A Better Tomorrow – Emotional, And Gripping!

TK, our partner-in-crime in Movie Review Squad texted Cynthia when we were waiting to board our plane, on New Year’s day, back to Singapore.  I was still on a Zen mode, cut off from any Internet access for more than a week.  And so, after numerous text exchanges between TK and Cynthia discussing the logistics of our first movie outing of 2011, I could not contain my bursting desire and said to Cynthia, “Just ask TK to book anything, and we will be there”.  When I learned that TK has booked us a Korean movie, I was very excited.  I pictured a typical Korean drama, with lots and lots of pretty Korean actresses.  Ah, I was so hyped up for some solid visual simulation that when TK met us in Orchard, when he texted us that he was really excited about our first outing of the year, I wanted to reply, “You have no idea”.  I didn’t, because I was driving.

“A Better Tomorrow” is – later as I found out – a remake of a Hong Kong classic movie of the same name.   I have not watched that classic, so I may not be as traumatized as those who are in love with the old film.  Personally, I am finding it quite unfair to compare Korean actors with Chow Yun Fat and Leslie Cheung whom some of us are so familiar with.  Looking at the quality of acting in this Korean remake, I was touched.  The emotion is convincing and one of the gangsters (the Chow Yun Fat clone) does look cool enough to get Cynthia all excited.  No wonder she loves this Korean remake more than the two of us for there are no actresses in this movie, at all.  Zero.

I see where the “problem” is.  Korean men (at least those on screen) are usually, how shall I say, so “pretty”.  Or handsome in a feminine way.  It does look strange to see two men crying to each other trying very hard to defy the urge to say, “I forgive you”, or “Let’s forget the past”.  And they have to act persistently stubborn over the duration of the film with one says, “You are not my brother, I do not want to see you anymore”, and another says, “You are the only brother I have, and let’s not get separated again.”  Mind you, this is a Korean film, with subtitles.  Hence I am not sure how much is lost in translation.  Maybe the original lines are not so cheesy.  By and large, I am drawn into the emotion of the acting.  I like most of the actors, except perhaps the little brother who appears to overact.  But hey, looking at the plot, I suppose  he has the reason to hold his grudges, for all these years.  So, what is the plot like?

Here is a highlight, no spoiler of course.  It is shown right in the beginning of the show.  A pair of brothers together with their mother tried to make an escape from North Korea into South Korea.  Somehow (I think), during the chase by the guards, the little brother fell down and the elder brother scared of being discovered, deserted his little brother and his mother.  The two got caught and the mother was executed.  Since then, the two brothers have been separated, until later in the story, when one becomes a criminal and another, a cop.

There is a good sense of heroism in the movie.  The drama bit made some of the audiences cried.  The gunfight bit was exciting to watch (except perhaps for those who know the ending, since this is a remake).  If I was the scriptwriter, I would replace the little brother with a childhood sweetheart of the elder brother.  And I would make the first desertion perceived as one, but it is not.  Now, that would make a more heart wrenching movie, true to Korean standard.