History Film / ABetterTomorrow

* BloodBrothers: Mark and Ho are probably the best known examples in a HeroicBloodshed movie.

* VillainInAWhiteSuit: The white suit is used as a status symbol in the triad, and Shing wears a white longcoat in the final showdown

* CoolGuns:
** This was one of the first films ever to feature the Beretta 92F, which had been on the civilian market for less than a year at the time of filming.
** The second film features the Franchi SPAS-12, used to bloody great effect in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AKTNIrtjyE hotel shootout.]]

* AlmostLethalWeapons: Codified by the second film. In the final scene, approximately 80 mooks are killed with every weapon imaginable. The heroes also suffer injuries, but appear to suffer no ill effects. At the end, they calmly sit in their blood-soaked clothes and wait for the cops to arrive.

''A Better Tomorrow'' (also known as ''Ying Hung Boon Sik'', or "True Colors of a Hero" in Cantonese) is a 1986 action film by Creator/JohnWoo and produced by Tsui Hark. The story follows two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Creator/TiLung plays Sung Tse Ho, a respected member of a triad whose principal operation is printing and distributing counterfeit US banknotes. Mark Lee, played by Creator/ChowYunFat in his breakout role, is Ho's partner in crime. Creator/LeslieCheung plays Sung Tse Kit, Ho's brother who has joined the HKPD. Ho cares deeply for Kit and encourages his career choice, but keeps his criminal life secret from him. When a job in Taiwan goes to hell, Ho is arrested while his accomplice, a new guy by the name of Shing (played by Creator/WaiseLee) gets away. Mark, as Ho's sworn brother, is mad as hell about this, and in one of John Woo's most iconic action sequences, he takes revenge on Ho's betrayers with both guns blazing, but near the end of the shootout, one of his kneecaps is blown out.

* BigApplesauce: The second film moves the action to New York City, where the protagonists are constantly beset by an army of Italian mobsters trying to extort them.

--> '''Ken''': "For you, rice (is) nothing. But for us, rice is my ''father and mother''. '''Don't [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]] with my family'''. You make me feel so sorry for my rice... if you have any dignity, '''[[SuddenlySHouting APOLOGIZE TO THE RICE, RIGHT NOW!]]'''"

* PrecisionFStrike: In the second movie, right before the hotel shootout, Ken cocks his shotgun and lets out a huge '''FUUUUUCCCCCCK YOOOOOOUUUU!!''' at an assassin that is sneaking through a window behind him, before blasting said assassin to death.

* RefrainFromAssuming: The theme song's title is ''Love in Those Years'' by the film's co-star, Leslie Cheung.

* DualWielding: In the second film's climactic battle, Ken wields a shotgun and a mini-Uzi, while Ho and Lung wield a pistol and an Uzi each.

* OralFixation: Mark and Ken are frequently shown chewing on toothpicks in their respective films. Given they're ''both'' played by Chow Yun-Fat... Ken, especially in the sequel, deliberately pops a toothpick in his mouth right before he duels the BattleButler.

* BadassInANiceSuit

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: In ''A Better Tomorrow II'', Kit dies just as his daughter is born.

* BigBad: Shing (first movie). Ko Ying-pui (second), Bond (third).

* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: When Mark turns the boat around.
* CoolGuns: This was one of the first films ever to feature the Beretta 92F, which had been on the civilian market for less than a year at the time of filming.

* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking

* KilledMidSentence: Mark.

* BreakoutCharacter: Mark Gor. Modern viewers can be puzzled that he's not actually the main protagonist of the first film, but Chow Yun-Fat's charismatic performance led to him becoming the most popular character and the later two films would have him in a leading role.

* TheCameo: Pierre Tremblay, the Canadian-born Hong Kong actor of Creator/GodfreyHo infamy, pops up in the first film as an Interpol agent.

''A Better Tomorrow'' (also known as ''Ying Hung Boon Sik'', or "True Colors of a Hero" in Cantonese) is a 1986 action film by Creator/JohnWoo and produced by Tsui Hark. The story follows two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Creator/TiLung plays Sung Tse Ho, a respected member of a triad whose principal operation is printing and distributing counterfeit US banknotes. Mark Gor, played by Creator/ChowYunFat in his breakout role, is Ho's partner in crime. Creator/LeslieCheung plays Sung Tse Kit, Ho's brother who has joined the HKPD. Ho cares deeply for Kit and encourages his career choice, but keeps his criminal life secret from him. When a job in Taiwan goes to hell, Ho is arrested while his accomplice, a new guy by the name of Shing (played by Creator/WaiseLee) gets away. Mark, as Ho's sworn brother, is mad as hell about this, and in one of John Woo's most iconic action sequences, he takes revenge on Ho's betrayers with both guns blazing, but near the end of the shootout, one of his kneecaps is blown out.

* BackupTwin: Mark Gor is killed near the end of the first film, but thanks to Mark being insanely popular, Chow Yun-Fat returned as Mark's twin brother Ken in ''A Better Tomorrow II''.

* DoomedByCanon: In ''A Better Tomorrow III'', Mark Gor has to survive and have no love interest, which is bad news for Chow Ying Kit, Anita Mui's character in that film.
* {{Expy}}: Mark Gor is based on a character (the "wandering knight") from a previous John Woo movie, ''Last Hurrah For Chivalry''.

* MidfightWeaponExchange: During the climactic battle of ''A Better Tomorrow II'', Ken Gor and Chong do this at the very end of their duel.
* MoneyToBurn: One of the classic shots of this movie comes in the beginning, where Mark Gor does this with a counterfeit bill.

* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: Mark Gor inspired a generation of Chinese kids to walk around in dusters and sunglasses while chewing on toothpicks. Mark Gor is a romantic in a cynical world, who steadfastly holds onto notions of brotherhood and honor, and would gladly lay down his life to protect innocent women and children.

* ActionGirl: Kit from the third movie, a gunrunner and hitwoman who takes on entire armies using GunsAkimbo. Her relationship with a younger Mark notably inspires MArk to become the badass audiences knows in the original movie.

* MexicanStandoff:
** In the second film, Ken pulls a gun on a gangster out to extort his restaurant, then another gangster pulls a gun on him.

It would also spawn two sequels: ''A Better Tomorrow II'' (1987), which would see Chow Yun-Fat's return as Ken, [[BackupTwin the twin brother of Mark Gor]], and ''A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon'' (1989), a {{prequel}} directed by Tsui Hark and set in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]]-era Saigon in which Chow Yun-Fat reprises his role as Mark Gor.