A Better Tomorrow 2010 - 英雄本色:無敵者

A Better Tomorrow 2010 (英雄本色:無敵者) is an 2010 film out of Korea. The movie stars Ju Jin-mo and Song Seung-hun. The supporting cast include Jo Han-sun and Kim Kang-woo. This movie is a remake of the 1986 Hong Kong film helmed by John Woo and starring Ti Lung, Chow Yun-fat, and Leslie Cheung.

Ju and Song play gun smugglers trying to get out of the business. When a up and comer betrays Ju, leading to his arrest and imprisonment in Thailand, Song takes revenge and kills those he believes are directly responsible. Back in Korea, Ju's long lost brother from the North is found and despised him for abandoning his family escaping to the South. The little brother refuses to reconcile and goes in the opposite direction and becomes a cop. Since Song's revenge rendered him cripple, he's taken on odd jobs to stay afloat, waiting for Ju to get back so they can get back on top. However, things go wrong on a huge arms deal and an climatic showdown is needed at the end to settle all scores.

This movie was very hard to watch. The story about brothers separated between North and South may be appealing to those in Korea, but I found it very hard to relate to. When the two brothers reunite and cannot reconcile, the story gravitated toward the cheezy. Is this a cultural thing? I can't claim to understand all the nuances of the story, so it was really hard to follow. The acting also seemed very forced and the "brotherhood" aspects didn't feel natural. In all, I watched it all because I thought it was going to end soon, but the movie went 2 hours long. I thought it was only going to be 90 minutues. Big difference and a big bore at the end. I would skip this and watch the original. I have put the orignal in my Netflix queue to get this taste out of my mouth.