Review by Ben Bussey
First things first: given that this film was made in 2010, I’m sure we’ll all agree it’s a wee bit silly for it to be sold in the west as A Better Tomorrow 2012 – or worse, A Better Tomorrow 2K12 (yeesh, has anyone said ‘2K’ in the last twelve years, outside of when Strange Days is on TV?) On top of which, it’s rather misleading how prominently John Woo’s name and credits are plastered all over the cover art (see below), given he only holds the always-dubious credit of executive producer here. Then again, a great many will undoubtedly feel that it’s an inherently dumb move to remake A Better Tomorrow at all. Woo’s 1986 film with Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-Fat (itself a remake of 1967 film Ying xiong ben se, which I must admit I was unaware of until researching this review) was the film that started Woo off to becoming arguably the greatest action director of the era, establishing many of his trademarks: massive shoot-outs with an operatic/balletic quality; themes of honour, rivalry, and the unspoken kinship of cop and criminal; and, of course, Chow Yun-Fat wearing a trenchcoat, chewing a matchstick and firing two Beretta 9mms at the same time. Even so, while the film got the ball rolling for Woo, there’s plenty about it that leaves room for improvement. There’s an almost childish simplicity to the exposition, and – a common problem with Woo, and HK action in general – overbearing sentimentality souring proceedings.
If Hae-sung Song’s remake addressed these problems with Woo’s film whilst retaining its strengths, then beyond a bit of the old been-there/done-that we’d surely have very little to complain about. Unfortunately, all the remake of A Better Tomorrow manages to do is exacerbate the problems of the original, overcomplicating the narrative and under-emphasising the action, resulting in a slow, tedious film in which the adrenaline-fuelled appeal of the original is almost entirely absent.
Things start interestingly enough, as for the bulk of the first thirty minutes you’d be forgiven for not realising it was a remake at all. For starters, the action is uprooted from Hong Kong to South Korea; bear in mind the original was made before the handover of Hong Kong to China, and as we all know nowadays absolutely nothing bad has ever or can ever happen under Chinese rule EVER. (Aaaaand with that one sentence Brutal As Hell is now banned in China, assuming we weren’t already.) Rather than kicking off with a young rookie cop unaware of his big brother’s life of crime, we have two brothers separated trying to flee across the border from North Korea; as big bro Hyuk (Jin-mo Ju) makes it big in the criminal underworld with best buddy Lee Young-chun (Seung-heon Song) – they’re arms dealers, rather than money counterfeiters as in the original – little bro Chul (Kang-woo Kim) languishes in a border prison. But Hyuk certainly hasn’t forgotten his kid brother, is guilt-ridden over the shame of leaving him and their mother behind, and has spent years trying to track Chul down. Alas, when he finally manages to do so it’s far from a tender reunion. Chul hates his brother, holding him accountable for their mother’s death. No matter, for their reconciliation won’t last long; betrayed by inexperienced gangster Jung (Han-sun Jo), Hyuk soon has no choice but to surrender to the cops. Three years later, he’s a free man and keen to go straight, and Chul is rising through the ranks as a police officer, investigating the very criminal underworld which Hyuk and Young-chun used to be at the forefront of.
To give Hae-sung’s film its dues, many of its deviations from the original are entirely sensible. I can’t imagine anyone will mourn the absence of the young cop’s girlfriend, who provided nothing more than lame comic relief. It’s also fair to say that Woo’s dialogue scenes tended to leave a bit to be desired (assuming we can’t blame that on the subtitles). Alas, where the original peppered outstanding action sequences with laboured melodrama, here we have almost nothing but talk, all delivered at a painfully slow pace in an overbearingly solemn fashion. The comparatively few action scenes, while by no means bad, only serve to remind how ground-breaking Woo’s action was, especially in the key moments that are recreated from the original. Yes, as with so many remakes, in the moments that directly mirror its predecessor it only serves to remind of the original, and when it doesn’t, it makes you wonder why they didn’t just make a stand-alone film. It’s less The Departed, more Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Dour, banal and overlong, this is one instance in which it was most definitely a better yesterday.
A Better Tomorrow is out on Region 2 DVD, Blu-Ray and 3D Blu-Ray now from Kaleidoscope.