The Hong Kong films A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色) and A Better Tomorrow 2 (英雄本色2) will play in Pittsburgh this weekend, part of the Hong Kong Cinema Classics series at Harris Theater.
A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色) plays in Pittsburgh September 27 through October 2, with the opening screening coinciding with the SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Festival, for which Pitt students, faculty, and staff may receive free tickets.
"Brothers by blood. Enemies by chance. Killers by nature."
This story is the tale of two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter and the younger a fledgling graduate of the HK police academy. The plot revolves around their split when the younger brother learns the other is a criminal, and the efforts of the criminal brother to reform. Along the way are plenty of heists, double-crosses, and shoot outs.
After kicking around the Hong Kong film industry for years without any copious success, John Woo hit the mainline with this story of brothers on opposite sides of the law, setting the tone for the next couple of decades of Hong Kong (and international) action cinema. It made Chow Yun-fat and teen idol Leslie Cheung major box office stars and positioned Woo as the director to emulate.
The sequel plays on September 28.
The main players are back in this sequel to John Woo’s breakthrough. What it may lack in plausibility, it makes up for in action, as John Woo piles on the bullet squibs and further refines his filmmaking technique with the additional budget and cred gained from A BETTER TOMORROW’s smash box office success.
Sung Tse Ho (Ti Lung) and his brother Tse Kit (Leslie Cheung) are undercover police agents collecting evidence of the counterfeit activities of Lung's (Dean Shek) ship building company. Actually, Lung's assistant, Ko Ying Pui, is the one running the counterfeit operation and he wants to kill Lung to take over the company. The two brothers save Lung and escort him to New York City to be taken care of by Ken (Chow Yun Fat), an ex-killer living a quiet life in America. Later, Ken decides to help Lung return to Hong Kong. Moreover, Ken, Ho and Kit are determined to catch Ko even at the price of losing their lives.
These, and the other nine films to comprise the Hong Kong Classics series, play at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map).
