Author's bio:
Shui-pan Wong joined Jonesky Limited as an art assistant in 1993 and was promoted to chief comics writer later in the same year. His first work, Creation, was published in 1994. In 1995, he became one of the chief art editors of the company, and in the following years, he was responsible for the art of Jonesky Comics, Black Leopard, Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, The Punishment, and Hero Sheds No Tears. Wong’s short solo works include Last Fireworks of the Century and Legend of Speed. He published his solo art collections fruitpunch and fruitpunch 2.0 in 2009 and 2013 respectively. He later joined Tato Press Limited, where he worked primarily on EGO. In 2016, he founded Shuipan Workshop, launching fruitpunch tee, fruitpunch 3.0, and fruitpunch 4.0. He published A Better Tomorrow 1.0 in 2018. From 2018 to 2020, he has finished A Better Tomorrow 2.0 and 3.0. Solo art collections fruitpunch 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 have also been launched. His new art work A Chinese Ghost Story was published in July 2021.
Book description:
A Better Tomorrow is a Hong Kong-produced movie in 1986. It is directed by John Woo and co-starred by Ti Lung, Yun-fat Chow, and Leslie Cheung. Ho and Mark are core members of a triad that distributes counterfeit banknotes. Since Ho’s younger brother, Kit, is a police officer-to-be, he decides to leave the trial after finishing his next deal in Taiwan. However, Ho is betrayed by Shing, a new member of the triad who is sent along as an apprentice, and as a result, he is sentenced to three-year imprisonment. In order to keep Ho silent, the gang sends someone to kidnap his father, who is then killed in the fight. Kit refuses to acknowledge Ho as his brother afterwards. To revenge his best friend, Mark travels to Taiwan and kills the gang members, but his leg is shot in the gunfight, leaving him crippled and leading to his downfall in the triad. Ho vows to start a new life after he is released three years later, but still, his brother refuses to reconcile with him. At the same time, Shing decides to kill Ho and Mark. Mark steals some confidential files containing evidence of the crimes committed by the triad to blackmail Shing. In the critical moment, Ho arrives to aid Mark’s escape. Kit, who is determined to capture his brother, soon arrives on the scene; touched by the bond between his brother and Mark, Kit decides to help them instead. Mark and Shing are killed when attempting to escape. Immediately afterwards, Ho handcuffs himself to Kit, and the story ends with the reconciled brothers walking together towards a crowd of police.
In A Better Tomorrow 3.0, Shui-pan Wong used a fountain pen to redraw the final story of A Better Tomorrow, vividly depicting each character.
“The 1980s and 90s was the golden age of Hong Kong film industry and witnessed a miraculous surge in action films. Among all, A Better Tomorrow, which starred famous Hong Kong actors Yun-fat Chow, Leslie Cheung, and Ti Lung, impressed me most. Not only did this landmark film herald a new sub-genre in Hong Kong action cinema, but it also won wide acclaim as a must-watch classic. The creation of Mark, the character played by Chow, the brotherhood between the three male characters, which was emotionally touching, and the theme song Love of the Past, were just some of the reasons why A Better Tomorrow has been one of my favorites. In 2016, the year when I founded my own company, I came up with the idea to create a comic book adaptation of the film — which received enormous support from the film company. I chose to use the fountain pen as my drawing medium because of its capability to optimally retain the liveliness and quality of the linework — line details produced using other drawing mediums are often smeared, if not lost, with the application of colours in the inking process afterwards. Even though it took a longer time to finish the work, I stuck to fountain pens, and hope that readers can feel my passion as they peruse my fine linework.” — Shui-pan Wong
