英雄本色 A Better Tomorrow & A Better Tomorrow II

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A Better Tomorrow ( Chinese : 英雄本色 ; Jyutping : Jing1 Hung4 Bun2 Sik1 ; lit. 'true colours of a hero') is a 1986 Hong Kong action film directed and produced by John Woo , with a screenplay by Woo, Chan Hing-ka, and Leung Suk-wah. The film stars Ti Lung , Leslie Cheung , Chow Yun-fat , Emily Chu , and Waise Lee . Ti plays Ho, a triad gangster and money counterfeiter who is sent to prison after being betrayed by his subordinate, Shing (Lee). After his release, Ho tries to reform himself and reconcile with his estranged brother Kit (Cheung), a police officer who resents him for his criminal past. Ho becomes torn between trying and failing to make amends with Kit, and following the advice of his friend Mark (Chow) to seek revenge for Shing's treachery. The plot was heavily influenced by The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967), a film admired by both Woo and producer Tsui Hark . After forming Film Workshop in 1984, Tsui asked Woo to write and direct a dramatic crime film. Woo saw this as his chance to break away from directing comedies for Cinema City and developed the story based on Discharged Prisoner , adding his own ideas about honour and loyalty inspired by wuxia and the work of Jean-Pierre Melville . After convincing Cinema City to co-produce, Woo and Tsui began filming in early 1986, working with a budget of under HK$ 11 million. The majority of filming took place in Hong Kong, with some exterior shots filmed in Taiwan, and concluded after 80 to 100 days. Released during a time when comedy films were popular in Hong Kong, Cinema City was expecting A Better Tomorrow to be a box-office bomb due to its dramatic tone and lack of a popular cast. However, it defied expectations and achieved immediate commercial success upon its release on 2 August 1986, earning over HK$34 million during its extended theatrical run. Critics praised the action sequences, Woo's direction, and the performances of its cast. The film was nominated for numerous accolades, winning two Hong Kong Film Awards and three Golden Horse Awards . A Better Tomorrow has been influential on action films since its release. Its stylised, balletic gunplay is considered the original source of gun fu fight sequences. The movie's popularity led Hong Kong film producers to introduce more melodramatic elements into their crime films, leading to the emergence of the heroic bloodshed film genre. A Better Tomorrow is considered by critics to be one of the greatest action movies, with a Hong Kong Film Awards panel ranking it second in its list of The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures in 2005. Its box office success spawned a direct sequel, A Better Tomorrow II (1987), a prequel entitled A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989), and two official remakes: one in South Korea released in 2010 and one in mainland China in 2018. Plot Triad member Ho [ a ] and his best friend, Mark Lee, run a money counterfeiting business for their boss, Mr. Yiu. This activity is kept secret from Ho's younger brother Kit, [ a ] a police cadet. Out of respect for their ailing father, Ho promises to stop being a gangster after completing his next business deal. At Mr. Yiu's request, Ho lets a subordinate named Shing accompany him to Taiwan to conduct business with a local mob. However, the gang ambushes them, causing a shootout that alerts the Taiwanese police. Ho tells Shing to escape while he surrenders. To ensure Ho doesn't implicate anyone, the Taiwanese gang sends a kidnapper to abduct his father. In the scuffle between Kit, his girlfriend Jackie, and the kidnapper, Ho and Kit's father is fatally stabbed. Before he dies, the father begs Kit to forgive his brother, but a furious Kit blames Ho for their father's death. Mark travels to Taiwan to exact revenge on the gangsters, shooting them dead in a restaurant. However, he is shot twice in his right leg, leaving him crippled and needing a leg brace to walk. Ho is released from prison after serving a three-year sentence. Determined to start anew, he gets a job driving for a taxi company run by ex-convict Ken. Ho finds out that Shing has climbed the ranks of the triad during his imprisonment, usurping Mark's position and status. He is devastated to learn that Mark, who had hidden the extent of his condition in his letters to Ho, has been cast aside by Shing after becoming disabled. Not wanting to be dragged back into crime, Ho refuses to confront his former protégé, opting to try and reconcile with Kit. However, Kit resents the fact that his familial connection to Ho is preventing his promotion at work. In an effort to prove to his superiors that he can be trusted, Kit becomes obsessed with bringing down Shing, despite Ho's warnings. Hoping to expand the triad's operations into drug trafficking , Shing tries to persuade Ho to rejoin the triad. He tells Ho that they stand to make a lot of money if Kit is turned into a corrupt policeman . When Ho refuses, Shing has his men raid the taxi company, beat Mark nearly to death,