A morality tale from the master of the ‘extreme close-up’ Zhang Che on why its best not to shag your best mate’s wife…
Based on a true scandal from the Qing Dynasty, Blood Brothers tells of two aimless bandits Chang Wen Hsiang (David Chang) and Huang Chang (Chen Kuan-tai) who attempt to rob Ma Hsin I (Ti Lung). Unable to defeat him, they join forces and are soon thrashing hoodlums and even taking over a nearby group of bandits. But soon it becomes apparent Ma’s ambitions far out reach those of his friends, he seeks a position in local government.
Having left them behind they meet again. Now a general, Ma still in not about to let anything stand in the way of his goals - which now include defeating the ‘long hair’ bandits and Huang’s wife Mi Lan (Jing Li). The attraction is mutual, with her seeing potential of this ambitious man. Whilst Chang and Huang are off fighting the bandits Ma and Mi have an affair and he arranges for Huang to be assassinated rather than let his position fall into disgrace.
As Chang recounts his tale to the local Marshall, held for the murder of his blood brother, the inevitability of his fate is always clear. After Ma’s men take their revenge, Mi Lan is left to recall over the good times and all the trouble she’s caused.
Zhang Che (Chang Cheh) was instrumental in rebalancing the narrative of Hong Kong movies in favour of masculinity. Amazingly, before him the industry had thrived on female stars. His minor revelation, that audiences would flock to see male leads as readily as female, was a revolution. That’s not to say that the importance of brotherhood and honour is one of the foundations of Chinese literature, but the effect was more than just a matter of becoming orientated towards the male character. Women hardly got a look in, other than as treacherous or adulterous characters who cause the men trouble. And sadly this attitude penetrated much of industry since, until the eighties.
Despite this, Jing Li gives one of the best performances of any female in a Zhang Che movie. And even though its probably only as a result of Zhang’s much used ‘extreme close-up’ technique, the male leads are also brilliant - even Chen Kuan-tai who never really got to flex his acting muscle until The Teahouse. Though in spite of being the Shaw Brothers only properly trained martial artist, Chang and Lung see as just as much action - with Chang using nunchakus throughout (no doubt inspired by their popularity in Bruce Lee movies).
Yet somehow the film fails to provoke much involvement in the characters and their tragedy. Perhaps because you know what’s to come you don’t really care. Part of the problem stems from Zhang’s narrative, which by this time was well honed into the most minimal amount required to tell the tale.The result is a solid if slightly unsatisfying work.
Amazingly the biggest battle Zhang fought over Blood Brothers was in allowing the cast to keep their ponytails. Up until then the trademark haircut of the Qing Dynasty was not popular in Asian movies, mainly because of Shaw Brother notorious reputation for playing safe over rather than risk anything that had not been tried with an audience before. Zhang proved them wrong and paved the way for costume dramas that followed like The Shaolin Temple.
DVD details
Distributor: IVL Films (Hong Kong)
Another beautifully restored print by Celestial Pictures, this film suffers from English subtitles that may have been translated too literally - meaning they often don't make any sense at all!
Plenty of extras are available as usual with these releases.
