A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (1989)

A man travels from China to Vietnam, on the brink of war with America, to retrieve his uncle and cousin but find complications when he falls in love with a female gangster with a dangerous ex.

Director:

Hark Tsui

Writers:

Yiu-ming Leung (screenplay), Foo Ho Tai (screenplay)

Stars:

Yun-Fat Chow, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Anita Mui

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yun-Fat Chow	...	Mark Gor (as Chow Yun Fat)
Tony Ka Fai Leung	...	Cheung Chi-Mun
Anita Mui	...	Chow Ying-Kit
Kien Shih	...	Mun's father
Saburô Tokitô	...	Ho Cheung-Ching / Tanaka
Wai Lun Cheng	...	Pat
Maggie Ho Yee Cheung	...	Ling
Yeung-Wah Kam	...	Jimmy (as Andrew Kam)
Ling Nam Lam	...	Bond
Hsiang Lin Yin	...	General with Bond (as Seung Lam Wan)
Chi Wai Wong	...	Bodyguard
Kirk Wong	...	Bodyguard
Wai Tam	...	Bodyguard
Wei Ho Tu	...	Soldier
Chi-Mun Ho	...	Mr. Ho's Board Member

Storyline

At the end of the Vietnam war, Cheung goes to Saigon, intent on bringing his uncle and cousin back to Hong Kong. In Saigon, Cheung meets beautiful gangleader Chow, and relies on her help for their safe return. A love triangle develops between the cousins and Chow Further complicating matters, Chow's lover Ho, a gang leader, appears Ho deports the cousins, and kills their uncle. Cheung and his cousin return to Vietnam seeking revenge, while Chow and Ho also become entangled with a local vietnamese warlord. Chow tries to stop the battle, but the warlord kills Chow and Ho. Just before her death Chow gives the cousins the last two air tickets with which to leave Vietnam

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Plot Keywords:

saigon | vietnam | vietnam war | hong kong | love triangle | 

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Genres:

Action | War

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese English Vietnamese

Release Date:

20 October 1989 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon

Filming Locations:

Vietnam

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Princess Film Production Limited, Film Workshop

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 112 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Woo (director of the first two films in the series) wrote the original screenplay for this third installment, but he never got to direct this third entry due to having had artistic differences with producer Hark Tsui during the filming of A Better Tomorrow II (1987). Instead, John Woo took his screenplay and made it into the film Bullet In The Head (1990). Hark Tsui himself would direct his his own version of A Better Tomorrow III. The two films have many parallels, most notably, both being set in the Vietnam War.

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Goofs

In the subtitled version, Ho reveals that his real name is "Tanaka". However, later in the film he refers to his name as being "Tokito". The role was being played by 'Saburo Tokito'.

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Quotes

Mark Gor: Nobody knows what tomorrow may bring.

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Connections

Follows A Better Tomorrow II (1987)

User Reviews

Prequel to John Woo's first two "Tomorrow" films

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.