This is the prequel to Chow Yun-Fat's bullet ballet A Better Tomorrow, where Mark Gor travels to Saigon near the end of the Vietnam war to get his cousin, Mun (Tony Leung Kai-Fai) and uncle out of jail. He falls in love with female gangster Chow Ying-Kit (Anita Mui), and her dangerous ex-boyfriend complicates the mission.Like the original movie, this movie has a powerful plot from start to finish, from the intense drama between the Mark Gor and his cousin to the war suspense in Vietnam.There is plenty of mind-blowing action, some to the point that is a little overkill. The acting was pretty good with its strong characters and there is a good balance of humor and drama. I just wished ***spoiler ahead*** that the ending could have been better and not so much a downer. ***spoiler ends***.The theme song sung by Anita Mui is a powerful and haunting piece of music. Not a bad film overall.Grade B-

In 1986, director John Woo and producer Tsui Hark teamed up to make a box office hit, 'A BETTER TOMORROW', which became a huge success. In 1987, John Woo directed a sequel called 'A BETTER TOMORROW II' and in 1989, producer Tsui Hark, directed the prequel to the popular smash hit series, 'A BETTER TOMORROW III'. But is it any good? Well, from the star rating I gave it, it means it's the best in the series although it's got almost nothing to do with the first two films and it obviously does try to copy the John Woo style of directing but that doesn't stop it from being a great movie.Set after the Vietnam war, Cheung (Tony Leung Ka Fei) goes to Saigon so he could bring his uncle and his cousin, Mark (Chow Yun-Fat) back to Hong Kong. However, while Cheung is in Saigon, he meets a beautiful woman named Chow (Anita Mui), who is a dangerous gang leader, who could help Mark and his uncle return safely to Hong Kong.The action scenes are really good, although they are no match to the Woo standard, what else is great about the film is its haunting but very beautiful theme song sung by Chinese pop star, Anita Mui. If you liked the first two movies, you might be able to enjoy this one, even though it has got almost nothing to do with the series.

Tsui Hark should've stopped with the 2nd ABT. Even if he wanted to push the envelope on the series by making a prequel, he should've done a wayyyyy better job.The storyline takes Mark back to Vietnam, where we learn his life as a younger, much less "gangly" individual. However, don't count out Mark when guns are ablazing wherever they may be. It also has a take on his romantic days with a mysterious mob boss' girlfriend, Anita Mui, and the love square they all shared with the Japanese boss and Tony Leung.Let's talk what's important 1st in these movies. The action. Whatever you can expect in a late 80's, early 90's action Hong Kong film = it's all there. Tsui Hark definitely made it through with the gun fighting scenes. Yet - they weren't as stylish, and you could even say they can become boring once you recognize the similar scenes from other movies. Everyone's wielding an M16 or AK47 shooting the crap out of each other while Mark flies through the air with his signature double fisting handguns.Where's the edge? Where's the coolness that Mark had from the 1st movie when he strolled through the restaurant nonchalantly dropping berettas everywhere, as he plans to slowly walk in to kill the boss while he's eating hotpot? Where's the climax that we felt in the 2nd movie where all three Ken, Lung and uncle Keen all dressed up and were ready to avenge Kit's death? Let's talk about the plot. Vietnam. WHAT?!? The 1st thing I thought of when I heard prequel was = How brother Lung and Mark started it all - from humble beginnings as street punks, to an established powerful gang where they both reign as kingpins. Or even how uncle Keen brought Mark and Lung into the gang, and how they became who they are today. However; what I found was a seemingly ridiculous plot where Mark is thousands of miles away fighting stupid wars that he got himself into. THEN he's somehow involved with Anita Mui. I'm sorry, but some scenes where Mark is caught up in love made me lose respect for the character of Mark that I know.What makes these ABT films is through the theme of brotherhood - in this movie, there simply wasn't enough - or it just wasn't standing out. What your eyes see is romance romance romance. Not to say that a love story isn't nice once in awhile, but come on. As a prequel?! No - that just won't do.If John Woo was involved in this movie, he definitely would've said - Ummm no - we're not going to shoot this movie because it's gonna be terrible. Looks like he dodged a bullet. (No pun intended) For an ABT fan, you might enjoy it because you get to learn more about Mark. But as a movie goer, avoid this one. It's a major disappointment and you'll be happy that you didn't waste 2 hours of your life.

Tsui Hark directed this sequel (1989) to John Woo's classic heroic bloodshed films Better Tomorrow 1 and 2 made couple of years earlier, and this third installment is more a prequel than sequel. It concentrates on what happened before the first two films and has more drama than action in it. Chow Yun Fat is again Mark Gor who is in Vietnam and meets there his cousin Mun (Leslie Cheung) who is just released from prison when Mark arrives in Vietnam. They meet mysterious female assassin Kit (the beautiful sweetheart Anita Mui) and both of the men are attracted by Kit. The film concentrates pretty much on the war infested Saigon and the hell that's free in there, so there isn't any particular plot in the film, but that doesn't mean it's not interesting.I think there's couple of strong scenes of social criticism, mostly the horrific "customs scene" at the airport when Mark, Mun, Kit and Mun's father try to travel away from the country and are abused by the corrupted custom officers. Also the scene at the hospital is very harrowing and is there to underline righteously the state of the world of that time, and unfortunately there are even today places with same kind of circumstances in our world. Fortunately Tsui's attitude isn't this time as underlining as in his Once Upon a Time in China (1991), and Tomorrow 3 is therefore perhaps more noteworthy film as commenting society.The visuals are also brilliant as can be expected from this director. There are great use of blue smoke again and the gun fights are incredibly beautifully shot and are more effective than any gun fight in some Western effort. The slow motion death scene of one important character in the film's finale is perhaps among the most beautiful "heroic death scenes" I've seen and it is finished very carefully and thus it has such a power. After that scene everyone should know what this name "heroic bloodshed" for this genre means and what makes it so unique. The end is very sad, too, but as we know how Mark ends up in his subsequent adventures, it gives some positivism for the sad ending of this third film. The ending is little irritating due to it's prolonged gun battles and fire power, and I think it should have stopped little earlier in order to be more effective finale for the otherwise pretty great film.Better Tomorrow 3 is not as great and interesting as Woo's films, but still this is much more than average effort from Hollywood, and due to Tomorrow 3's great look and visuals, I give this gladly 8/10 rating and think this is among the greatest films Tsui Hark has directed himself. He has produced perhaps as many films as he has actually directed and many have said he is better producer than director, but this film shows that he really knows how to direct noteworthy films, too.