A Better Tomorrow (2010)

A different way of telling a story

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

As a huge fan of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow Trilogy, I decided to check this out on a whim, and it was better than I thought it would be, in summary the plot basically follows the original movie you have the main character Kim Hyuk (not as good as Ti Lung and his emotional and fantastic performance as Sung Ho),and his best friend Young Choon (Mark Lee) (whilst not as charismatic and cool as Chow Yun Fat's Mark Lee, the character is acted and played well) and Hyuk's younger brother Chul (Not a patch on Leslie Cheung god rest his soul, but still well acted) (Kit) rather than counterfeiters the pair are arms traffickers accompanied by newbie Tae Min (Shing) the difference being between the two brothers is that Hyuk had lost and abandoned Chul at a young age, where as Sung Ho and Kit, had a great relationship before their father died. And the plot follows on with their relationship, and the dodgy deal that leads Hyuk up in prison, and by the time he comes out he and his brothers relationship is even more broken as now Chul has joined the Police department and wants to make Detective, but because of Hyuk being an ex-con he loses his promotion, and Young Choon is crippled in the leg..the film is slightly longer than the original as this one barely has action sequences, more character development, but you can't help but already know their characters because of the original movie, in some scenes I was playing the original movies soundtrack in those scenes over the new scenes..same as the original movie, after Hyuk is out of prison and finds Young-Choon, Tae-Min is now a high ranking member of the syndicate and is untouchable, and Young-Choon wants his revenge, but Hyuk is reluctant..The final shootout: Just like the original, Young Choon grabs evidence that can take down Tae-Min, and Hyuk and Young-Choon form a plan to take him down, then Chul comes in, and the shootout begins. What let this movie down in my opinion is that they killed off Hyuk and Chul, we saw Young-Choon's death coming, but I'm very disappointed they killed off the brothers, as I would of liked to have seen a sequel to this movie just like the original ABT2 with Young-Choon's twin brother and Hyuk and Chul, but sadly it didn't end like that.Summary: Worth watching but the ending truly let's it down.

This 2010 version of "A Better Tomorrow" is not a bad movie, but why it came into being is somewhat of a puzzle to me. Why take something that was so unique back in 1986 and then remake it in 2010? And to go even further, why go from Hong Kong to Korea? Perhaps these are questions not meant to be answered, but it does make for an alright action movie. Just don't put this Korean version up against the Cantonese version, because that is a bad mistake.If you watch this 2010 version for a stand-alone action movie, then it is a great experience by itself. The story is driven by a good, solid storyline, though it had a tendency of being a bit jumpy and hard to keep track of who was who, unless you pay a very close attentive eye on the movie. And this is what the movie suffers under, it is a bit too skittish.This version of the "A Better Tomorrow" storyline is driven by a heavy dramatic storyline that is focusing on brotherhood and loyalty, and that does work out quite well in favor for the movie.Compared to the original trilogy, then the 2010 Korean version has less action and shootings in it, but it is obvious that they have focused more on the aspects of brotherhood and loyalty, rather than just hardboiled action and gunfights.And the movie was well carried by the four actors in the lead roles; Jin-mo Ju (playing Kim Hyeok), Seung-heon Song (playing Yeong-choon), Kang-woo Kim (playing Kim Cheol) and Han Sun Jo (playing Tae Min). Thumbs up to these four guys for really adding dimension and character to the 2010 version of "A Better Tomorrow".The 2010 Korean version of this 1986 Hong Kong classic is well worth a watch for fans of Asian action cinema. Just keep this version aside from the Hong Kong trilogy, and you'll be fine.

Directed by Hae-sung Song A Better Tomorrow is a remake of the 1986 film "A Better Tomorrow" by John Woo, it's a co-production between South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.A Better Tomorrow tells the story of Hyuk (Joo Jin-Mo), who lives the fast life as a high-ranking mobster in the port city of Busan, South Korea with his closest pal, fellow mobster Lee Young-Chun (Song Seung-Heon). Though Hyuk seems to be on top of the world, he is haunted by the memory of leaving behind his younger brother Chul (Kim Kang-Woo) and mother as they attempted to flee into South Korea from North Korea. Hyuk's mother was beaten to death while Chul was imprisoned after they were caught by North Korean authorities (plot).I didn't saw the original one but i think this film was great in every thing, the story was very simple but the actions scenes was really cool, director Hae-sung Song shows that he is ready to play with the likes of To and Woo with this film and I hope he really grows into himself, because he can craft brutal action while make the rest of the frame dance with beauty. Overall I would say the remake of A Better Tomorrow is an awesome movie that any action lover should give it a watch.4/5

I am a fan of Korean movies. Or so I thought after watching some of the legendary movies like the Vengeance Trilogy, Memories of Murder etc. However, it turns out, a lot of movies from Korea are just not for my taste as well.Usually, I find that out pretty quickly, i.e. I don't bother watching love stories and comedies for teens. But this one looked like an action packed movie a la "The Good, The Bad and The Weird". Not quite.It was a waste of a time. I wouldn't say it was amateurish in choreography or screenplay, I'd say it was terrible in terms of its script. Movie is so annoying, unbelievable. Like you know what stupid things one brother might do, and he ends up doing all of that. Also, script writing is so poor, that all these "gangsters" look more like high school gangsters than real life ones. Tears, crying, begging, pitying each other. A bunch of pathetic girlie gangsters => similarly pathetic movie.4/10