Ying hung boon sik (1986)

Director:

John Woo

Writers:

Hing-Ka Chan (written by) &
Suk-Wah Leung (written by) ...

Release Date:

2 August 1986 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The movie that began it all.........

Plot:

A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Gangster | Criminal | Prison | Friend

Awards:

4 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Lung Ti	...	Sung Tse-Ho (as Ti Lung)
Leslie Cheung	...	Sung Tse-Kit
Yun-Fat Chow	...	Mark Gor / Mark Lee (as Chow Yun Fat)
Emily Chu	...	Jackie
Waise Lee	...	Shing (as Lee Chi Hung)
Fui-On Shing	...	Shing's right hand man
Kenneth Tsang	...	Ken
Hark Tsui	...	Music Judge (as Tsui Hark)
John Woo	...	Inspector Wu
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chi Fai Chan	...	'Little' Wang
Kwok Leung Cheung
San Nam Hung	...	Triad Member
Hing Ying Kam	...	Mr. Mok
Shung Fung Lau
Ming Leung
Patrick Leung
Yangzi Shi	...	Mr. Yiu
Feng Tien	...	Father Sung
Wei Ho Tu
Hsieh Wang	...	Mr. Wang (as Hap Wong)
Sai Gwan Yeung	...	Triad Member in Parking Lot

Also Known As:

A Better Tomorrow (Hong Kong: English title)
Gangland Boss
Rapid Fire (Philippines: English title)
The Essence of Heroes (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Ying xiong ben se (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA (TV rating) | Malaysia:18PL | South Korea:15 (2008) | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Austria:18 (not rated) | Canada:18A | France:-12 | Hong Kong:IIB | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | West Germany:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Cinema City Film Productions

Trivia:

Hark Tsui instructed the screenwriters to portray the mobsters as counterfeiters rather than drug traffickers to up the "hero" factor.

Quotes:

Ken: [handing cookies to his workers] Break time!
United Taxi Co. Co-worker: Thank you, Ken.
Ken: Don't thank me. It's deducted from your salary.
United Taxi Co. Co-worker: You're so mean!
United Taxi Co. Co-worker: Hey, I've got a wife to support.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Aatish: Feel the Fire (1994)

Soundtrack:

Sparrowfall

Mr Chow has achieved what no one else could: He looked cool in the 80's

When this film was made in the 1980's Hong Kong cinema was dominated by wushu films and bizarre swordplay movies involving people flying around and other acid flashback inducing scenarios. John Woo was a young director who had done a string of martial arts films, comedies, and musicals. In 1981 he split from Golden harvest and joined Cinema city, after a couple of comedies, He directed the modern day action film "Sunset Warrior" and it was held on the shelf and not released. After the failure of "Sunset Warrior" he was sent to Taiwan and directed another two comedies. Returning to Hong Kong, Woo had always wanted to make a modern day gangster film. Teaming up with friend and producer Tsui Hark, they made a film that would inspire countless films for years to come. Casting Chow Yun Fat who was mainly a television actor as one lead, an old school Kung Fu actor in another and a singer in the third lead role, it was a risky venture which paid off. The script is great featuring lines such as "Do you believe in God?" "sure i'm one, you are, a god is someone who controls their own destiny". There is strong characterisation of the characters, aided on by perfect performances from the actors, The action choreography was excellent and inspired virtually every film made involving guns ever since. It makes you realise that the only thing "the matrix" didn't take from this film and it's sequels is the plot. This is one of my favourite films of all time, and if everyone in the world saw this, I guarantee that the sales of matchsticks and toothpicks would soar.