John Woos A Better Tomorrow - Essay Example

A Better Tomorrow A Better Tomorrow This is not so much a review but rather a paper that intends to bring out the aspects of family and familial relationships of the Chinese culture in John Woo’s film, ‘A Better Tomorrow’. Mainly, the paper purports to establish how these aspects have been reinvented in the film to enable the viewer to see family or certain kinship ties in a different light. Protagonists in most of John Woo’s films are usually good-willed criminal characters, mostly Triad members or thieves with a strict ethic code, which in most cases leads to betrayal by their associates or employer. The films also include a savior, or police officer with a conscience and who is incorruptible. Family, brotherhood, and loyalty are the typical themes of most John Woo films. Heroic bloodshed movies tend to have strong emotional angles, not only in between the story, but also during action sequences. Pistols and submachine guns are frequently used by the heroes due to their light weight, which enables them to move quickly. The characters are extremely agile and implement dives, slides, falls, and rolls while they duel, making it a ballet-like performance in the midst of a gunfire. John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow came later in the list of Hong Kong movies I have viewed. It was an exciting experience to watch it for the first time. A Better Tomorrow was a 1986 mega box-office film in Asia. The film contains Woo’s signature style of violence, emotional tension and male bonding. The film focuses mainly on the bond between two main characters, and brings about the Asian traditional themes of loyalty and brotherhood. A Better Tomorrow depicts the activities of the Hong Kong criminal world, involving ‘brother Mark, the main characters best friend whose exuberance, loyalty, and style that spawned a whole generation imitators in film works, among them, Quentin Tarantino. This film won the Best Picture and the Best Actor Awards in the 1987 Hong Kong Academy Awards. At its commence, Mark, the character played by Chow Yun Fat’s strikes me as charismatic, with a style that is appealing. The viewer is introduced to him chewing a toothpick while ordering food before he meets Ho, played by Tung-Li. Almost instantly the viewer sees the relationship between Ho and Mark; friendly and playful. The sense of family and comradeship is already established within the first 5 minutes. Mark has a warm, trusting appearance from which his charisma shines. Equitably, Ho has such character and expression on his face. Later in the film, Ho’s brother Kit discovers his true career and status as a ‘big brother’, there is also a definitive emotional pain evident in Ho through his expression and eyes. To further emphasize the friendship and sense of family within the film, there is a scene where Ho and Mark conduct a business deal with some foreign investors; in this scene they shift their language from Cantonese to English language. Later, in a mix of Cantonese and English Mark and Ho playfully joke about the incident it in Cantonese: Ho says, “Wow, your English has improved, you said of course”. Mark then replies, “Of courshhh”. The sense of humor between the pair reflects a close relationship brought about not merely by their business endeavours but by a sense of family bonded by friendship. Shing, an additional character, played by Waise Lee brings about the theme of betrayal among brothers. He comes into play as a humble and meek protégé feigning to be learning from Mark and Ho but is secretly honing his own agendas and planning his ascend in the criminal world. Early in the film, the viewer sees Shing, Ho, and Mark bonding in a notable dinner scene where Ho and Mark attempt to bring Shing closer to their brotherhood. With Shing ready to accompany the pair on a mission, Mark recounts a story that he is evidently still mad about. “Do not think reading gangster literature will solidify you as the boss”, Mark says. He goes on to literate how for the first time, twelve years ago, he went on a mission to bring goods into Indonesia. The boss in Indonesia treated them to dinner at a night club. Mark then said something that displeased the boss and had two guns pointed to his head. He was then forced to drink a whole bottle of whisky. He got so scared that he pissed my pants. He goes on to explain how fortunate he was that Ho offered to drink the whole bottle in his place. The ordeal, however, did not stop there. With four guns pointed to his head, they continued to make him drink and piss over and over again. “That is how you learn, and that is how we got through our first job”, Mark concludes. The story serves further in solidifying the theme of friendship and family, where Ho and Mark face a tough encounter and stick by each other through it all. Later on, Shing, further emphasizing the aspect of betrayal among the brotherhood when he arranges to double cross Ho while on a job. While Ho is shipped off to prison, Shing takes this opportunity to gain control. What follows is among my favorite scenes in the movie. Mark, angry and restless due to his best friend’s imprisonment exacts his revenge on a group that he feels is responsible for the occurrence. This scene determines Mark’s fate for the rest of the movie. Mark visits a restaurant where the group spends its casual time. As he enters, he performs a dance with a young lady, down the corridor, placing firearms in flower pots. Soon after, Mark bursts through a door and quickly picks out his targets and fires several rounds at them in a double-gun shoot out Mark then retreats into the corridor when his ammunition runs out. He retrieves the firearms from the in flower pots. As he runs to flee the building one gangster injured and lying on the floor shoots Mark twice in his right leg. This encounter changes Mark’s status in the criminal world and serves Shing the opportunity to gain control. Three years later, Ho is released from prison. He is determined to begin a new life far away from his prior criminal life. Soon he finds work as a taxi driver for a company run by a fellow ex-convict. In the next scene Ho coincidentally spots Mark during one of his shifts and realizes to his horror that Mark has downgraded to a janitor and an errand boy for Shing, who now leads the Triad brotherhood. Mark is seen limping in a leg brace, cleaning his boss’s cars, when Shing drops Mark a tip on the ground. Ho witnesses the incident and is shocked at Mark’s fall from grace. Mark had, after all, been writing to him in prison without any mention of these circumstances. Mark, who had once been a sophisticated and suave gang member, was now a wounded lower class of the gang. In an emotional reunion, Ho is requested by Mark to return to the criminal underworld in order to take revenge on their one-time protégé Shing and also to reclaim their former positions in the criminal underworld; despite their brotherhood, Ho is determined to change his life for the better. Kit is Ho’s younger brother, played by Leslie Cheung; the emphasis on young. Kit had once aspired to be a police officer. Ho kept his criminal activities secret from his little brother and encouraged his career choice. Ho’s father, however, was perfectly aware of Ho’s criminal life and often appealed to him to lead a straight life, lest his two sons end up in conflict one day. When Ho is betrayed by Shing and is eventually arrested and sent to prison, his father, and younger brother Kit are ambushed by an assassin, and during the encounter, Ho and Kit’s father is injured and killed. Prior to his death, however, he pleads with Kit not to hold a grudge against his brother. Kit has a tender baby face. Kit’s initial childish enthusiasm for life changes when he grows up and becomes a bitter man who blames his elder brother, Ho, for their dad’s death. The evident rift between Kit and Ho is played out in an exceptional manner and the Chinese ideals of family, honor, brotherhood, and respect are solidified through these scenes as well as those where Mark reenters the story. Additionally, Kit who is now police officer holds a great deal of resentment not only towards his family tie to Ho but towards the fact that it is preventing him from advancing in the police department. In his effort to prove himself to the police department’s superiors and similarly to distance himself from the evident stigma of his brother’s criminal activities, he becomes obsessed with taking down Shing’s criminal brotherhood, despite his brother’s warnings to distance himself from the case. In a turn of events that reunites Ho and Mark; Shing finds Ho and requests him to return to his organization, offering to restores Mark’s position if he returned. Ho turns him down flatly. As a result, Shing begins to harass and threaten Ho in an effort to get him back in the organization. This harassment includes attacking Ho’s workmates at the taxi company in which he works and having his friend Mark severely beaten. Ho is angered by these events but is hesitant to take any action against Shing, lest he ends up back in the criminal world he so desperately wants to escape. Concurrently, Kit acquires information on a major drug deal about to be conducted by Shing and intends to take independent action against the gang. Ultimately, the gang’s escalating violence against his associates, an intense desire to protect his little brother, and a passionate speech from Mark convinces Ho to once again team up with his best friend Mark in exerting revenge on Shing and his organization. Ho fights quite number battles in the film in order to be free of the Triad brotherhood, to gain his brother’s love, and to regain honor. The final shootout is both moving and exciting, where Mark delivers a speech, “Take a good look at him, whatever his past deeds he has paid you back more than enough. He is trying to turn his life around, accept him. To be brothers...” At this point, Mark is suddenly interpreted by a shot to his head, of which the effect is shocking. Instantly, the brothers have lost a brother, which causes them to come together and regain an understanding of friendship, brotherhood, and loyalty (Bordwell, 2014). A Better Tomorrow offers the audience, especially the young, the lesson of the importance behind forging alliances with one another and fighting for what they want; not necessarily in arms but in whatever field it is they engage. The intimate moments Ho and his younger brother Kit share in the final scenes, in engaging what seems to be hundreds of men, in my opinion, are among the most perfect expressions of friendship, honor, and love in a way like non-other. Unlike many of John Woo’s later pictures, A Better Tomorrow’s drama is what makes it a masterpiece, not the action. References Dawis, A. (2009). The Chinese of Indonesia and their search for identity: The relationship between collective memory and the media. Amherst, N.Y: Cambria Press. Bordwell, David. (2014). Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Read More