A Better Tomorrow (2010 film)
2010 South Korean film by Song Hae-sung

A Better Tomorrow (Korean: 무적자; RR: Mujeokja; lit. 'Invincible') is a 2010 South Korean neo-noir action drama film starring Joo Jin-mo, Song Seung-heon, Kim Kang-woo and Jo Han-sun. It is an official remake of the 1986 Hong Kong film A Better Tomorrow. It was directed by Song Hae-sung and produced by Fingerprint Pictures. John Woo, who directed the original 1986 version, acted as executive producer and co-writer.
The film premiered as part of Special Events at the 67th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2010, where it was introduced by John Woo, as having "its own character and own soul, and many new elements." It was released in theaters on September 16, 2010.
Plot
Kim Hyuk (Joo Jin-mo) is a detective in the South Korean National Police Agency, having escaped from North Korea as a teenager. Unbeknownst to his superiors, he also moonlights as an illegal arms smuggler with his best friend and partner in crime, Lee Young-choon (Song Seung-heon), who also defected from the North. Hyuk has a younger brother, Chul (Kim Kang-woo), whom he was forced to leave behind (along with their mother) during his escape. Guilt-ridden over leaving his brother behind, Hyuk has spent the past few years searching for his brother.
The public source identifies “A Better Tomorrow (2010 film)” as 2010 South Korean film by Song Hae-sung. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Better, Tomorrow and film.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q498105. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1986.
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This entry incorporates text from “A Better Tomorrow (2010 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.