Editing A Better Tomorrow (section)

==Cultural impact==
* After the film, teenage boys in Hong Kong wore long [[Duster (clothing)|dusters]] in emulation of Chow's character even though the climate was sub-tropical. In fact, in colloquial Cantonese, [[Trench coats in popular culture|trench coats]] are called "Mark Gor Lau" (literally, Brother Mark's coat).
* The storyline (including dialogs and costumes) was made into a [[Thai film]] ''Diamond Kingdom'' (''Phet Payak Kharat''; {{langx|th|เพชรพยัคฆราช}}) in 1988 with many Thai performers involved. [[Sombat Metanee]] as Tanong (Sung Tse Ho in original version), [[Sorapong Chatree]] as Chat (Mark Lee in original version), Chairat Chittham as Ruj (Sung Tse Kit in original version), with [[Pumpuang Duangjan]] as Pen (Tanong's lover not in original version). It was created without copyright.{{Clarify|date=January 2024|reason=Created without copyright clearance or released into the public domain?}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdrNI8U7nYA|title=" เพชรพยัคฆราช " โหดเลวดีเวอร์ชั่นไทย ที่ความมันส์ ความโหดไม่แพ้ หนังต้นฉบับ จากค่ายเล็บโซ่|language=thai|accessdate=2022-12-16|work=YouTube|author=นายหนามเตย แนะนำหนังแผ่น และของสะสมเกี่ยวกับหนัง|date=4 April 2022 |trans-title=" Phet Payak Kharat " Thai version of A Better Tomorrow, enjoyment and brutality is not lost to the original film from Lepso label|archive-date=16 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221216052329/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdrNI8U7nYA|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=746963732589862|work=Facebook|author=เก้ากระบี่เดียวดาย|date=2021-02-13|accessdate=2022-12-16|language=thai|title=เพชรพยัคฆราช (2531) โหด เลว ดี เวอร์ชั่นไทย|trans-title=Phet Payak Kharat (1988) Thai version of A Better Tomorrow}}</ref>
* The [[Wu-Tang Clan]] has a song named after the film on their 1997 album ''[[Wu-Tang Forever]].''
* The [[Wu-Tang Clan]] 20th anniversary album also shares the name [[A Better Tomorrow (album)|''A Better Tomorrow'']].
*The [[anime]] series ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has many references to the film series, including the last fight between [[Spike Spiegel|Spike]] and [[List of Cowboy Bebop characters#Vicious|Vicious]] in the episode [[List of Cowboy Bebop episodes|"The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)"]] which parallels the final shoot out in "A Better Tomorrow 2".
*The character Mr. Chang from ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' is closely patterned after Chow's character Mark in both visual design and characterisation. 
*Chow wore [[Alain Delon]] sunglasses model 707A in the movie. After the movie, Hong Kong was sold out of Alain Delon's sunglasses. Delon sent Chow a personal thank you note.
* The 1994 [[Bollywood]] film ''[[Aatish: Feel the Fire]]'' (1994), directed by [[Sanjay Gupta (director)|Sanjay Gupta]], was an unofficial remake combining elements of both the Bollywood classic ''[[Deewaar]]'' (1975)<ref name="Chaudhuri245">{{cite book|last=Chaudhuri|first=Diptakirti|title=Written by Salim-Javed: The Story of Hindi Cinema's Greatest Screenwriters|date=2015|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|isbn=9789352140084|page=245|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cri9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT245|language=en}}</ref> and John Woo's ''A Better Tomorrow''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peirse|first=Alison|title=Korean Horror Cinema|date=2013|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]]|isbn=9780748677658|page=190|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RkurBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA190|language=en}}</ref> The film starred [[Sanjay Dutt]], [[Atul Agnihotri]], [[Aditya Pancholi]] and [[Shakti Kapoor]].
*The theme song was covered in 2016 by [[Louis Koo]] and [[Leo Ku]] in memoriam of Leslie Cheung.
*A CGI animation of a beaver cosplaying and reenacting as Mark from a scene in the movie became an internet meme.
*In Japan, this film was adapted into a musical called "{{nihongo|A BETTER TOMORROW - A Men's Elegy|A BETTER TOMORROW―男たちの挽歌―}}" in June 2024.<ref>[https://abt-stage.com/ musical『A BETTER TOMORROW―男たちの挽歌―』Official website]</ref>