True Colours of Heroic Bloodshed
For the uninitiated, the title hits two birds with one stone. The Chinese title of A Better Tomorrow is True Colours of a Hero whereas Rick Baker (a Hong Kong film fan in England) had coined the name of the genre that John Woo’s film belongs to - Heroic Bloodshed. A Better Tomorrow (1986) was produced by director Tsui Hark for his own studio called Film Workshop. John Woo’s business partner, Terence Chang, published a memoir last year, so I will let him do the talking: “John Woo and I haven’t seen each other for ten years since we parted ways in Golden Harvest. Both of us have changed a lot in these ten years. At the beginning of the establishment of Cinema City, he used the pseudonym “Wu Hsiang-Fei” to secretly film their entrepreneurial film Laughing Times, which was very successful. Later, when he left Golden Harvest, the seven-member Cinema City team had no role for him. Instead, he was sent to Taiwan to manage their Taiwan branch. But how could administration be his strong point?”
“Although he also filmed two comedies there, his results were poor and he was ridiculed by the company as a has-been. Therefore, during that period, he often drank alcohol and was in debt, becoming known as Drunk Street Director. In the end, Tsui Hark helped him do a remake of Patrick Lung Kong’s The Story of a Discharged Prisoner and encouraged him to put his true emotions into the movie. Therefore, many of the dialogues in A Better Tomorrow were John Woo’s own opinions. This not only made a Hong Kong movie classic, but also suddenly transformed Chow Yun-Fat from a box office poison to a superstar. The original investor in the films produced by Tsui Hark’s film studio was Cinema City whose share was 51% from the financial investor Golden Princess, and 49% from Cinema City’s Karl Maka, Dean Shek Tin and Raymond Wong Pak-Ming.”
“When I joined Film Workshop, John Woo's A Better Tomorrow II had just been released, and the box office was lower than expected. At that time, there were voices saying that his version was originally very long, but he still refused to cut it short when the Christmas release date was approaching. As a result, Tsui Hark personally forced him to cut it to a length suitable for release. On the other hand, he himself said that the story of the movie was not what he wanted to make. He wanted to make a prequel, but the company wanted to use a story with Dean Shek as the main character. In order for Chow Yun-Fat to still act in it, he also designed a twin brother plot. Anyway, I didn't ask any more about it, it was all over. But it is true that John Woo is very grateful to Tsui Hark for giving him the opportunity to turn around, because he often said that he would make money for the studio in return.”
“But the problem was that it was very difficult to get started with the stories he wanted to film. At that time, he suggested filming Once a Thief (this film did not include Chow Yun-Fat at the beginning), so I went to talk to George Lam, but the company felt that his salary was high and there was no guarantee of box office in overseas markets, so the proposal was not successful. John Woo suggested filming Bullet in the Head with the Vietnam War as the background, but Tsui Hark said that John could film the Hong Kong resettlement area part because Tsui grew up in Vietnam and was also preparing a film to be shot in Vietnam. John Woo wanted to film The Killer, but was told that there was no such thing as an assassin in Hong Kong and the story would not ring true. Seeing that his life was difficult, all the money he earned from A Better Tomorrow was used to pay off debts, and he ended up relying on borrowing money to survive.”
“Chow Yun-Fat, who had lent money to John Woo, felt that it was not an option to continue like this, so he took the initiative to propose to Golden Princess that he wanted to film The Killer. However, since he already had two films in the works at this time, he had to give priority to the other two. The Killer can only be filmed when he has free time. But now that it was confirmed, I went to talk to Danny Lee. His condition was that as long as his Magnum company could invest 10% of the film's production cost, there would be no problem with his participation. In the end, everything was resolved smoothly, and the company finally agreed to start filming, and everyone was happy with the result. At the same time, Tsui Hark also announced that he will personally direct A Better Tomorrow III, which is the prequel.”
“A Better Tomorrow III: Song of the Sunset is set in Ho Chi Minh City. Myself and two other colleagues went to discuss co-production with the local government. It was 1988. Although Vietnam was opening up, it was still in the early stages of opening up, with only a few people allowed to emigrate. Our level was very low at that time. I wanted to send a postcard back to Hong Kong. When we were in Vietnam, the guide I hired actually said that the price of the stamps was the money he earned in a year! In the center of Ho Chi Minh City, there are thousands of people every night. People are sleeping because they are homeless. You can see the remains of tanks left behind by the U.S. military everywhere in the city. Of course, we also visited the former U.S. consulate which was riddled with bullets. Looking back on our generation, we grew up in Hong Kong and were not frightened by artillery fire. How lucky we are!”
“The Killer was completed before A Better Tomorrow III. In March 1989, Taiwan was in a hurry to release it, and released a version that was more than two hours long and had not yet been polished. But I hope to release the almost-completed A Better Tomorrow III first, because A Better Tomorrow is a film franchise and has a loyal audience, and it can also help sell The Killer. For this reason, I quickly went to Taipei at my own expense and persuaded Wang Ying-Hsiang, the boss of Long Shong Company, the regular distributor in charge of the Taiwan market, to move The Killer to a later date. Unexpectedly, he refused to agree no matter what. On the day of the release, he and I visited more than ten cinemas and were reassured to see the enthusiastic response from the audience and the good box office. Afterwards, John Woo cut a shorter version, which was released in Hong Kong in July of the same year. The audience's support for this action-style movie did not meet expectations. The box office revenue was only over 18 million Hong Kong dollars, which could not break the record of more than 34 million Hong Kong dollars for A Better Tomorrow.”
“Maybe I was slow to react and didn't pay too much attention to the subtle changes in the relationship between Tsui Hark and John Woo. My goal is to make money from the company's movies, so I treat all directors equally and nothing else. In May 1989, I took several of the studio's films to Cannes, but at that time only The Killer was completed and could be screened in its entirety. At that time, many buyers said that the film had neither martial arts fights nor British and American actors, so sales would not be very optimistic. I was very unconvinced and thought that if the film was well shot, people would definitely buy it. So I found some American film critics to watch the screening, and after watching it, I asked them to post film reviews in newspapers published every day at the film festival (such as Variety, Hollywood Reporter, etc.), and I cut out the photocopy of these good film reviews.”
“In October of the same year, I took Tsui Hark’s A Better Tomorrow III: Song of the Sunset to the Milan Film Market, and I gave it a new English title of Love and Death in Saigon. I also printed a very exquisite booklet dedicated to introducing Tsui Hark and the film studio. I felt that among ordinary buyers, Americans were the most arrogant. They looked down upon Hong Kong movies and when they saw my poster, they said it was a copycat of an American movie. When I was studying in the United States, TV stations would often show some very poor quality Kung Fu movies after twelve o'clock in the evening. Therefore, many Americans think that Hong Kong movies are like this and look down upon them. I was very unconvinced, especially after working in the studio. I felt that I had finally found my mission, which is to introduce outstanding Hong Kong directors, actors and film talents to audiences around the world. In the next few years, I kept moving towards this goal and direction, and what I didn't expect was that I later took myself to Hollywood.”