A Better Tomorrow 3: Love & Death in Saigon (1989) - Hong Kong Movie Review

Erik, the Asian Movie Enthusiast presents:

A review of “A Better Tomorrow 3: Love & Death in Saigon”, a Hong Kong action flick from 1989 that stars Chow Yun Fat, Anita Mui and Tony Leung Ka Fai. It was directed by Tsui Hark.

The following plot synopsis was taken from the website LoveHKFilm: Tsui Hark brings us this prequel to “A Better Tomorrow”, which is noticeably without original director John Woo. Tsui had a falling out with Woo, so Tsui himself directs Chow Yun-Fat as his Mark character from Better Tomorrow 1. Mark (played by Chow Yun Fat) heads to Saigon in 1974 and hooks up with his cousin Mun (played by Tony Leung Ka-Fai). Together, he and Tony run into tough-as-nails gangster Anita Mui, who takes a shine to the two boys. She teaches Chow his gun moves and begins to fall for him, but Chow is oblivious. Meanwhile, Mun gets the idea that Anita fancies him. This love triangle creates most of the drama for a good two-thirds of the film before the darkness of their world crashes in on them. It seems Anita’s last lover was a gang boss, so he doesn’t take kindly to the idea of Mark romancing his former flame. Even worse, the Viet Cong are taking Saigon, so it isn’t the best time to be hanging around Vietnam.

A pretty good action flick, but weaker than its predecessors.

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