: Ho (Ti Lung) and best friend Mark (Chow Yun Fat) are counterfeiters, while Ho's younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung), is a trainee law officer. When tragedy strikes Ho determines to go straight, and Kit seeks to bring them to justice. It's an age-old plot which leads to wholesale mayhem and a blood-soaked finale. Yet unlike many Hong Kong action movies, A Better Tomorrow packs the powerful emotional resonance of the best gangster flicks through coherent storytelling and believable characters struggling with impossible dilemmas. Rather than draw on crime movie imagery, Woo appropriates much of the visual style, not to mention individual set-pieces, ferociously intense gunplay, menacing electronic soundscapes and blue backlighting from James Cameron's then-recently released The Terminator (1984). That the result launched a filmmaking revolution testifies to John Woo's skill behind the camera, a talent which would reach full flower in The Killer (1989). On the DVD: A Better Tomorrow--Special Edition is anamorphically enhanced and transferred at 1.78:1, but the use of a slightly soft, washed-out print and regularly apparent compression artefacts makes for a mediocre picture. The sound is two-channel mono, which is often harsh and borders on distortion. The only choice on the first DVD is to watch the film in Cantonese, with optional English subtitles, or in a poor English dub. The second DVD has a new ten-minute featurette edited mainly from archive interviews with the stars and John Woo. There are further archive interviews; 18 minutes with Chow Yun Fat, 10 minutes with Woo and two minutes with Ti Lung. These are interesting, but are not all specific to the film. Also included is a short text transcription of an interview with Woo, biographies and filmographies, a gallery of assorted stills and two trailers. All this could easily have fitted on the first DVD and doesn't do justice to either the film or the idea of a special edition. --Gary S Dalkin
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