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Final PortfolioMain MenuPixlr Practice ImageCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: What Makes it Successful?Post 1Korean Wave 2.0 as Soft PowerPost 3Media ProjectGroup FacilitationFinal ReflectionResumeWork CitedWenshuo Zheng3893fe9d835972445a8d18abd64faaef1fb7a009
Reflection on A Better Tomorrow (1986)
12018-11-26T18:51:38-08:00Wenshuo Zheng3893fe9d835972445a8d18abd64faaef1fb7a0093227110Post 2image_header2018-12-14T02:40:41-08:00Wenshuo Zheng3893fe9d835972445a8d18abd64faaef1fb7a009A Better Tomorrow is a typical Hong Kong crime film that mainly talks about gangs and the theme of brotherhood. I tried to connect this film with the Hong Kong history and I found the background of the movie is exactly what was happening in HK at that time. Gangs such as 14 K Triad and Sun Yee On largely controlled the people in the Walled City in HK. For example, people in Kowloon Walled City fell into their hands because most of them were seeking protection under a turbulent society. Before the year of 1997, Hong Kong was under control by British and their “hand-off” policy gave rise to those gangs. I think this is one of the main reason why this film could have a big success because the film connected to the social situation at that time in Hong Kong.
Second, the reason why Hong Kong martial arts films could be as popular as the traditional martial arts films or even better is that the scenes of gunfights are more realistic. When people are using guns instead of fist and other weapons, the fight scenes become clean. Hong Kong martial arts films focus more on the storyline and the theme instead of how the characters fight using different Kong Fu in the typical martial arts movies. For example, what is “A Better Tomorrow” really means in the movie? Hou was trying to be a good guy after he was out of prison. Did he get a better tomorrow compare to his good old time? The answer is definitely “No”. However, he was willing to do anything if his little brother could forgive him. That is one thing I really like about the movie. Sometimes people must take different paths or make a different decision to please someone. Could they really get their lives better? It worth pondering. I think that is why these Hong Kong martial arts movies could have a large audience.
Finally, the idea of masculinity was portrayed by so many ways in the movie and the use of violence is the most direct way to show masculinity. In the article "Your tender smiles give me strength’: paradigms of masculinity in John Wool’s A Better Tomorrow and The Killer" written by Julian Stringer, she suggests that "when it comes down to the construction of male identity, 'doing' genres delineate an ego-ideal male hero, whereas 'suffering' genres often impair the man's masculinity". In the movie, we can see a lot of scenes that the male characters were 'suffering' in numerous ways. Ho was caught by the Taiwan police and he lost everything. Same as Mark, he lost one of his legs and lost his power. As the audience, we expect them to fight and take the revenge. That is one of the most important plots that attract a lot of audiences. They use violence to take back what they deserve. So, violence is praised in the film, because it is an important way to present masculinity.