Audience Member
Review:
I quite enjoyed this Hong Kong, mafia style movie but you do have to wait some time for the action to kick in. It's about a Hong Kong triad crime boss, Tong Chun (Ekin Cheng), who takes out another triad boss, the Black Ox with the help of a newly recruited member called Lobster (Ching Wan Lau), who, in my opinion, was the best character in the film. During the lengthy gun battle, Lobster gets shot and Tong takes him to the hospital to save his life, even though there is the possibility that he will be captured by the police. While the Lobster is in hospital recovering from his wounds, his wife is constantly bothering him for money so Tong steps in to help out his family. Lobster then finds out that his wife has been having a affair and his little girl has been abused, so he confronts the man who has been living in his house and he ends up throwing him out of his window, which leaves him badly injured. During the alteration, his wife gets killed which leaves him alone with his daughter. As Lobster has been accused of killing his wife, Tong and his girlfriend bring up Little Lobster as there own, until the case is over. Lobsters dodgy lawyer manages to get him cleared of all the charges but Tong and his crew are under attack from Black Ox's men, in retaliation for his murder. He then goes into hiding and his partner in crime, Wei (Ben Lam) takes over the business. As the business is under Tongs name, Wei uses the company to smuggle drugs to the US and as the years past, Lobster takes over the company. Wei constantly tries to find Tong and he damages his girlfriend after 2 days of torture. She becomes addicted to heroin and she's unable to use her arms and legs but Tong is still in hiding because he knows that Wei wants to kill him, now that he knows of his criminal activity within the business. After 2 years in hiding, Tong is now working in a restaurant with a new identity but when a rival gang kidnaps the restaurant owners son, he turns to his old friend, Lobster, to get guy back. He then finds out about his girlfriend and he also finds out that he has cancer so he goes through the necessary treatment for his condition whilst trying to help his girlfriend come off of heroin. When he tells Lobster about Wei's drug smuggling activities under his name and what he done to his girlfriend, Lobster helps to take down Wei but he gets killed when he comes face to face with his henchmen, who also kill Lobsters little girl. After everything that Wei has done to Tong, he seeks revenge, against his girlfriends wishes and it leads to a showdown which is definitely worth watching. The acting throughout the movie is great, especially from Ching Wan Lau who played the Lobster but I did struggle with the subtitles. The storyline does cover many elements and there is enough material to keep it interesting throughout but there are a few dull moments, like the love story which showed Tongs weakness. Apart from that, I quite enjoyed the film and I'm surprised how detailed the storylines are in these Oriental movies. I haven't got used to the various actors yet but they really do give there projects there all. Anyway, this movie isn't as good as the Chow Yun Fat versions of A Better Tomorrow but it's still worth a watch. Watchable!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Jing Wong who has made over 100 movies for the Oriental market, which include Meltdown, City Hunter, the New Legend of Shaolin and the God of Gamblers franchise. Although this movie didn't have a massive budget, the director done well with what he had to work with. The movie doesn't look dated and I would like to see this film made for a English market.Â
I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/drama movies starring Ekin Cheng, Chingmy Yau, Michael Wong and Ching Wan Lau. 6/10
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
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Audience Member
full on nineties hong kong chop soy/gangster pic
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Good film,preferred it to the original.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Title suggests slickly produced action and supercool stars out of John Woo's catalogue, but Return To A Better Tomorrow is simply a rather trite gangland tale directed with little finesse and no brilliancy by your favourite auteur/conartist Wong Jing. The film would fit itself comfortably into the infinitesimal serious drama category of Wong's, were it not for Lau Ching Wan's iconoclastic take on the hardboiled triad type, playfully messing with the genre's stereotypes by throwing a bit of infantile and out of place slapstick into the mix. To some, his performance might constitute a total wreckage, but to me it actually saves a completely average gangsterflick from being a total bore.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
Full Review
austin v
Truly pales in comparison to the John Woo masterpieces it's so desperately trying to associate itself with.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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