But wait! What is Wong Jing's style? For those who have not watched other Wong Jing movies,you will see the styles of other Hong Kong directors spoofed/re-imagined/copied to perfection.

This run-of-the mill heroic bloodshed exploitationer is elavated to near perfection due to director Wong Jing's subversively funny script (shades of Verhoeven's ROBOCOP) and his thunderous pacing. (A moment of silence is later abruptly disturbed by gunfire) I mentioned that he copied various director's styles. Don't believe me? Did you see the title? That's a very blatant reference to JOHN WOO himself! Later in the film, the two good guy gangsters do a "Killer" stance (standing and leaning on each others back while exchanging guns) followed by Lobster doing a "Chow yun fat" stance with two guns.There's even a scene where Chingmy Yau tries to imitate the restaurant shootout scene in "a better tomorrow".

Most people don't see this, but there is also a sequence that spoofs Wong Kar-wai's visual style. Remember that sequence in "As tears go by" where Andy Lau fights a sadistic triad villain in a blue-lit refreshment stand? Remember Wong's shifty cinematography in that scene (later made famous all over the world via "Chungking Express")? Wong Jing has that scene too! This time you have Ekin Cheng fighting dozens of triads with a butcher's knife. The whole scene had me laughing because it was as if Wong Jing was basing the style of his next scene to a visual style of a Hong kong director.

Anyway, the film maintains a very tense atmosphere throughout (thanks to sadistic villains in the presence of Collin Chou and Dick wei)and you can be sure that there could never be a happy ending for this kind of movie. The violence is stark, bloody and very brutal for a Heroic Bloodshed movie and I'm sure lovers of movies such as "The big heat", "The Assassin", "Full Contact" would surely love!! There's no point in hating this movie or even comparing it to Woo's classic film. It's just a fast and furious Herioc Bloodshed film that would leave you scratching your head.

I didn't expect it to have anything to do with the first three movies. I didn't expect the action or the stars to be as powerful. All I wanted was a solid, fun action movie. I didn't even get that! Instead I get another throwaway stupid movie that makes you turn off the DVD player about 20 min. into it.

The "cool" factor is gone. All you have are the typical blue lights symbolizing nighttime and a bunch of guys walking in slo-mo WITHOUT looking cool. Ugh, I usually write reviews longer than this but you get the idea. The typical blurry, fast-forward-punches, blue-lights as nighttime crap everyone ignores....except this has the "Better Tomorrow" name on it! John Woo should make another one in the series just so this cannot be the last one.

Although it has nothing to do with the A BETTER TOMORROW series, this movie still packs a wallop. It is a very stylish actioner with a very good performance by Lau Ching-Wan. This movie is sometimes very brutal even though it has been severely cut by the Hong Kong censors probably to avoid a category III rating. Of course, there's plenty of references to the works of John Woo but the director manages to not rip off his style and scenes. Here, Wong Jing told his movie straight-forward with flesh and blood characters and, for once, he avoids his typical low-brow juvenile humour opting for a more realistic and pessimistic approach. Highly recommended.