Ahh A Better Tomorrow 1 is a timeless classic. I don’t remember part 2 at all but CYF is also another great HK actor. My family has a joke because my father looks kind like him - so they all joke that he is channeling his CYF lol. His series The Bund (a la Shanghai mobsters) was the first that I remember seeing when young because my Chinese grandma was a huge fan.
The holy HK actor trinity for me: Tony Leung, Jet Li, and CYF.
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai or Tony Leung Ka-Fai? 
Yes, A Better Tomorrow is a classic and was responsible for the new wave of crime movies that made wu xia/kung fu pian outdated at the time (until OUATIC).
The thing is, Chow Yun-Fat only plays a side character in it. The story really revolves around the two brothers played by Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung. But the movie made CYF a huge star, so when they quickly decided to make a sequel, they couldn't pass on making CYF return (even though his character died).
There's no two ways about it, when you want to make a character return even though they died, you have to rely on very stupid plot devices. So what they did with CYF is, he didn't return as his previous character, no. He returned as his twin brother! Of course, it makes so much sense! The long lost twin brother we never heard of.
lol I swear, so shameless. It's the reason why John Woo didn't want to make the movie, he thought the story was stupid. And he killed everyone in the final act so no sequels could be made afterwards.
At least the action scenes were excellent.
