A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon

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DanTheMan 2 After the rather heated production woes of the previous film, John Woo split from Tsui Hark and went off to self-finance his original draft for A Better Tomorrow III and in the process create his masterpiece, Bullet in the Head. With Woo and Hark's working relationship having deteriorated, Hark decided to helm his vision of a prequel himself. Unfortunately what we get ultimately feels like Hark being lazy, cashing in on the name with Hark's take on the heroic bloodshed genre mixed. The biggest problem with this film for me is its writing, it doesn't really feel like a prequel a A Better Tomorrow because the character depth and dynamics we loved so much about the previous two just aren't here. However, there's still some good stuff to be found in A Better Tomorrow III, Hark's direction is fabulous with so many of his trademark imaginative camera shots and the action is brilliant, especially the finale involving machine guns, a tank and a motorbike; the music by Lowell Lo is lovely and makes good use of Joseph Koo's cues and despite him really not giving a shit about this film or how his character was written Chow Yun-fat turns in a marvellous performance as Mark once again. All in all, if you go in with much lower expectations, A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon will deliver an enjoyable if immensely flawed ride. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/07/23 Full Review dave j Thursday, August 1, 2013 (1989) A Better Tomorrow III (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION It was during the making of this film which producer writer and director Tsui Hark decided to do the film himself without John Woo as director even though the first two "A Better Tomorrow" movies were financially successful. What this film lacked are the male bonding and slow motion scenes often used in John Woo's Hong Kong movies. It was intentioned to be "A Better Tomorrow" prequel starring a much younger Chow Yun Fat during his days while in Vietnam but one can't tell by watching it, and Woo went off to show his intended prequel version of "A Better Tomorrow III" by making the much intense 1990 film "Bullet In The Head". And although this film wasn't as successful either, it still shows Woo's trademark. This film only gets a pass because it's still part of the series and anything more wouldn't be deserving. 2.5 out of 4 stars Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member When their partnership dissipated in 1989, Tsui Hark ran with John Woo's idea for "A Better Tomorrow" prequel set in war torn South Vietnam. Chow Yun-fat reprises his role from the first film and transforms into the Mark Gor character audiences originally fell in love with...under the tutelage of femme fatal Anita Mui? Hong Kong audiences didn't buy it; nevertheless, some Western film critics including Pauline Kael found serious merit in the film. The first two-thirds of "A Better Tomorrow III" actually look sharp and feel good, too, in spite of some of the aforementioned suspect screen writing, however, the final portion of the film is so bad and Tsui is so far out of his depth essaying Woo's style that this "A Better Tomorrow" prequel officially turns apocryphal. Chow subsequently passed on future offers from Tsui. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Although this film wasn't as thrilling as the first two, the storytelling in the film was great! Unfortunately, good storytelling isn't enough to make a good action movie! Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member A somewhat decent prequel to the original film. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Orrido modo di concludere una magnifica trilogia! Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon

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