Return to a Better Tomorrow

Although it has nothing to do with the A BETTER TOMORROW series, this movie still packs a wallop. It is a very stylish actioner with a very good performance by Lau Ching-Wan. This movie is sometimes very brutal even though it has been severely cut by the Hong Kong censors probably to avoid a category III rating. Of course, there's plenty of references to the works of John Woo but the director manages to not rip off his style and scenes. Here, Wong Jing told his movie straight-forward with flesh and blood characters and, for once, he avoids his typical low-brow juvenile humour opting for a more realistic and pessimistic approach. Highly recommended.

I do believe that I have now watched the 1994 Hong Kong action crime thriller "San Ying Hung Boon Sik" (aka "Return to a Better Tomorrow") two or three times since it was originally released.

The storyline in the movie, as written by Jing Wong, whom also directed the movie, was fair enough. I mean, it made for a watchable movie, though it was hardly an outstanding movie in the action crime thriller subgenre. Watchable for what it is, "San Ying Hung Boon Sik" is not going to become a Hong Kong classic.

What keeps the movie afloat is the cast ensemble, because they definintely had a good handful of familiar talents on the cast list. And if you are familiar with the 1990s movies of Hong Kong cinema, then you will recognize the likes of Ekin Cheng, Ching Wan Lau, Michael Wong, Chingmy Yau, James Wong, Collin Chou and Paul Chun.

There is a lot of action, fighting and shooting in the movie, and that definitely helped to carry the movie as well, because the storyline was a bit erratic and somewhat lacking a cohesive red thread.

All in all, then "San Ying Hung Boon Sik" is watchable for what it is, but there are far better Hong Kong Triad-related movies out there.

My rating of writer and director Jing Wong's 1994 movie "San Ying Hung Boon Sik" lands on a five out of ten stars.

RETURN TO A BETTER TOMORROW is a surprisingly enjoyable little gangster movie from Wong Jing, although be warned that it has nothing to do with the John Woo series of the 1980s. Instead, this tells a stand-alone story of rival gangsters working out of Hong Kong. Lau Ching Wan and Ekin Cheng are the leads, working under the aegis of a mysterious boss, while Michael Wong plays one of his goofiest characters. It's a fast-paced, densely plotted affair of shifting allegiances and treachery, with hardly any of Jing's trademark comedy. Although Jing's action sequences are mere child's play compared to the masterful Woo, this does have a focus on bodily disfigurement and some very dark moments. Chingmy Yau, Parkman Wong, Lo Meng and Paul Chun co-star.

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 story lines 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. 

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

Let me get one thing straight before I start reviewing Return to a Better Tomorrow. It is in no way a sequel, or prequel to John Woo's class "A Better Tomorrow" starring Chow Yun Fat.

Return To A Better Tomorrow is like many underrated Hong Kong action movies. It has great action sequences, good unknown actors and a healthy storyline. The great thing about Hong Kong movies is that no matter how small the budget, it always seems to pull off pretty well. Like Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" for example, even if it's not a Hong Kong action movie, considering it's budget ($7000) it's a great movie.

Anyway back to Return to a Better Tomorrow. Although it has nothing to do with A Better Tomorrow, this movie does seem to take a leaf out of John Woo's classic film. Some of the scenes in RTABT do have a slight "deja-vu" feel to them, I thing the director was heavily influenced by A Better Tomorrow and decided to base a lot of the action within RTABT from Woo's ABT.

The storyline has all the classic elements of a gangster/Hong Kong action movie: faith, brotherhood, trust, treachery etc, just like A Better Tomorrow, this is when RTABT does start to feel like it's been heavily influenced by the classic John Woo movie, none the less...it's still a great film, if underrated.

This should please most action junkies out there, but please...don't consider it a sequel to A Better Tomorrow.

7/10.