“A Better Tomorrow” is a remake of a gangster action movie that was originally released in 1986 and launched the career of Asian action star Chow Yun Fat. Like most gangster movies, there is a rise and fall of the main character and this movie was no different. Young Chun (Seung-heon Song) and Hyuk (Jin-mo Ju) are two arms dealers that are on top of the crime world. However, Hyuk has been searching for his brother, Chul (Kang-woo Kim), and after finally finding him, things fall apart. Hyuk is betrayed and thrown in jail and Chul decides to be a cop.

The few things I liked about this movie were the extras, the gun fight scenes, the music, and the scenic camera shots. They did good job of including cast interviews, a behind the scenes featurette, and trailers, but I would have liked to have seen deleted scenes or bloopers. The gun fight scenes were well done and full of action. In addition, what surprised me was how the music was very memorable and serene for a gangster movie. Lastly, the camera shots of Hong Kong were very cool with all the cool architecture and lights. A majority of the scenes in the movie made me want to visit Hong Kong.

After reading the synopsis of the movie on the back of the Blu-ray case, I had high hopes for this movie but was disappointed. I know drama is always needed in gangster movie, but “A Better Tomorrow” did the drama in excess. There was not enough action and the pacing was fairly slow. The acting was subpar and I did not mind the subtitles, but when they spoke English, it sounded awkward and was not necessary. The ending wasn’t bad, but the movie as a whole was not what I had expected. For those reasons, I am giving this movie a “C.”