A Better Tomorrow III

Although very different from the other A BETTER TOMORROW movies, ABT3 is still a good movie if you are a fan of Chow Yun-Fat or Anita Mui. This is a prequal to the other movies and it shows how Mark Gor (Chow Yun-Fat) became the cool guy we all love. This is not the bullet festival that is expected from these movies but there are some action scenes. This is more a love story than and action film.

The DVD's picture is really good at times and a little hazy at others. There is a noticeable discoloration during one scene that is very blatant. The target practice scene has a brownish orange haze at the top of the frame. It's distracting but it only lasts that scene.

The sound is Dolby Digital. It seems to mostly come out of the front speaker with the rear speaker not really being utilized. The explosions sometimes seem unnatural compared to the other sound effects. The quality isn't bad but the mix seems a little awkward. I watched the movie with the Cantonese soundtrack.

The subtitles seem to lag a second behind the dialogue. At first it's pretty noticeable but you get used to it after a while. The subtitles are white and easy to read. There are a couple of typos throughout the movie but other than the subtitles being a little too big, they aren't all that bad.

The extras consist of a montage of Media Asia releases and some short of Tsui Hark and the main characters. The DVD defaults to the menu when it is put in which is a plus. It also lets you choose language and subtitles on the same screen.

Overall, if you like the movie get the DVD. It's not perfect but at the time I don't know if there is a better version. I don't have the laser disc or another version of this so I can't say that this is the best version to have. The movie would be better considered on it's own instead part of the A BETTER TOMORROW movies. If you like the movie, the DVD will not disappoint you. Other than the discoloration in the one scene the picture quality overall is pretty good. If you never saw the movie before, you may want to rent it before you buy it.