YMMV / A Better Tomorrow

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Shing truly planned Sung's downfall and sold him out to the Taiwanese crime boss? Or was he simply an opportunist who took advantage of the power vacuum during Sung's stint in jail?
• First Installment Wins: The first film is the most well-known and respected among the public and critics alike, though the second film isn't without its fans.
• Genre Turning Point: The film is credited with kickstarting the Heroic Bloodshed subgenre and revitalising Hong Kong action cinema.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Taiwanese police captain in the first film (played by John Woo) mentioned that there is no extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Taiwan, so he has no jurisdiction in arresting him. In 2019, an attempt to introduce extradition treaties with Taiwan (due to a murder committed in Taiwan by a Hong Kong resident) as well as mainland China led to one of Hong Kong's largest protests.
• Memetic Mutation
  • Chow Yun-fat approves◊.
  • The Chinese Bear/Beaver ^note  Around late 2023, a series of viral animations are posted on Twitter/X showing a 3-D, CGI character (ambiguously referred to as a bear, beaver, gopher or a groundhog) which reanimates a scene from this movie where Mark was beat up and declares that he will get his life back. The animation was created by user 乙人教动画 (B teachers animation), and soon gained much attention on the online sphere. The meme is often attributed to people who sympathize with the bear's plight (brought about by the rather stellar quality of the animation).
• Retroactive Recognition: A then 23-year-old Stephen Chow plays one of the mooks killed by Mark in the restaurant shootout.
• Sequelitis: The third film, while not without its fans, is generally considered to be the weakest of the trilogy, due to the lack of John Woo's involvement.
• Signature Scene:
  • The restaurant hit from the first movie.
  • "Eat the rice!" from the second movie.
  • The insanely violent raid on the mansion from the second movie.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Mark's final words, spoken to Kit right before Shing shoots him. "To be a man..."
  • Kit's death in the second film. His final deed is to name his newborn daughter.
  • Ho loses it at Kit's funeral. He walks out and is almost hit by a car, but is saved by a policeman. For a brief moment, Ho imagines that it's Kit.
• Watch It for the Meme: The film gained a rise in viewership following the virality of the animated "Chinese Beaver / A Better Tomorrow Bear" meme.

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