A Better Tomorrow ***** (1986, Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat, Emily Chu, Waise Lee) – Classic Movie Review 13,867

John Woo’s 1986 Hong Kong crime action film A Better Tomorrow stars Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-fat, and is now celebrated as one of the all-time greatest action films.

John Woo’s 1986 Hong Kong crime action film A Better Tomorrow stars Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat, Emily Chu, and Waise Lee. The film is directed and produced by John Woo, who wrote the screenplay with Chan Hing-ka, and Leung Suk-wah, influenced by the 1967 Hong Kong crime film The Story of a Discharged Prisoner and the films of Jean-Pierre Melville..

Ti Lung stars as the triad gangster and money counterfeiter Ho, who is betrayed by his subordinate Shing (Waise Lee) and sent to prison. Out of jail, Ho tries to go straight, but is conflicted between reconciling with his estranged cop brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) and following the advice of his best buddy Mark Lee (Chow Yun-fat) to seek revenge on Shing for his treachery.

This essential mobster movie is renowned for its extraordinary action sequences and balletic gunplay, and was an influential, huge box office success, It is now celebrated as one of the greatest action films of the 1980s, or indeed ever.

Chow Yun-fat is known for his collaborations with film-maker John Woo in five Hong Kong action films: A Better Tomorrow (1986), which made Chow a superstar in Asia, A Better Tomorrow II (1987), The Killer (1989), Once a Thief (1991), and Hard Boiled (1992).

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,867

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