Ying hung boon sik (1986)'s comments

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

Shingwauk

I can't for the life of me figure why this is on any top list. It is mediocre at best. It's like watching a bad episode of Miami Vice.

5 years 7 months ago

MrDoog

Having had this recommended to me by a couple of people, I really just can't get over how laughably awful this movie was.

Shockingly bad.

12 years 2 months ago

John Woo was just finding his style in A Better Tomorrow, but this is a film that just gets better and better as its moves along until it comes out at the end as basically the template for loads of Hong Kong cinema, creating the "heroic bloodshed" subgenre in the process. If it feels dated at all, it's because of its score, 80s synths and schmaltz, but even that resolves itself by the last reel. Woo's always mobile camera follows the tale of three brothers. Two of them tied by blood - Ti Lung as a gangster trying to reform and Leslie Cheung as a cop who can't forgive - the other a brother-in-arms, Chow Yun-fat as a very cool gangster whose loyalty are tested when his friend renounces the life. The emotion is cranked up to almost unbearable levels sometimes, and I don't think Cheung is really on par with the other actors (and his character makes all the stupidest decisions), but there's no arguing with Woo's energy and style. In the 2000s, he would produce a Korean version of this story which I felt had more depth because it played with North/South Korea as texture for the brothers' divide. This is more intimate and contained, and there's a special thrill to seeing an auteur finding his voice before your eyes.

3 years 1 month ago

Cippenham

aka "A Better Tomorrow" and some sources state 1987

9 years 9 months ago

hvstrom

@MrDoog I actually had to watch this film for a film class at my university and there's some literature written about this. Maybe you're watching the film in the wrong way. There's a lot going on in this film in terms of depictions of masculinity. I can recommend some readings if you want to truly enjoy the film.

11 years 10 months ago