Hong Kong Cinema Classics: A Better Tomorrow (1986) 4K Restoration
Director: John Woo Run Time: 95 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1986
Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Emily Chu Bo-Yee, Leslie Cheung, Ti Lung, 李子雄
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese with English subtitles
Screening as part of Hong Kong Cinema Classics, eleven rarely-screened, action-packed films from The Golden Princess Catalog. Only at Gateway Film Center in Columbus, Ohio this September 2025.
About the film:
This story is the tale of two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter and the younger a fledgling graduate of the HK police academy. The plot revolves around the split when the younger brother learns the other is a criminal and the efforts of the criminal brother to reform. Along the way are plenty of heists, double-crosses, and shoot outs.
About the filmmaker:
John Woo is a seminal Hong Kong film director celebrated as a pioneer of the “heroic bloodshed” genre. He rose to international acclaim through stylized, operatic action films like A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), and Hard Boiled (1992), renowned for their choreographed “bullet ballet,” dramatic emphasis on brotherhood, and frequent use of slow motion.
His transition to Hollywood in the early 1990s produced major studio releases such as Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), cementing his global influence on modern action cinema.
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