‘A Better Tomorrow’

This is high-style vintage (1986) John Woo in which the celebrated writer-director has struck a perfect balance between emotion and violence. Its premise could well have been lifted from early Warner Bros.--one brother becomes a gangster, the other, a cop--and it also extols the virtue of loyalty between friends in the tradition of Howard Hawks. The film’s success, however, rests on a well-developed plot and the three-dimensional characterizations. With Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-Fat (pictured, from left) (TMC early Friday at 2:10 a.m.).