A Better Tomorrow

Ho (Ti Lung) and Mark (Chow Yun Fat) are gangsters. Ho's brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) is a high-flying Hong Kong cop. Ho wishes to be free of the criminal life, but keeps getting drawn back in by gang boss Shing (Waise Lee), who tries to play Ho's brotherhood with Mark against that with Kit.

I'm loathe to give my opinion of A Better Tomorrow. I found it totally unengaging and lacklustre. The film is widely regarded as a classic, but to me it was anything but. John Woo and Chow Yun Fat are bywords for brilliant action scenes, but they looked mundane.

Editor's note : This is an abridged version of Keith's original review of A Better Tomorrow, removing references to the previous DVD edition's appalling transfer.