The Cinematheque

“[A] labour of love that presents Tsui’s personality and abilities in a truly unique way … Perhaps future generations may come to consider A Better Tomorrow III as the best installment of the series.”

Park Chanwook (Oldboy, Decision to Leave)

Tsui Hark took over the director’s chair for the final action-packed installment of the Better Tomorrow series, an origin story that precedes the first film’s events. The plot begins as a matter of immigration ​“security”: amid the end of the war in Vietnam, Mark (Chow Yun-fat) wants to move his uncle and cousin home to Hong Kong. He is punished for these good intentions until he connects with Kit (Anita Mui), a fearless expert in weapons, border crossing, and counterfeiting—of both documents and emotions. Tsui was born in Saigon, then observed the war unfold while studying cinema in the US. His film’s conflicted story of involvement and exploitation is far from a serious history lesson, though. This is most legibly a classic Tsui love triangle, with cousin Michael (Tony Leung Ka-fai) filling the role of the third wheel alongside Mark and Kit, and the evacuation of Saigon as the deadline for its resolution.

In Cantonese, English, and Vietnamese with English subtitles

“A Better Tomorrow III ambitiously inverts the macho ethic of Woo’s first two films, showing Mark’s trademarks—flapping duster, smoky glasses, two-fisted shooting—to be derived from a woman who trained him in combat.”

David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong