THE RELUCTANT FILM CRITIC’S CORNER

“A Better Tomorrow 3: Love and Death in Saigon” (1989) “Once Upon a Time in China 2” (1992)—both movies directed by Tsui Hark. Reviewed by Phil X.

“A Better Tomorrow 3” is a prequel to the Woo flicks of ’86 and ’87. The Chow Yun-Fat character has yet to become a gangster type. In fact, he doesn’t arrive in Vietnam to do any trenchcoat-twirling or two-handed gun shooting at all. He’s here to help his uncle and cousin escape Vietnam before the stinking Communist Chinese take it over.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first hour of this movie. It’s less of an action film than an adventure flick. ABT3 also offers a perspective of the Vietnam War rarely seen: that of the Chinese who had to high-tail it once the stinking Communist Chinese invaded.

The movie does offer a plot to go with its political trappings. Fat’s character Mark Gor and his cousin Mun team up with a female arms dealer. They sell gold to a corrupt general for money to get out of the country. There are some stunts, but nothing completely unbelievable. Naturally, as they are preparing to leave Vietnam, the trio bonds. The beautiful arms dealer starts teaching Fat how to shoot guns, etc.

I really wish Hark had kept the movie on this track: Fat’s character slowing becoming a cold-blooded gangster type. Like an eastern version of Michael Corleone. What makes the movie frustrating is that the blueprint for the transformation is there. Hark just screws it up.

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Gor and Mun are back in Hong Kong for only a short time before disaster strikes. The beautiful female arms dealer’s old lover, some triad boss, tries to kill them all. The female arms dealer feels guilty, leaves HK for ‘Nam. Gor and Mun follow, partly to find the arms dealer, whom they are both in love with, but also for revenge. They split up, with Mun first encountering the dealer. A gunfight breaks out between them and the stinking Communist Chinese militia. Mun and the female arms dealer escape, and many stinking Communist Chinese militia die.

To me, that scene is where the movie went wrong. Gor, not Mun, should’ve met the arms dealer. Mun was already a criminal when the story began. Gor, on the other hand, didn’t know how to fire a gun, and only in recent months become more adept at it. What the character—and the film—needed was the pivotal scene where Gor sheds blood for the first time, preferably stinking Communist Chinese militia blood, and lots of it. Like the scene in “The Godfather” where Al Pacino shoots the Irish cop and that ratty Salatzo guy. ABT3 needed a point where audiences clearly realize, “HERE is where Gor’s life changes. With THIS act of violence, his innocence is lost forever.” The Gor character should’ve been the one at the gunfight.

After this particular scene, the wheels just come spinning off. Everything Gor does afterward seems contrived and forced. Not that my way would’ve made everything sensible—there’s a lot of unbelievable stuff that happens in the second hour—but it would’ve given Gor a more complete emotional arc. The way it stands now, he goes from meek baby to Superman almost instantaneously. And trust me, that’s not hyperbole. He definitely proves himself more powerful than a locomotive.

The other main flaw is the villain, the shady triad boss who pops up midway through the flick. I kept wondering, What motivated this guy to try and kill our heroes? There are hints that he absolutely hates the Vietnamese emigrants. Naturally, he’d hate Gor and Mun more, because they’re Vietnamese emigrees who used HIS connections to make their way out. God, I hope those were the character’s motivation, because they’re way cooler than the standard, “You stole my girl! Die! Die! DIE!!!”

I want to reiterate that I really, really, REALLY wanted to love this movie. Especially after the first half. The scenes involving the customs office are the most memorable scenes in the film. Gor, Mun, and their uncle get repeatedly abused by the corrupt scumsucking Communist Chinese customs agents. At one point, in the first assertion of his latent manhood, Gor fights back, which is what anyone should do when faced by a scumsucking Communist Chinese customs agent—especially if it’s here in America.

Hark provides an amazingly satisfying shot: slow-motion, of a nightstick end being firmly thrust into the stomach of the Head scumsucking Communist Chinese customs agent. More pessimistic movie-goers will probably find it unrealistic how the beautiful female arms dealer immediately swoops in and saves Gor’s life. Me, I didn’t mind. I viewed the entire scene as an allegory. Stand up against scumsucking Communists, and you can win. The scene also supported a truth I’ve always believed: A scumsucking Communist Chinese pig, dressed in a uniform sanctioned by a scumsucking Communist Chinese government, is still a scumsucking pig.

John Woo, lauded filmmaker that he is, never told that message so effectively.


(Due to the fact that this review has gone on for really, really long, THE RELUCTANT FILM CRITIC’S CORNER’S critique of “Once Upon a Time in China 2” will appear in a future post. We apologize for any inconvenience.)