Matthew D
Chow Yun-fat and Anita Mui are dreamy in this charming romance set in war torn Vietnam!
Vietnamese director Tsui Hark’s Hong Kong romantic crime drama A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (1989) is fabulous. It’s a bleak prequel to show how Chow Yun-fat’s Mark Lee became so tough and cynical in A Better Tomorrow. Tsui Hark’s direction is very tender and gentle for the serious romance drama, then explosive with hails of bullets for the blistering shootouts. It is absolutely fascinating to see Hark’s brutal and honest depiction of violence, corruption, bribes, crime, and families taking desperate measures. Love and Death in Saigon is surprisingly touching and very cool.
Writers Tsui Hark, Tai Foo-Ho, and Edward Leung Yiu-Ming’s script is really wonderful. The cute romance between Chow Yun-fat and Anita Mui is super dreamy. The close friendship between Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Ka-Fai. I love A Better Tomorrow III just as a beautiful romance story besides all the killer action. The mysterious femme fatale storyline for Anita Mui with a shady past husband is interesting as well. I adored hearing Mui sing “Love & Death in Saigon” or “Song of the Setting Sun” in Chinese. Her singing voice is powerful, serene, and sweet.
Chow Yun-fat is cool, handsome, funny, romantic, and ruthless as Mark Lee. Chow is great at portraying Mark’s love for his family as well as his more vulnerable romantic scenes with Anita Mui. Tony Leung Ka-fai is excellent as the friendly and loyal family member Michael Cheung Chi-mun. He acts so well alongside Chow Yun-fat.
Anita Mui is heavenly and captivating as A Better Tomorrow III’s beautiful femme fatale Chow Ying-kit. Mui can be incredibly hilarious with ease, heartbreakingly forlorn, tenderly romantic, then suddenly be shooting a machine gun with her tough persona. She’s forever one of my favorite Hong Kong actresses and it’s always a pleasure to see her in another wonderful film. She’s dreamy and moving in A Better Tomorrow III. She’s funny in Drunken Master II and Rumble in the Bronx. I found her very cool in My Father Is a Hero and both Heroic Trio pictures.
Shih Kien, Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon villain Han, gets to be quite moving as the elderly father to Michael. He’s so sweet and good natured. Saburō Tokitō is relentlessly cruel as the villain Sam Ho Cheung-ching in the Hong Kong scenes. Maggie Cheung Ho-yee is cute and sympathetic as Ling, who likes Michael. Cheng Wai-lun is sad as the Vietnamese boy Pat, who is left alone when Michael’s father leaves for Hong Kong. Nam Yin is amusing as the evil corrupt General Bond in Vietnam.
Editors Tsui Hark, Marco Mak Chi-Sin, and David Wu do chaotic cuts during the shootouts. But I most loved the montages of Chow Yun-fat and Anita Mui going on dates or Chow and Tony setting up their auto repair garage. Cinematographer Chik Kim-Kit, Horace Wong Wing-Hang, and Yuen Chun-Wah shoot these super stylized close-up and medium shots with fog, wind, and moody lighting. Art director Luk Chi-Fung really makes A Better Tomorrow III look dazzling. Composer Lowell Lo Koon-Ting’s film score is absolutely dreamy with heavy synth lines and a melancholic main melody. Anita Mui’s songs capture that sadness as well.
In all, A Better Tomorrow III is not the endless shootouts of John Woo’s first two films, but rather a tender romance drama directed by Tsui Hark instead. Anita Mui alone had me spellbound for 119 minutes.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/01/25
Full Review
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
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
>
