How is A Better Tomorrow a transition from the Hong Kong martial arts/action films we have previously watched?

During our general discussion for the 1986 version of A Better Tomorrow, I remember multiple people bringing up how the theme of gun violence stood out to them because our previous films usually placed emphasis on physical combat or swordplay. This was also a film that was not afraid to capture blood in violent scenes, so we saw a lot of quite graphic images when fights were happening, and a couple people related that to a Western style of films. We were able to respond to these comments by introducing terms such as "Gun Fu", which is a combination between Kung Fu and gunplay, and "heroic bloodshed", which is similar to the concept of being a martyr and sacrificing oneself, in a quite gory manner, for the good of others. Compared to the spiritual/religious elements and seemingly unrealistic fighting skills that we saw in previous movies, A Better Tomorrow was a much more realistic gangster movie that focused on killing people who were against the character’s goals. There was no extraterrestrial force or hidden “unhuman” talent that ultimately guides the protagonists to victory. However, there were also people who mentioned that this film really nicely captured the internal struggles and emotional turmoil of these characters who are seen as “bad people” on the surface because they are in a gang. We see that through the strong bonds of brotherhood and loyalty portrayed through the web of relationships, and the conflicts that emerge due to a loss of trust or feeling of betrayal between characters. Unlike the Japanese Yakuza films, the gangsters in A Better Tomorrow seemed more realistic because there was so much rich content that surrounded their character development throughout the movie. Although we were not able to go through all of our questions for the class discussion, I was glad that people contributed a lot to the few questions that we selected as most important and thought-provoking.