A Masterpiece!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is the prequel to Chow Yun-Fat's bullet ballet A Better Tomorrow, where Mark Gor travels to Saigon near the end of the Vietnam war to get his cousin, Mun (Tony Leung Kai-Fai) and uncle out of jail. He falls in love with female gangster Chow Ying-Kit (Anita Mui), and her dangerous ex-boyfriend complicates the mission.Like the original movie, this movie has a powerful plot from start to finish, from the intense drama between the Mark Gor and his cousin to the war suspense in Vietnam.There is plenty of mind-blowing action, some to the point that is a little overkill. The acting was pretty good with its strong characters and there is a good balance of humor and drama. I just wished ***spoiler ahead*** that the ending could have been better and not so much a downer. ***spoiler ends***.The theme song sung by Anita Mui is a powerful and haunting piece of music. Not a bad film overall.Grade B-

Different to John Woo's original two films, but it's almost as good. Chow (coolest man in the world) yun fat, gives a very charismatic performance, hilarious in the opening scenes when he walks around the airport with an unlit cigarette hanging from his lip, and gives a raw, powerful, emotional performance at the end. The action scenes although lacking the finesse of the John Woo trademark mayhem, are still high velocity and powerful. Aided well by the soaring soundtrack, this film although it can be a little slow, is a welcome and worthy addition to the better tomorrow films. I just loved every second of it. Although the subtitles were a little tricky to read in places but you can't blame the film for what someone else did to it. The major problem is the badly done music editing after the credits have rolled. However seeing as the actual film had finished by that point, not many people would notice.

If you compare this to the first two, this is pretty bad. If you take it on it's own, it's OK. The plot is by the numbers, ditto for characterizations and dialogue. The shoot outs also totally lack the energy and brutality the first two had. And Chow-Yun Fat gives an uncharacteristically bad performance. Still the film isn't totally worthless. The shoot outs, like I said, aren't up to previous directors' Woos shoot outs. But then again what are? They're OK, they're definitely not dull. And the lead actress Mui is fantastic! Unlike the women in Woo's films, she isn't a victim, a sex object or just scenery. She's strong, dynamic, full of energy and better than the men at shooting people down! When she starts blazing away the energy level in the film leaps forward. So it's worth seeing for her, but don't expect any great movie.

"A Better Tomorrow III" is a desperate attempt to make some cash out of the legendary character Mark Gor, the three words before "III" in the title and the man they call Chow Yun Fat. It would have been somewhat more watchable if they changed this film to another chapter in the lives of Ho, Lung and Ken Gor but director Hark Tsui made the crucial mistake of making this a prequel: way back to the Vietnam war. Chow Yun Fat still makes another charismatic mark on the film but the action scenes are really terrible if you just watch this after something like Hard-Boiled. I would forgive it if it was Hollywood but, come on, this is Hong Kong! You should do better than this...But non-fans of CYF and the BT series will be pleased with the character study of Mark Gor and the off-beat romance he has with Anita Mui. It's not a complete disappointment to mainstream viewers, but to loyal Hong Kong action fans: YES.