``A Better Tomorrow'' The passion of the men changed the history of action movies!

Chow Yun Fat's surprising casting

The person who planned the remake was Tsui Hark, a member of the Hong Kong New Wave who had produced hits such as The Emperor's Secret Agent (1984) at the up-and-coming Cinema City Company. He chose director John Woo and Ti Lung to play the main character Ho.

Wu was working for Golden Harvest, a long-established film company, and the film Soldier Dogs (1983) was shelved due to its extreme style, and he was demoted to Taiwan. Meanwhile, Ti Lung, a popular period drama star, had also been fired from Shaw Brothers, where he had been working for many years. That's when Hark approached his ally Wu and Lung, whom he admired, saying, "Let's make another Hong Kong film." This episode overlaps with the situation of Ho and Mark in the film, who are in a difficult position due to the changing times.

“Men’s Elegy” © 2010 Fortune Star Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Later, the role of Ho's younger brother Kit was decided to be played by Leslie Cheung, who was immensely popular as an idol singer but was still developing as an actor. Meanwhile, casting for Ho's partner, a character who did not appear in the "original 1967 version," proved to be quite difficult. The role was initially offered to popular singer George Lam, but newcomer actor Mark Cheng was later nominated, and the character's name, Mark, remained. Then, the role was decided to be played by Chow Yun-Fat, who was called "poison for the box office" because all of his films failed to sell despite starring in the nationally popular drama "The Bund," which had an audience rating of over 60%.

At first, Mark was given little attention, but due to Yun-Fat's overwhelming presence in "Kogarashi Monjiro," in which he holds a matchstick like a toothpick in his mouth, his appearances gradually increased, and he eventually became the third main character alongside Ho and Kit. It's an episode that seems unthinkable now.

One sequence, in which Mark goes alone to the Taiwanese restaurant "Fenglin Pavilion" to seek revenge on Ho, who was betrayed by the organization, is a fascinating example of the intense yet beautiful depiction of violence by director John Woo, who has respect for such senior directors as Kinji Fukasaku, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone.

At the time, restrictions on the use of real guns had been relaxed in the Hong Kong film industry, so prop guns based on real guns were used instead of model guns. This made the dual-wielding style of Yun-Fat in his long coat and the slow-motion gunfights look more realistic.

The appearances of John Woo and Tsui Hark enliven the story