One can survive even the most horrible present as long as they believe they will reach a better tomorrow.
What They Say:
A new take on the Hong Kong action classic that launched Chow Yun Fat to international stardom, director Song Hae-seong’s remake of A Better Tomorrow features an all-star class including Seung-heon Song, Kang-woo Kim, and Jin-mo Ju. In the treacherous world of the black-market weapons trade, honor and vengeance go hand in hand. Adapted from writer/director John Woo’s original screenplay.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Kim Hyuk’s life is not exactly idea. He currently lives in South Korea but is originally an escapee from the North, though he isn’t completely free as he abandoned his younger brother Kim Chul who was captured during the escape. Years have passed but still the memories of that time haunt his dreams. His waking life isn’t ideal either as he has chosen a somewhat well paying profession in order to obtain money to try to track down his younger brother’s location-and the only positions that pay that well aren’t legal.
Hyuk spends much of his waking time working in a criminal operation that traffics in firearms though he also uses its connections to search for any information he can find on his younger brother. The people around Hyuk largely know of his search and support him with his boss offering tips he hears about from connections and his best friend Lee Young-Choon being a reliable sounding board as well as a skilled man to have at ones back if a firefight breaks out.
Tensions and the fragile bonds in this operation are thrown sideways when Tae Min, who is the boss’s nephew, comes into the organization. He clearly is ambitious and has little patience with the level of work assigned to him and he has been making his own plans for advancement, not all of which will be the kind his uncle will support.
Things start to look up for Hyuk when a source finally finds Chul but it won’t be a touching reunion. Chul has not forgiven Hyuk for leaving him and their mother behind and has turned his pain to rage against his brother. Chul isn’t the only one who hasn’t forgiven Hyuk as Hyuk is willing to take all of his brother’s pain and absorb it and add it to the burden of guilt he already carries with him. Bribing a guard at the prison where Chul is being held Hyuk manages to meet his brother one last time before setting out on a mission that will separate the two for another span of years.
Hyuk is sent on a mission with Tae-Min where he is ambushed through a traitorous plan of Tae-Min’s. While he barely manages to escape with his life he can’t escape the Thai police and he finds himself in jail for three years. During these intervening years Chul studies and becomes a police officer and wants nothing to do with his brother or the letters Hyuk writes from jail, and things don’t get any better when Hyuk is finally released from jail.
Chul isn’t the only one to have changed his life as Hyuk was imprisoned as Tae-Min has become a major player in the gun running business after setting up Hyuk and after Choon has been seriously injured trying to avenge his friend. But during this time he has picked up a persistent police tail and a link between the two me as Chul has been assigned to help bring Tae-Min down. With Hyuk having served his time and back in town he finds that Tae-Min doesn’t believe that Hyuk isn’t looking for revenge as he just wants to live a quiet life now that his brother is free. When Tai-Min decides that he has to put all his demons down before they rise up against him, will he find that the adage about letting sleeping lie exists to warn a person that when aroused one may find that previous slumbering dog’s teeth at their own neck?
A Better Tomorrow certainly sets out it seems with the intent of becoming one of those movies that fans love to talk about parts of as there are some rather strong moments, but moments don’t add up to a whole in this case. The feature plays almost like if The Usual Suspects was filmed starting right after skipping the boat open and played the flashback parts as the core-without Kevin Spacey’s narration to bring life and depth to the characters as we meet them.
A good early portion of the film is spent trying to figure out who is who and what exactly is going on which is fine for a murder mystery but not so good when dealing with a fast paced film where the regulars are supposed to have known each other for years. That the movie makes more sense when re-watching can be a testament to a smartly written script (think again The Usual Suspects once the identity of Keyser Soze is known and the changes this brings to events) but in this case it is more a testament to the lack of effort spent to develop characters and events in the early parts of the film and the familiarity that comes only once everyone has been established and has had enough screen time to get a feel for them.
This is rather annoying as there are some really good ideas included in the script and the central theme of love, betrayal and pain could have been put together with much better effect. Having to try to figure out who a character is and why one should care what they are doing is not a winning formula here. I haven’t seen the original Hong Kong film this is based on so I don’t have that prejudice going against it. I just found a group of characters that frustrated me with the lack of opportunity I was given to connect with and then the diminished impact events had afterword because of this lack of connection. This is the kind of film that could benefit from a few extra scenes added to bring the viewer in, or possibly just being remade altogether with the flaws smoothed out to give a final product that feels like it has more life and connects its characters to the audience more effectively.
In Summary:
A Better Tomorrow certainly sets out with the idea of creating a rather powerful tale of one brother’s dedication and love while also showing the effects his criminal life has on those around him. While there are some impressive action sequences, enough treachery to satiate a spy movie fan and a rather spectacular ending sequence it is a shame that the story feels half developed at times given the poor establishment of its characters. This is only made even more disappointing when realizing the film is a remake and so has a previous structure to build on. The film plays better the second time around, but one shouldn’t have to watch a film twice to understand some of the basic motivations of characters and the foreshadowing of events that impact the feature from the opening credits.
Grade: C
