Analysis of John Woo Films

Analysis of A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled

     John Woo is a Hong Kong director whose films fall under the gangster genre, while also containing heavy melodramatic tones. Two of his films, A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled, both depict these conflicting genres. A Better Tomorrow was filmed in 1986 and is the story of two triad members, Mark and Ho. The relationship between the two of them contains hints of brotherhood. Due to the strength of their relationship, they are each willing to make sacrifices for the other. In Hard Boiled, which was produced in 1992, a similar relationship develops between two police officers who are working on the same case, Tequila and Tony. Tequila is in charge of the case, while Tony is an undercover cop playing the role of an assassin to infiltrate the gangs. While each film contains a different plot line, the relationships between the main characters in A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled share the same elements of brotherhood and self-sacrifice.

Tony and Tequila talk while they are trapped

     The two relationships are founded on the concept of mutual survival, but they develop into something stronger as time passes. The relationship between Tony and Tequila in Hard Boiled best represents this concept, but Mark and Ho’s relationship also experiences similar foundations. Tony and Tequila first agree to combine their work because they know that they will be more likely to achieve their goal if they work together. However, Tequila lacks respect for Tony’s undercover behavior, and Tony does not wish to let Tequila steal the glory for solving the case. Their first interactions involve pointing guns at each other due to the lack of trust between the two characters. Mark and Ho’s relationship is already strong during the events in A Better Tomorrow, but they allude to its beginning as being similar to Tony and Tequila’s. Their “affective obsession with mutual survival” (Stringer 33) is seen in how they interact while fighting against other gangsters. In both relationships, the two men work together to defeat their enemies, and the fluidity of their fights is attributed to the bond they share. Their intent on mutual survival enables them to defend each other and to complete the task they are assigned. When Mark carries out an assignment without Ho, his partner, he is unable to focus on survival and completion, and is crippled due to his lack of diligence.

First meeting

Teamwork

      Along with a shared goal of mutual survival, each relationship is characterized by the older brother and younger brother bond between the characters. In A Better Tomorrow, Ho assumes the role of older brother in his relationship with Mark by accepting the responsibility for Mark’s injury. Furthermore, the maturity with which he handles the decision to leave the triad overshadows Mark’s somewhat childish desire to complete one last job. Ho advises Mark to forget about revenge and leave the gangster lifestyle, rather than risk losing everything. Like any brother relationship, Mark looks up to Ho and respects him. Similarly, in Hard Boiled, “A big brother’s concern for a little brother, as well as a little brother’s respect for his elder, emerges…” (Stokes & Hoover 59).  During the scene where they are trapped in the morgue together, Tony and Tequila discuss their dreams, because they know they may die before the arms-dealing case they are working on is solved. Tequila teases Tony for his wish to live in Antarctica, much as an older brother affectionately teases his younger brother. However, Tequila also feels concern for Tony’s safety, which is why he tries to joke to relieve the fear they both feel in their prison. Tony looks up to Tequila because, unlike Tony, he can live as a normal person after the conclusion of the case. Tony knows he will be forced into hiding from both the police and the triad. Like Mark and Ho, Tony and Tequila assume the roles of older and younger brothers in their relationship.

Tequila laughs at Tony's life goal

     The strength of the relationships leads to the “older brother” characters’ willingness to do whatever they need to protect their “younger brothers,” even at the cost of their own pride. Mark alludes to Ho’s protective instinct during the bar scene with Ho and Shing in A Better Tomorrow. During one of their first assignments, Mark had multiple guns pointed at his head and Ho was coerced into drinking bottles of whisky to appease the bodyguards who have Mark trapped. By doing so, Ho saved Mark’s life by endangering his own safety. Ho risks himself for Mark again during the ambush, when he allows himself to be captured by the police so that Mark can escape. Ho knows that Mark will be in much greater trouble than Ho if he is captured, so he presents himself as a distraction rather than allowing both of them to be hunted down. Tequila is also willing to put himself into harm to protect Tony in Hard Boiled. At the end of the film, Tony is used as a hostage so the villain, Johnny, can escape from the police. Johnny threatens to shoot Tony unless Tequila humiliates himself by hitting himself. Tequila willingly degrades himself rather than have Tony be shot in the head. Both Ho and Tequila allow themselves to be harmed to save the lives of their friends.

Tequila is coerced to hit himself

Tequila kneels before Johnny

     The “younger brother” figures both sacrifice their lives at the end of the films to fulfill their obligation to their friends. Mark is shot at the end of A Better Tomorrow because he wishes to help Ho reconcile with Ho’s younger brother, Kit. He returns to the site of the final shootout to save their lives by sacrificing his own. The emotions he feels for Ho drive him to give his life so Ho can survive. Tony makes the same sacrifice when he is a hostage at the end of Hard Boiled to save Tequila from further humiliating himself. Tony realizes that Tequila will do anything to save him, and he does not want the other cop to be harmed any further for his sake. He turns Johnny’s gun on himself and shoots both himself and Johnny. As Philippa Gates states in her analysis of the films, “The relationships that develop between the two men in each of these films, whether the relationship between the two friends who are divided at the beginning of the film or the two friends who prove their loyalty to one another at the end, are highly emotionally charged” (Gates 65). The strength of the relationship between the two characters drives each of them to commit acts of self-sacrifice so they can save the other.

Tony uses Johnny's gun to shoot himself and Johnny

     The relationships between Mark and Ho, and between Tequila and Tony, share many similar elements. They both are depicted as brotherly, with an older brother in Ho and Tequila, and a younger brother in Mark and Tony. They also contain elements of willing self-sacrifice from all of the characters. The older brothers are willing to be humiliated to help their friends, and the younger brothers both give their lives. The self-sacrificial nature of the relationships emphasizes the power of the bond they feel. The deaths of the two younger brother characters are devastating to their friends, and they both retreat inward as a result of the loss. The strong emotional ties between the main characters fuel the plot of the films.