There’s cool, and then there’s mid-Eighties Hong Kong John Woo. Hollywood never really knew what to do with the action master, but it’s easy to get why American studios were so eager to steal him away when you see his 1986 classic A Better Tomorrow. This slick and brutal story of two alienated brothers – gangster Ho (Ti Lung) and cop Kit (Leslie Cheung) – pulled HK action cinema out of the cult canon corner and truly established it as an international force. Now A Better Tomorrow returns to the big screen, courtesy of Shout! Studios, GKids, and Hong Kong Cinema Classics, with a new 4K restoration and a special new pre-recorded interview with Woo, exclusive to these screenings. – Richard Whittaker
