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E D I T O R I A L
Monday, February 5: Hong Kong Sequel Blues
Recently, trying to write a review of Mega Star's DVD version of A Better Tomorrow has proven to be a bottleneck. So much has been written about the film, and about John Woo, and about Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-Fat, that I feel like I need even more time to sort out my personal feelings from the flood of information that has washed over me. It was one of the first HK movies that I saw, and moved me unexpectedly, and provides the title (just the English title, as the idea for better movies coming on DVD tomorrow) for my web site, so what's the problem? (*spoilers ahead")
Actually, I hadn't seen it for a few months. Anchor Bay announced a new version last fall, so I decided to wait to review the DVD. That was delayed until last month, and then there were problems, blah, blah, blah . . . I rented the Mega Star version instead. Watching it again a week ago Saturday, I was again drawn in by the characters, plot, direction, etc. Yet it was difficult to articulate reasons why I liked the film.
The following day I caught the last 30 minutes or so of The Wild Bunch on TV and immediately saw a connection between the two films. Not just the slow-motion bloodbath (the "bullet ballet"), but also the nature of how men relate to one another as brothers and the exclusion of women from their inner circle. It also functions as a fractured memory piece, as fondly (and inaccurately) remembered by men desperate to recreate the happiness -- or at least contentment -- that they have lost and don't know how to regain.
Right after that I saw Prince of the City. It's long (167 minutes) and features a lead performance by Treat Williams that at times lapses into mannerisms and shrillness. Yet it's well worth watching. Directed by Sidney Lumet and released in 1981, it's based on the true story of a New York City policeman, played by Williams, who is caught up in corruption and tormented by guilt. He turns himself in to a task force and then goes undercover to gather evidence against both criminals and dishonest cops. Ultimately he must decide if he will betray the brotherly bonds he held with his former partners.
Coming back to A Better Tomorrow, I watched the first 30-45 minutes twice during the past week. Saturday I watched it again, the first 30-45 minutes without subtitles. The visual poetry is there. Just watch it and notice where the camera is placed at the beginning of each scene, and how it moves within the frame. The frequent use of slow motion may seem overdone or borrowed, but it's used for just the right amount of time within scenes. Notice another effective stylistic technique: about 30 minutes into the film, Ti Lung (as Ho) is sitting in the prison yard and Leslie Cheung (as his younger brother Kit) is training in the police academy. At one point Kit faces the camera and shoots his gun repeatedly. Ho sits reading a letter. The camera pushes in on both of them and the scene cuts quickly back and forth. The implication is clear.
Several viewings also convinced me that Kit's anger at his brother stems from his own inability to save his father from being killed. After all, Kit arrived home in time, he just wasn't able to keep the assassin from finishing the job. Kit bottles up, or won't admit, that it was his own shortcomings that allowed the death of his father. Rather than admit to this, in his self-loathing he selfishly blames his older brother. No doubt Kit also felt foolish after realizing that his brother was able to deceive him and keep his true profession as a powerful Triad member a secret from him.
What helps propel the film to a higher level is the acting of Ti Lung (Ho), Leslie Cheung (Kit), and Chow Yun-Fat (Mark) in a supporting role. All three play characters searching for personal redemption. Ho obviously wants to atone for his criminal past, and the wrongs he has committed against his family, and so willingly sacrifices himself. Kit doesn't acknowledge that he needs any kind of redemption, instead ignoring his wife and selfishly blaming his brother for all his troubles (and, incidentally, if he's such a good policeman, why does he foolishly run into two traps set for him by the criminals he supposedly knows so well?). Mark desperately wants to regain his former status and reestablish his brotherhood with Ho. The film plays as a memory piece -- each is trapped by the past and struggles to deal with it in his own way.
No sequels have been made to either The Wild Bunch and Prince of the City, and rightly so. There's nowhere to go with the story, for one thing, and there are other reasons why sequels are not warranted. For example, neither were runaway box office smashes, etc.
But A Better Tomorrow was released in 1986, and sequels were de rigueur by that point, and so 1987 saw the release of A Better Tomorrow II. Moviegoers who saw the original theatrical trailer (included on the Mega Star DVD) might have had a foretaste of the disaster to follow -- the trailer consists entirely of footage from the first film. I hate to bash films unmercifully, but allow me to say that A Better Tomorrow II was a terrible disappointment. The plot is senseless, the acting is unconvincing, the action unremarkable. The stylistic touches from the first film, such as slow motion scenes and freeze frame, are replicated here without rhyme or reason.
This was not the first time a sequel gave me the blues. Project A-II greatly (and surprisingly) disappointed me. Perhaps the key is to avoid seeing a film multiple times until you see the sequel.
As usual, feedback, whether positive or negative, is always welcome.
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