There’s a reassurance in revisiting the earlier works of auteurs, and finding they’ve kept their methods and fascinations in place from the start. The stylish excesses of director John Woo may have surprised Western audiences when they sat down to watch Face/Off or Mission: Impossible 2, but the sight of bodies flying from the force of bullets and/or bombs was a staple of his oeuvre long before that.
1986’s A Better Tomorrow came before Woo’s biggest crossover hits, The Killer and Hard Boiled, but even though he’d been making action films for over a decade by then, it established his style and brought it to a larger audience. Marrying his martial arts influences to crime-drama plots brought Woo acclaim and ardent fans, with two sequels offering more of that style and eventually leading the director to Hollywood (to mixed results). Arrow’s new 4K and Blu-ray editions of the trilogy showcase the director’s tastes and choices at their most vivid.
A Better Tomorrow remains a touchstone for action aficionados, with its balletic gunplay and themes of loyalty and the sacrifices that result. Chow Yun-Fat would follow his director to Western cinema (with similarly mixed results), but it’s easy to see why. Few people outside the French New Wave have made a cigarette dangling from their lips look so effortless, especially when lighting it with a $20 bill. He plays Mark, who runs a counterfeit money ring with his friend, triad member Ho (Ti Lung). When a fellow triad member (Waise Lee) betrays Ho, and death and imprisonment result, a complex revenge plot begins to brew. The script threatens convolution, but the relationships between the male leads are built on those themes of loyalty that endear. Thanks to Fat leading a charismatic cast, the plot beats engage between the action and offer a strong foundation on which to build the increasing bloodshed. It’s a none-more-’80s blast of Hong Kong hyperactivity.
The biggest selling point of the new Arrow edition is the inclusion of the extended Workprint Cut of A Better Tomorrow II, previously released by Shout Factory in the U.S. The original release of the film in 1987 saw the studio cut about a quarter of the film, removing several character beats to keep momentum up. That version entertains, but it’s a compromised product, wearing the hatchet job of an edit uneasily. Alas, this was the only cut that existed, as the removed footage was believed to be lost until its rediscovery in 2025. In either version, it’s a more complicated and prolonged jaunt than the first film, with our leads facing old friends and new enemies. It has to do some narrative somersaulting to explain how formerly deceased characters come back, but the action is worth the effort, particularly the explosive finale. The missing scenes are integrated as best as possible into the original film, and the longer version’s plot details make it a richer and better-paced affair.
All three films are concerned with the ties that bind, familial or otherwise, but their narratives differ wildly. 1989’s A Better Tomorrow III is the most ambitious of the trilogy, and the most different from the others. This is mostly due to Woo exiting to make Bullet In The Head, leaving directing duties to his producer (and frequent sparring partner) Tsui Hark. Already a director in his own right, Hark does his utmost to put his own stamp on the material. Fat is the only cast member in this prequel, detailing Mark’s exploits as he tries to get his uncle and cousin out of Saigon during the Vietnam War. Hark’s focus on a (relatively recent) historic setting signposts the scale he would bring to his Once Upon A Time In China series, and he distances himself from Woo with more elegant (or perhaps, calmer) filmmaking. However, the trade-off is less memorable (but still entertaining) action, and the most convoluted plotting of the three films, with a love triangle and unnecessary moments of humour shoehorned into the familial plot. The Arrow box set offers two cuts, though the longer one only offers most character beats as padding. Were this a standalone film shorn of its prequel responsibilities, it would have been stronger.
As constituent parts of a trilogy, A Better Tomorrow and its sequels don’t come together in as satisfying a way as one might want. Despite their thematic reach, they arguably work better as individual films, and they are unquestionably the visions of their respective filmmakers. Now, those visions can be seen in the versions that were originally intended. The gaudiness that Woo and Hark’s fans love is slathered on the screen for all to see.
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Limited Edition Special Features
- Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork for each film by Tony Stella
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Collectors’ perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the films by critics and Hong Kong cinema experts Victor Fan, Camille Zaurin and David West, archival writing by critic Julien Dupuy and an excerpt from an interview with John Woo conducted by Stéphane Moïssakis
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the recently unearthed extended Workprint Cut, viewable either in raw unrestored form or with inserts from the restored Theatrical Cut, via seamless branching
- 4K Ultra HD (2160p) Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless Cantonese mono and lossless English mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the Cantonese soundtrack and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- Brand new audio commentaries by Hong Kong cinema experts Frank Djeng & FJ DeSanto
- Brand new audio commentaries by film critic James Mudge
- Brand new audio commentary by film critic David West
- Isolated score tracks
- Brand new interviews with director John Woo, producer Terence Chang, writers Chan Hing-Ka and Gordon Chan, filmmaker Gareth Evans, author Grady Hendrix and more
- Archival interviews with John Woo, Tsui Hark, and actors Kenneth Tsang, Waise Lee and Ti Lung
- Archival UK featurette
- Deleted and extended scenes from the workprint of A Better Tomorrow II
- Fantasia Festival 2022 Artist Talk and Q&A with John Woo
- Introduction to the film by John Woo, filmed at Beyond Fest at the American Cinematheque in 2025
- Alternate English credits
- Theatrical trailers
- Image galleries
A Better Tomorrow Trilogy is available on 4K and Blu-ray now.
