Film Review: A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989)
Third instalment usually represents the moment when the film series, even to their loyal fans, begins to go downhill. The series started by A Better Tomorrow, 1986 action film that made John Woo and Hong Kong cinema look "cool", wasn't an exception. Its third part, 1989 film A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon, directed by Tsui Hark, was a disappointment compared with the previous two.
Hark, who also co-produced the film, faced the same problem in A Better Tomorrow III as in A Better Tomorrow II. The most iconic and the most popular character of the series, Mark "Gor" Lee, played by Chow Yun-fat, had been killed at the end of the first film. In A Better Tomorrow II, the solution came in the form of Mark's twin brother Ken, also played by Chow Yun-fat. Another solution was used for the third film. The plot was simply set roughly a decade and a half in the past and it showed the origins of Mark's character. At the very beginning, he is an ordinary man who comes to Saigon in order to bring his cousin Michael Cheung Chi-mun (played by Tony Leung Ka-fai) and his father (played by Shih Kien) back to Hong Kong. It is 1974 and Vietnam is, thanks to the Paris Peace Accords, supposed to enjoy peace, but fewer and fewer people believe that the pro-US regime of South Vietnam could survive the incoming onslaught of Communist North Vietnam and their Viet Cong allies. The country is utterly corrupt, and Mark learns that at the very beginning when he is almost robbed by customs officials, only to be saved by the influential and resourceful businesswoman Chow Ying-kit (played by Anita Mui). She is involved in gun-running operations that run afoul of the corrupt warlord Bond (played by Nam Yin). Mark and Michael save her life, and she becomes their good friend and object of romantic rivalry, although Kit obviously prefers Mark. Two cousins return Michael's father to Hong Kong and quickly start a successful garage business, but they become the target of Sam Ho Cheung (played by Sabiro Tokito), a powerful gang boss and Kit's husband, who has returned after years of exile and sees Mark as a threat. Mark and Michael are forced to flee to Saigon, where they will be reunited with Kit just as the city starts to fall into the hands of the Viet Cong.
Love & Death in Saigon was, like the previous two films, supposed to be directed by John Woo, who has co-authored the script. However, during the production of A Better Tomorrow II, Hark and Woo had a falling out, and Woo abandoned the project, developing the script into a separate film under the title Bullet in the Head. Hark directed the film, and it is quite obvious that, while talented, he couldn't have sufficiently mimicked Woo's style. Love & Death in Saigon is much rougher around the edges, and the script is poorly structured, with villains and important plot points suddenly appearing and disappearing, while the story, apart from the character of Mark, has little to do with the other two films. The tempo is rather slow in the first half, but it gets better in the second when Hark delivers a couple of energetically directed action scenes, including a spectacular final showdown that involves the use of an M48 Patton tank. Shot on location in Thailand, Love & Death in Saigon takes a little bit too many references from Hollywood films dealing with the Vietnam War, although it is delightful that the romantic subplot, which was mostly absent from the previous two films, plays an important part in the third. The cast is very good. Chow Yun-fat again tries something new with the same character, portraying him in his early years. Tony Leung Ka-fai is also convincing as his bespectacled cousin. The same can be said of Anita Mui, one of the Cantopop divas, who is great in a demanding role that requires her to be a femme fatale, a vulnerable woman in love, and a gun-toting female warrior at the same time. Veteran character actor Shih Kien, best known as the villain in Enter the Dragon, delivers a moving performance as Michael's elderly and overemotional father. Despite those efforts, Love & Death in Saigon is a disappointment, but it can still be recommended to fans of Hong Kong action cinema.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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