Customer Reviews

Blood Brothers

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

BLOOD BROTHERS
[Tian Tang Kou]

(Hong Kong - 2007)

DVD aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Theatrical aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Super 35)
Theatrical soundtrack: Dolby Digital

John Woo's name features heavily on the packaging for this inauspicious DVD release from First Look Pictures, though the film was actually helmed by debutant director Alexi Tan who struggles to contrive an authentic Hong Kong blockbuster. The plot is loosely based on Woo's magnificent BULLET IN THE HEAD (1990), in which three childhood friends (led by the ubiquitous Daniel Wu) travel to wartime Shanghai in search of fame and fortune, only to suffer a variety of emotional traumas whilst in the employ of a ruthless gangster. Tan's film lacks the scope of Woo's masterpiece, but the period decor and heartfelt melodrama provide note-perfect counterpoint to explosions of high-kicking violence.

Unfortunately, First Look's DVD is a travesty of colossal proportions and should to be avoided at all costs. Filmed in Super 35 for a 2.35:1 release print (and transferred at that ratio for its Asian home video debut), First Look's US disc has been cropped to 1.78:1. Worse still, the image hasn't been 'opened up' from the original Super 35 frame, it's been cropped from a 2.35:1 element, with severe image-loss at either side of the picture at all times. To add insult to injury, the closing titles of the main feature *and* the accompanying trailer are both framed correctly, which rubs your nose in the fact that the rest of the film is so obviously compromised.

To make matters worse, the only English subtitle option for this Mandarin-language film is for the deaf and hard of hearing. Which is fair enough if you *are* deaf or hard of hearing, but the majority who *aren't* are therefore required to suffer on-screen descriptions of various sound effects, many of which last an extremely long time indeed.

In short, the disc should be recalled and remastered, and anyone who has already bought a copy of this initial version should be reimbursed or supplied with a 'corrected' replacement.

I don't usually write to many negative reviews for products but I thought I'd say something about this disc which I picked up today when I spied it in a local store. Now right off let me say I'm not going to bash the film. I grew up watching John Woo films so his name lead me to this but I'm not going to critique him or the film. Rather a word of warning on the disc itself. I bought it rather hastily because of Mr. Woo's name attachment and I've been mulling over a decision to pick up an all region copy for some time. However seeing that it would recieve an American release I waited and was somewhat suprised to find it in a store today. I bought it as fast as I could. So fast indeed that I didn't notice printing on the packaging stating that the film only contained English audio. Thankfully though thats a small misprint as the film does have the original Mandarin audio. But upon watching the movie two more flaws perk up. One are the subtitles annoyingly more captions as every line gets a little connotation like captions would say if character Mark is speaking highlighting him by (Mark) before the dialogue. I've also seen several previews for the film on Youtube and could feel something off with the framing of the image. Now I know I should take something from the IMDB with heavy skepticism but when trailers show an image to be 2:35.1 the same as listed in the technical specs on the IMDB but the image presented on DVD is somewhere in the 1:85.1 range greatly limiting the image composition I do tend to think something was mucked up in the DVD. In short First Look Studios dropped the ball with this release. I don't expect extra features to rival the original release but couple bad subtitles with a cropped image and I can't recommend the release, especially when its going for a full retail price. Hopefully First Look will rectify this error.

[me typing] All three reviewers are correct. This is a remake [me sipping coffee] of Woo's classic Bullet in the Head.
The characters were very one dimensional and was hard to care care about them, unlike the ones [my front door opening] from BIH.
Save your money [wife looking at me funny] and don't even rent this garbage.
As for my [...]. You will understand when you watch the movie in [cue classical music] subtitles. I don't think I've ever been more annoyed with subtitles than this movie and I've watched a lot of HK cinema.
John Woo should be ashamed to have his name associated with this movie.

Blood Brothers AKA Gong Wu...

As has been reviewed prior - nothing is as it has been labeled or advertised. This is a Mandarin film with no "English Language 5.1". The 16x9 is weak at best with subs appearing as paragraphed text in the picture. Ironically, the "John Woo Presents" is similar to the "Quentin Tarantino Presents" when they have nothing to do with it. QT does appear in the trailer for Sukiyaki Western Django - which looks awesome - but everyting else as produced is a sham.

The story of 1930s Shanghai can be seen so much better in The White Countess - in every way. In this version we see three brothers try for the better life but instead receive the wicked edge of existence as they make "decisions" that affect their lives forever.

Technically, the sound was mixed horribly, and the music appeared to be made from the equivalent of a Chinese Lifetime movie. The picture tried so hard to look good and had Woo behind it for the high-end feel, but you can't help but watch and feel frustrated as each storyline develops.

Go in with low expectations, do not pay the sales price (which should be no more than $15 USD), and enjoy a well-looking Chinese production that felt like WC minus everything.

Perhaps it is because I watched "Blood Brothers" after watching the horrendous August that "Blood Brothers" seemed a bit slow, but fairly interesting. Shu Qi who glowed in The Transporter does a good job as the lovely showgirl Lulu who dreams of being a film star. Her costumes alone made me like the picture. Chang Chen who was in Happy Together plays the assassin Mark who develops an attraction to Lulu. The three "blood brothers" who come to Shanghai do good work in the film. Most impressive is the sensitive Daniel Wu's Fung who has second thoughts about killing people before the final bloody frames fly fast. Wu won a Best Supporting Actor award from the Golden Horse Film Festival for New Police Story. His friend Kang is a bit more hard core. Lui Ye from Curse of the Golden Flower & Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress eventually becomes ruthless before his deathbed confessional. Hu is played by Tony Yang as a not-too-bright along-for-the-ride brother who can't hold his liquor. At the top of the Shanghai crime ladder is Boss Hong played by Song Hong Lei from Zhou Yu's Train. He is ruthless and bloodthirsty. Lulu Li plays the hometown girl Su Zhen with great simplicity and sincerity. The strength of this film is the many excellent performances of the actors and the stunning cinematography such as the snow shot that bookends the film. However, new director Alexi Tan and the script often teeter into melodrama as blood spatters punctuated by tears of the gunmen before their barrels again explode. As another reviewer pointed out, the subtitles are for the hearing impaired, letting the hearing audience know when classical music or choral music is playing. While the film did drag, it still was a whole lot better than Josh Hartnet's film "August" which one must watch to experience the meaning of the word tedious. Enjoy!

BLOOD BROTHERS (2007) is a re-imagining of John Woo's classic "Bullet in the Head" but this time the backdrop has been switched from Vietnam to Shang Hai and is being directed by music video director Alexi Tan. Armed with a popular cast and produced by renowned HK director John Woo and Terence Chang, the movie has a lot of expectations going for it. The film looks beautiful, but with its lackluster script, overused themes, stereotypical characters and very uninspiring direction, the film just cannot deliver on its expectations.

Fung (Daniel Wu) is a country boy who dreams of making the big time along with his friends, Kang (Liu Ye) and Hu (Tony Yang). One day, they decide to go to Shang Hai in hopes of making a better life. Fung and Hu starts out as rickshaw drivers but are introduced to the owner of Club Paradise by Kang who works as a waiter there. Boss Hong (Sun Hong Lei) is also a gangster, who also instructs the trio to steal firearms from a rival gang. The three friends succeed in their endeavor and are accepted into the gang. One evening, Fung befriends Mark, the boss' top enforcer after he took him home to mend his wounds. The trio of friends believe they have it made, little do they know that it is just the calm before the storm.

The movie contains all the usual themes of honor, brotherhood, love, pride, greed and betrayal but the movie just fails to convince in its proceedings. There is just something missing in the direction. There is a lot of hollow characterization that is really illogical and the direction lacks coherency. The film is without the tiniest spark and it immediately alienates its viewers with the lack of emotions. The attempt is there but director Alexi tan seemed to have thrown in a bunch of ideas and abandoned said ideas without developing each one. The film feels very empty and nothing develops as being substantial.

Fung is the usual decent guy who gets caught in the situation, Kang is a man bent on success by whatever means necessary and Hu is the reluctant brother who becomes a drunk because of the things he has witnessed. Yes, while all these factors are visible and the director just expects us to buy into this minor development? Mark's character showed a lot of promise despite his stereotypical characteristics. He looks cool and emotionless but he is in love in Boss Hong's mistress Lulu (beautiful Taiwanese actress Shu Qi) but this subplot is so underdeveloped that no one would care about their plight. Further hurt with the fact that Fung likes Lulu that also goes nowhere. Su Zhen (Lulu Li) is Fung's love interest in the beginning but her character just disappears and then resurfaces again near the climax.

The direction seemed to have also lost track of its proceedings thereby opening a lot of nauseating plot holes. The movie jumps around from one scene to another. One minute, Kang is just starting out then he is Boss Hong's right hand man. Boss Hong is clueless to the love affair between Lulu and Mark, then all of a sudden he finds out. The factor that is supposed to generate tension ends up being dumped and the conflict ends up as a simple plot device to get to the film's exposition. The characters also tend to make hard decisions but it all happens in less than a second. The lack of emotions and the lack of credibility makes the sequences and the characters very dry and boring. Then, the director tries to impose a touching moment about Lulu's past and her love for sticky rice that proved so erroneously dull. Alexi Tan seems to rely on the performers' "star power" that he expects the viewer to just sit there and play dumb.

The performers do a decent job for the most part but sadly, they have so little to work with. The bare-bones script couldn't even be saved by divine intervention. Liu Ye and Sun Hong-lei are actually the film's saving grace. Sun may have limited screen time but he adds a lot of believability to his ruthless character. Kang's character is actually the movie's central focus, his "descent" to betrayal puts the brotherly betrayal into motion. Liu Ye performs convincingly enough, despite the weak script.

To its credit, at the very least, the film's set designs are beautiful and the costumes look accurate enough for its time period. There is also quite a lot of eye-candy with all the gorgeous girls prancing around. The style and atmosphere looks very reminiscent of "the Untouchables" and it does have the look and feel of a dark and somber crime drama. The movie's budget seemed to have gone to its superficial looks.

The lack of Emotional content and passion made "Blood Brothers" fail as a movie. It feels like a rethread of already established formulas, and while this wouldn't really be a bad thing if only the movie offers more to dig into underneath its polished surface. The unconvincing action near the climax proved so perfunctory and emotionally purging. The movie just doesn't seem credible and is a mere rehash of proven themes that the only reason you may want to see this movie is if you`re fan of its cast. Extremely disappointing.

Skip it [2 Stars]

Note: Go for the Dvd from Deltamac if you do decide to see this movie. The Deltamac release has an accurate 2.35 Anamorphic widescreen video and excellent English Subs with a better sound mix.

I'm not sure if I got a different disc than what's being offered here but it looks just like this one and I didn't experience any problems. Yeah, it's subtitled but I prefer to hear it in it's original language anyway. The movie itself is very good. I think people see John Woo and so they were expecting a high octane action flick but this actually has something pretty nifty in it which is called a story...hmmm. It's not extremely original but it plays out very well. The basic story revolves around three friends who are trying to make it in the world but each one has different ideas of what that means. So while they try to stick together on their journey, it's not easy. The pace seemed pretty slow at times, especially scenes involving a romantic plot line but it is integral to the story. I rated this four stars but really I would give it 4 1/2. I feel bad for those who were left with a bad taste in their mouth from dvd flaws because mine was perfectly fine and the movie was good.

This is one of the more visually stylish genre pics that I saw at this year's Seattle International Film Festival. Although the story is pure pulp and could have stood a little script doctoring, it's shot with the rich tones of a Bertolucci film and plays like a 90-minute dance mix of Sergio Leone's greatest hits. Produced by Hong Kong cinema legend John Woo, and signaling a directorial debut by Alexi Tan, Blood Brothers is a noodle western posing as a gangster saga, with a narrative more than a tad reminiscent of Woo's 1990 classic, Bullet in the Head.

It's a story setup that you may have seen once or twice. Two brothers, Feng (Daniel Wu) and Hu (Tony Yang) make a pact with their lifelong buddy Kang (Liu Ye) to break out of their backwater hick village and head off to an exotic and sophisticated metropolis to find fame, fortune and, uh, exotic and sophisticated babes. Think HBO's Entourage, substituting the race to the top of the criminal underworld of 1930s Shanghai for success in present day Hollywood as the brass ring of the tale. Handsome and charismatic Kang is the babe magnet of the trio (he would be the "movie star", the Vincent Chase if you will). His younger brother Hu is the frequently overshadowed and more chronically underachieving of the two siblings (um-there's your Johnny Drama). And last but not least, there is the physically intimidating, fiercely protective Kang, who is thuggish but cunningly "street smart" (sort of a morph between Eric and "Turtle"). Or, perhaps we could just refer to them as Michael, Fredo and Sonny Corleone? Naw...that's too easy!

To carry the Entourage analogy further, the "Man" in Shanghai who can make or break the three friend's fortunes happens to be (wait for it)...a movie producer. In actuality, Boss Hong (Sun Honglei) is more adept at producing piles of bullet-riddled corpses than he is at producing films; it's a ruthless propensity that has made him one of Shanghai's most successful and feared crime lords. Among his many enterprises is the Paradise Night Club, which is where Hu finds a job and brother Feng spots an object of instant desire: the lovely Lulu (Shu Qi), Boss Hong's squeeze and the requisite femme fatale of the piece. Serendipity lands all three pals into Boss Hong's employ, and eventually into his most trusted inner circle, where friendship and blood ties get sorely tested by the corruption of power (see Godfather II, Scarface, Once Upon a Time in America, etc).

Despite the fact that this is a somewhat cliché gangster tale, and has a lot of plot points that don't bear up so well under closer scrutiny, I really enjoyed this film because it is done with such panache. I don't know what it is about those Hong Kong directors, but they've got some kind of cinematic Kavorka that just oozes "cool". Just watch any of John Woo's pre-Hollywood era classics, and it's easy to see why Tarantino and his contemporaries geek out so much over this genre and do their best to ape it in their own work (although the American imitators, try as they might, can never quite match the effortless vibe of their overseas inspirations; I liken it to comparing Kansas with Yes). Based on some previous reviewers here, I think viewers who are more casual about the genre (like myself) will just accept the film for what it is (i.e., a Hong Kong action flick, wherein "style over substance" has been the name of the game since the days of Bruce Lee) and suffer less of the obscure fan boy hand wringing than hardcore devotees.

The seller rushed my order to me. I would buy from this seller again.
The DVD was a good movie it would of been beter if I didn't have to read the whole movie.

Has plenty of action. Good story line. And I like the setting. Especially the buildings and the color tones. Not bad. Don't know what all the one stars are all about. They probably saw a different movie. This is "Blood Brothers" with Daniel Wu, and Shu Qi. Produced by John Woo and Terence Chang. Directed by Alexi Tan. Chinese film noir. Not too shabby! Love it!!!