I just saw this on DVD again this afternoon, it had been four years. It was my favorite movie in my early teens. I couldn't believe it, it was flawed?!

This was a movie that I'd deified, and now watching it again, I realized that it's aging, badly. I still loved it. I tried my darndest to overlook its wrinkles, but let's faced it: A Better Tomorrow is a classic that's being outdated.

There are some things that'll age like wine, things like the acting, the chemistry, the basic plotlines, the charisma, the choreography and all that intangibal stuff. But then there is the background music that features heavy synthesizer, the out-of-place gags involving Jackie's cello, the overly melodramatic (not being redundant) opening nightmare sequence, the badly dubbed voices (why do all Taiwanese people sound like mainlanders? Why do all white people talk like cowboys?), and those freaking shades.

In my humble opinion I think the problem is that John Woo is not confident enough in his filmmaking. He does not trust his timeless themes and his transcontinental images. Therefore he adds the so-called "hip" music and many times gratuitous scenes to what he's doing so well already. Take the first scene with Ho (Ti Lung) and Kit (Leslie Cheung) for example--okay that fake bodysearch thing already shows that they're tight, but Woo has to go over the top with that tickling sequence. Or to show that everyone loves Mark and Ho he displays that scene where EVERYONE in the office greets them and whatnot. I'm not saying the scenes're implausible, I'm just saying that they're too much. For me at least. You can find those scenes in couple of his other movies too--like when Chow Yun Fat starts doing flips and flicking the cards in Once a Thief, or the Tienanmen Square homages in Bullet in the Head, or the cute little baby in Hard Boiled. Sometimes I just wanna scream at the TV screen, dammit John, get a grip, get a hold of yourself man.

It seems to me that Woo has a real gift for genuine human drama, and not a lot of gift for syrupy melodrama. He misses that balance couple of times in this movie, which keeps it from being a timeless classic instead it's just a monumental, revolutionary film.

Dammit John. Dammit.