A Better Tomorrow

A Better Tomorrow - for some of us cinephiles the film's name brings to mind images of guys (i.e. Chow Yun-Fat in his break-out role and performance that made him a star in Hong Kong) in trench-coats and ray-ban sunglasses with big friggin guns firing away in blazing battles staged with a balletic precision and melodramatic (or just operatic) sleight of hand by John Woo. It was a classic unto itself, if not as polished as The Killer or as crazy as Hard Boiled with just as much (or more) genuine heart to its dramatic acting and story. So surprised I was then to see that my local cineplex- which often gets Asian films to cater to the the nearby town that is predominantly Korean- that 'A Better Tomorrow' would be coming to that theater for a two-week run. What better way to see Woo's film, I thought, than on a big screen like one of the ones at my local theater. I was even told (perhaps misleadingly to buy a ticket and/or concessions) that it was the 80's Woo film, albeit "Korean". Hmm, I thought, is it Korean? I thought it was from HK, like Woo's films usually are, but maybe it's dubbed in Korean for the community... hmm...

And no, lo and behold, it was really a remake (I can tell this as not an accident as Woo himself is credited here as exec producer). I decided to let the movie speak for itself; maybe someone would riff of of Woo's film while putting his own distinct take on the material. Suffice to say it's not anything to write home about. It takes the ingredients of the original story- a tale of brothers and betrayal, cops and gangsters, and a showdown at a big dock/shipping yard (that last part was the one thing that really stuck out most among set- pieces, and it's recreated here)- and just makes it... ordinary. It's a thriller that has a few decent performances (I couldn't tell you exactly who as I left before the credits rolled, albeit the main gangster villain reminded me of the villain from Oldboy, and it's that's the case then very good work there by a proved guy). It has a few flashy-violent scenes. Most memorable for me some time after the movie's end is when a character, after shooting up a massage parlor loaded with bad guys and with only a minor wound in his shoulder, walks away with sunglasses on, trench-coat on, and is trying to look super-cool... and then gets shot through the knee and his cool is taken down a peg.

But there's not really much to invest in any one character, and no actor here is like a Chow Yun-Fat or even a Ti-Lung, who were two major assets to the success of Woo's film as real actors with real star appeal. The guys here are workmanlike, easy to see how they go through the motions, and the director mostly lets the music (which even for an Asian crime movie) go way over the top to try to direct emotion from the audience when what's there should be enough, very stock stuff. If one has never seen the original Woo film, I could imagine some perfunctory enjoyment coming from the material, but the problem I had (and perhaps this is somewhat my fault and happens sometimes with Korean movies) was I couldn't keep track of some of the principle characters. I lost track of who was who in the first half hour of the movie, and had to be reminded when a character said someone's name. It finally got into a good groove once it flashed forward to three years later, and a character with a particular limp is distinctive. But the story doesn't always feel very closely knit together.

There's nothing in it that is so offensive as to want to leave the theater. There's also nothing that grabs me in and makes me rush out to tell friends who would perk up at a solid HK or Korean or whatever crime movie with big emotions and bigger gun battles. I can't really speak to the director's past work to draw upon comparison- one film by Hae-sung Song, Failan, is unavailable in the US though touted by reviewers on IMDb- but he doesn't push the material into anything very interesting. It might be commendable that the film doesn't slavishly imitate the original film, but then what else is there? Just general competency? A few cool looking characters in a gun battle or some tears shed at just the right flash of the cut of film? A Better Tomorrow 2010 most depressingly does what a good many American remakes do: takes the core ingredients, gives it a 21st century sheen... and it's generally just dull.

A BETTER TOMORROW is the South Korean remake of the classic John Woo '80s Hong Kong action flick. If I'm honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the Woo original to begin with - I think the sequel's a lot more lively and entertaining - but nonetheless, I had high hopes for this remake, which I hoped would continue in the trend of fantastic South Korean thrillers. Sadly, what I got was a badly-written, overly-complex movie that seems to go on forever whilst offering the viewer very little at the same time.

The scenario is needlessly complex, weaving back and forth through time with the tale of a pair of brothers and their friends who variously betray and end up on different sides of the law. There are brief sojourns to Thailand and North Korea, but it's all very confusing and I was trying to figure out who was who for most of the running time. It doesn't help that a lot of scenes, particularly in the second half, descend into dodgy melodrama.

So what of the action? At least the Woo film had that. Sadly, A BETTER TOMORROW is a disappointment in that respect too, as there's hardly any in it. There's a good assassination scene and a couple more shoot-outs, before an admittedly decent climax, but the action feels oddly limited given the length of the running time. I'm afraid that A BETTER TOMORROW is one remake they never should have bothered going ahead with.

So Chul, the younger brother, is the new refugee who escaped from the North Korean. But how could he so easily become a South Korean policeman so fast? Furthermore, how could a guy from the North, not only so easily become a South Korean policeman, he could also rise up in the South Korean police system and promote to a higher ranking officer so quickly? Before you can become a policeman, you must attend the police academy and graduate from it, then you would spend more years, sometimes 10 to 15 years, to become a plain-clothe detective from a uniformed regular cop. How could this movie explain such overlooked facts that exist in every government system, albeit the police force? By ignoring this, this movie simply failed at the very beginning and won't hold true in every explanable way.

Directed by Hae-sung Song A Better Tomorrow is a remake of the 1986 film "A Better Tomorrow" by John Woo, it's a co-production between South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.

A Better Tomorrow tells the story of Hyuk (Joo Jin-Mo), who lives the fast life as a high-ranking mobster in the port city of Busan, South Korea with his closest pal, fellow mobster Lee Young-Chun (Song Seung-Heon). Though Hyuk seems to be on top of the world, he is haunted by the memory of leaving behind his younger brother Chul (Kim Kang-Woo) and mother as they attempted to flee into South Korea from North Korea. Hyuk's mother was beaten to death while Chul was imprisoned after they were caught by North Korean authorities (plot).

I didn't saw the original one but i think this film was great in every thing, the story was very simple but the actions scenes was really cool, director Hae-sung Song shows that he is ready to play with the likes of To and Woo with this film and I hope he really grows into himself, because he can craft brutal action while make the rest of the frame dance with beauty. Overall I would say the remake of A Better Tomorrow is an awesome movie that any action lover should give it a watch.

4/5

I am a fan of Korean movies. Or so I thought after watching some of the legendary movies like the Vengeance Trilogy, Memories of Murder etc. However, it turns out, a lot of movies from Korea are just not for my taste as well.

Usually, I find that out pretty quickly, i.e. I don't bother watching love stories and comedies for teens. But this one looked like an action packed movie a la "The Good, The Bad and The Weird". Not quite.

It was a waste of a time. I wouldn't say it was amateurish in choreography or screenplay, I'd say it was terrible in terms of its script. Movie is so annoying, unbelievable. Like you know what stupid things one brother might do, and he ends up doing all of that. Also, script writing is so poor, that all these "gangsters" look more like high school gangsters than real life ones. Tears, crying, begging, pitying each other. A bunch of pathetic girlie gangsters => similarly pathetic movie.

4/10