“A Better Tomorrow 2018” Theatrical Poster
If Song Hae-Seong’s 2010 Korean remake of A Better Tomorrow didn’t quite do it for you, then get ready for another variation of John Woo’s 1986 seminal gangster classic. Ding Sheng – the acclaimed director of Little Big Soldier, Police Story 2013, Railroad Tigers, and Saving Mr. Wu – has delivered A Better Tomorrow 2018 (read our review) to Amazon Prime.
According to Variety, Sheng’s film traces the journey of a former smuggler who attempts to start his life anew after his release from prison and repair his relationship with his estranged brother. But that is not counting on gangland betrayal, a botched drug deal and a devastating family tragedy.
A Better Tomorrow 2018 stars Darren Wang (Railroad Tigers), Ma Tianyu (Surprise) and Wang Kai (Railroad Tigers), who will be playing Mark “Gor” Lee (the character made famous by Chow Yun-fat in the original). Also along for the ride are Lam Suet (Three), Wu Yue (Police Story 2013) and Yu Ailei (Black Coal, Thin Ice).
So, if you currently have Amazon Prime, watch A Better Tomorrow 2018. If not, click here for a FREE Trial.
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It depresses me when I see people holding their gun sideways in 2017. Didn’t anyone tell these guys it’s not 1994 anymore?
Well, it does look cool. But yes perhaps a little realism couldn’t hurt. Then again it could ruin the fun and cinematic factor.
Why a remake? Can’t they just create a new story with new characters featuring the typical heroic bloodshed themes?
I think they’re confusing ‘remakes’ with fan videos.
A Better Tomorrow 2018 was playing in Maryland this week, and I saw it.
I’m usually pretty lenient towards remakes. I even thought the Korean version was decent. I watched this version with an open mind, and I can certainly admit that the production values and acting are good.
Obviously, Darren Wang is no Chow Yun-Fat, but I wasn’t expecting him to be. In the beginning he exhibited zero charm and charisma, but he redeems himself somewhat later on and gives a compelling performance.
But during the movie’s runtime, it kept trying my patience. Every time I tried to give the movie another chance, it would do something else to annoy me.
The first time I heard Leslie Cheung’s ballad from the original, I lit up like this movie was celebrating Woo’s film. But then the movie would play it again, and again, and again. More than the original did. It almost felt like a “wink wink” moment every time it played. They even show the original film’s poster in the damn movie.
The action is pretty mild. Gun battles are somewhat brief, and there’s even a tease where one of the characters is about to use dual pistols, but the other gun empties after 2 bullets. I wasn’t expecting ultraviolence, but there was no kinetic ballet like what was promised.
Oddly, there’s an out of place car chase with innapropriate rock music that ends almost immediately. It’s a wonder why the film makers included it at all.
Of course there’s also the obligatory catering to the Mainland government with the police (Not even the cop brother) being the real heroes and how any characters who stray from the law are punished. (Everyone who strays)
This isn’t a horrible movie, but it is disappointing. It could have been a good movie in its own right, if there was more structure and less trying to be politically correct.
Cheers for the mini-review Andrew, great to read your thoughts on the movie. Making ‘A Better Tomorrow’ in a Mainland-friendly environment was always going to be an impossible task, I don’t know why they even bothered. I like Ding Sheng as a director (have you seen ‘Saving Mr. Wu’? – very entertaining movie!), however if you’re working in an industry with as many restrictions as China, trying to create a new spin on such beloved source material, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Thanks for reading. I get that it’s the norm to cater to Chinese censors, but this movie didn’t skate around it very well. In the scene where Mark gets wounded, he doesn’t kill anybody. He just wounds them.
Both shootouts seemed very PG-13, which seems strange in a year where we get Wolf Warrior 2 and Paradox.
Even in the final shootout, the cop brother tells the others roughly “Let the police handle this, or it will be another gangland shooting!”
So much for modern Heroic Bloodshed.
I’ve watched the original A Better Tomorrow trilogy. Out of this I actually enjoyed number 3 (with the late Anita Mui)
Apologies as I kinda cheated, I’ve not seen this remake. As such I’m not going to b on here to review it.
But I must say, I’m not ever going to watch any remakes of these films. Maybe oldskool thinking…?! But simply there r some movies, u simply do not touch. They’re too good. Don’t bother and leave them alone. A Better Tomorrow is one such film.
I’d much rather one does a sequel or prequel. A follow up but please, no not a remake. There’s but one Chow Yun Fat, To Lung and Leslie Cheung. They made it for the original. Remakes at best, would b an echo of the original glory.