A better tomorrow

I wonder if filmmakers and their chosen cast suffer the jitters when they attempt to remake a cult classic, trying their best to recreate the formula that worked in another setting and timeline. A Better Tomorrow needs no introduction as it has elements that are deeply entrenched in the minds of any Asian cinephile, where John Woo revived the gangster genre in Hong Kong and created a phenomenon, inspiring copycats both in film and male fashion.

After all, who has the ability to recreate the Chow Yun Fat charisma as Mark Gor, with his long trenchcoat and aviator sunglasses inspiring a legion of followers to the character, so much so that he has to be brought back as twin brother Ken in A Better Tomorrow II? And 70s icon Ti Lung as co-chief protagonist around that brought about bona fide gravitas of a man betrayed, and finding true brotherhood with his best friend? Then there's the late Leslie Cheung, who goes to show that he's not out of place in an actioner, and brings out the role of the cocky young adult unwilling to forgive his brother in most excellent terms. And Waise Lee rounding up the quartet as the villain you'd love to hate especially when gloating with one of his last lines.

The Korean remake was wrong on a number of counts, especially if one were to be a purist and find objectionable character motivations, and scenes rearranged with elements tweaked that's as proportionally controversial as A New Hope's Did Han Shoot First?. The basic structure got retained where it introduced the quartet of characters, with Kim Hyuk (Joo Jin- Mo) and Kim Chul (Kim Kang-Woo) being brothers from North Korea separated when Hyuk abandoned his younger brother to escape to the South, hence setting up resentment which serves the crux of the film. Compensating for this brotherly kinship is his good friend Young- Choon (Son Seung-Heon), who finds himself going from riches to rags, a pale self to his former glory when his revenge didn't go as smooth as he planned it would be.

I don't mind that things got changed slightly, from counterfeiting to arms smuggling. I don't mind that since this is a Korean remake the plot naturally revolved around North and South tensions amongst the characters. I don't mind too that the characters' overseas romp shifted from Taiwan to Thailand. All these, coupled with the updates introduced by director Song Hae-Sung, are pretty minor. The major changes were what irked me, since they don't resemble the cult characters they are based on, especially that of Kim Chul and his estranged relationship with his brother Kim Hyuk, which bordered on thick melodrama that gave an about turn to the latter character when the finale rolled along. There's this obsession with not forgiving his brother yes, but things take an inexplicable turn which transformed him from rugged tough guy, to wimpy, weepy crybaby. What gives?

Song Seung-Heon perhaps drew the shortest end of the stick, because trying to emulate Mark Gor with his Young-Choon was nothing short of a futile attempt unfortunately. Clearly lacking the charisma to pull the role off, he tried his best and came up short, and in an unceremonious exit, I think director Song Hae-Sung has to bear the blame for some shoddy work here, even though we know the original had loopholes in the shoot out department that sort of became terms of endearment with weapons blessed with unlimited supply of bullets that always find their way to embed into bodies of faceless goons, these were opportunities that weren't seized to go one leg up before John Woo went balletic with his gun fights and shoot outs.

What worked though was how sinister Jo Han-Seon played chief villain Jung Tae-Min, whose meek demeanour hides his sinister nature and becomes the villain you'd love to hate. I thought he did well because he wasn't really trying to live up to what had already been done, though perhaps maybe it wasn't as intimidating as trying to fit into the shoes worn by Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung or Chow Yun Fat. There's also a distinct lack of female roles here to trip up this gang of four, eliminating frivolous romantic subplots where females are nothing but flower vases, allowing themes of betrayal, friendship, brotherhood and camaraderie to ring through much louder.

Still, this remake is slow to start, and it took some 30 minutes before the first major action sequence. To fans of A Better Tomorrow there's nothing here that will surprise you anyway, except to raise an eyebrow or two when motivations and subplots deviate. And if there's one more element that this film sorely lacked, it's the very, very iconic theme tune that accompanied the Hong Kong original. This one pales in comparison and somehow turned out dull for the most parts. You have been warned to stick to the definitive John Woo version.

Review: This movie seemed like it was never going to end. So much time was wasted on the younger brothers remorse towards his older brother, which ended up getting on my nerves after a while and the fact that it didn't have English dubbing, also contributed to me falling asleep halfway through the movie. Anyway, the film's about a South Korean detective, Kim Hyuk (Joo Jin-Mo), who is also an illegal arms smuggler with his partner in crime, Lee Young-Choon (Song Seung-Heon). Hyuk has a younger brother, Chul (Kim Kang-Woo), who he left behind with his mother when they defected from the North. After spending time looking for his brother, Hyuk eventually finds Chul in a internment camp but Chul resents Hyuk for leaving him behind. When Hyuk finds out that his mother died when he left them behind, he's full of guilt and he tries his utmost to get close to his brother again but Chul doesn't want anything to do with him and his criminal activities. Hyuk then goes to Thailand with a new member of there crew, Jung Tae-Min (Jo Han-Sun) but Hyuk he's double crossed by Jung and the Thai gang, which leads to a big shootout. Hyuk surrenders to the police and ends up in jail for 3 years and when Lee finds out about the double cross, he heads to Thailand to kill the gang leader who had a hand in putting his best friend in jail. During the shootout, Lee gets shot in his knee, which makes him crippled, so with his best friend in jail and Jung in control of the smuggling operation, Lee ends up on the streets washing cars. When Hyuk is released from jail, he tries to make contact with his brother Chul, who is now a police detective but he still has bad feelings towards him. He also makes contact with Lee, who wants to get back into the business to take revenge on Jung but Hyuk is determined to go straight. He becomes a taxi driver to convince his brother that he is done with the criminal world but he is constantly pushed by Jung to rejoin the operation. Chul is determined to take down Jung but he hasn't got enough evidence to put him in jail. Jung then severely beats up Lee and he threatens Chul's life so Hyuk puts together a plan to kill Jung. Chul then has a suspicious car crash which has Jung's henchmen written all over it, so Lee takes it upon himself to steal some incriminating evidence to stop the feud. They agree to exchange the evidence for a large amount of money so they can escape on a boat but Hyuk has given the evidence to the police and he ends up taking Jung as a hostage so they can escape. When Chul turns up at the exchange, the whole situation leads to a massive shootout which also leads to some fatal consequences. I really didn't like the ending of this film and the whole "feuding between the brothers" concept, became very irritating. I really liked Lee's character, before he came a cripple and the shootout at the end was realistic. The actors also showed some deep emotion throughout the movie but Hyuk seemed like a lost puppy dog through most of the film. Anyway, it's not a bad movie and the storyline is very detailed, like a lot of Oriental movies but I was slightly disappointed with the outcome. Watchable!

Round-Up: This movie was directed by Hae-Sung Song who has only directed 6, unknown movies in his career and it was written by the great John Woo, who also wrote and directed the original, A Better Tomorrow with Chow Yun-Fat. 

Budget: $8.7million Worldwide Gross: $10.7million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/drama movies starring Jin-Mo Ju, Seung-Heon Song, Kang-Woo Kim and Han Sun Jo. 4/10

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.

In Busan, South Korea, the powerful arms traffickers Kim Hyeok (Jin-mo Ju) and Yeong-choon (Seung-heon Song) are best friends. Hyeok has spent many months seeking out his younger brother Kim Cheol (Kang-woo Kim) that was left behind by Hyeok with their mother while escaping from North Korea. When Hyeok finally finds Cheol, his brother blames him for the death of their mother that was beaten to death in the prison and keeps distance from Hyeok.

When Hyeok travels with the gangster Tae Min (Han Sun Jo) to Thailand for a negotiation, he is betrayed by Tae Min and is arrested by the police. Meanwhile Cheol joins the police force to become a detective and Yeong-choon kills the gang that betrayed his friend. When Hyeok is finally released from the Thai prison and returns to Busan, he finds that his brother is a detective investigating Tae Min and Yeong-choon limped and in complete misery. But Hyeok promises that he would not return to life of outlaw. But he is haunted by his past and the need of protecting his estranged brother. .

"Moo-jeok-ja", a.k.a. "A Better Tomorrow", is an Asian crime film excessively melodramatic. The good storyline about brotherhood, friendship and loyalty discloses a plot confused in the beginning but also full of action. However the dramatic relationship between the two brothers becomes an annoying soap opera after the repetition of the same situation with Cheol rejecting his brother. Better off watching John Woo's "Ying hung boon sik" ("A Better Tomorrow" 1986) again. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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.