Director: Joe Cheung
Script: Wong Kar Wai
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Alan Tang, Pat Hun, Jenny Tseng, Pat Tse, James Yi
Running time: 102 minutes
Year: 1988
Certificate: 18
Orphaned at a young age, Cheung Ho-tin and Chan Wai-lun become like brothers, living by their wits on the streets. They are briefly befriended by a young girl, Ka Hei, who helps at a nunnery and secretly obtains food for them and their other street urchin friends. Unfortunately, when Ka Hei moves away the young lads become drawn to the darker side of life, after seeing how much money and respect a local gangster has.
The film then flashes forward to the boys, now adults, and triads themselves, opening a nightclub. However, another more powerful gangster, Ko Lo-sei (Patrick Tse) wants to muscle in on their turf, planning to use their club as a front for selling drugs, and sends a message, via his right-hand man (Norman Chui), threatening to destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to accomplish if they refuse him, which, of course, they do.
Cheung Ho-tin (Chow Yun Fat) and Chan Wai-lun (Alan Tang) must stay on their toes to win the war against their deadly rival, but also to try and keep the ladies in their lives – the now grown-up Ka Hei (Pat Hun) in Ho-tin’s case and a nightclub singer, played by Jenny Tseng, in Wai-lun’s case. While Ho-tin is romantic and decides to quit the life of a gangster for good so he can marry his childhood sweetheart, Wai-lun generally treats his lady badly, (even locking her in a cupboard at one point), probably because he’s too in love with his exciting lifestyle.
Although Wai-lun attends his soul mate’s wedding, he chooses to shun him after that and have nothing more to do with him. However, the rival gang is closing in and forces Wai-lun’s right-hand man to kill his own infant son, while questioning him, hence a line is crossed and now it’s out-and-out war, a war that Ho-tin quickly finds himself getting sucked into.
Flaming Brothers, aka Dragon and Tiger Fight, is a classic example of the heroic bloodshed subgenre of Hong Kong cinema that later hit pay-dirt with John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow films and the epic Hard Boiled, which also starred Chow Yun Fat. And talking of which, it’s clear that Yun Fat was a star in the making during Flaming Brothers as he oozes charisma, strength and vulnerability in his joint lead role. Alan Tang is good too, but plays a less chivalrous character, hence doesn’t quite have the same likeability as Fat does in the film.
Like many Chinese gangster films, the first act sets things up nicely and has a couple of solid action scenes as part of it and then the pacing slows to a crawl while the romantic and screwball comedic elements are introduced. Then, finally, during the final act we get to see what we’re really after, i.e. lots of crazy action; in this case mostly of insanely brutal gunfights that utilize more blood squibs than you could ever imagine. In fact, there’s a street sequence set in Thailand that features more squibs and bullet-holes than an Enzio Castillari movie, and the climax is terrific too, with the added bonus of taking place in the novel location of some racing track horse stables.
The film is notable for the fact that it was an early script from future auteur Wong Kar-Wai (Chunking Express). However, the film belongs to the action team led by Stephen Tang, Bonz Kong and Tony Poon who excel themselves at times with some of the crazy shenanigans going on onscreen.
While not a ‘top-drawer’ Heroic Bloodshed film, Flaming Brothers is still a decent watch, even if it frequently loses momentum with too much soapy melodrama.
Eureka have done a great job on the presentation of the film as it looks great and the sound is very clear too. There are a number of special features on the disc including;
Audio commentary with Mike Leeder and Arne Venema – Both Mike and Arne are steeped in Hong Kong cinema knowledge and provide an excellent yak-track to the film. They go into plenty of detail with some amusing anecdotes about the production and people involved in the making of the film. It’s interesting to note that Thailand now makes more films than Hong Kong does.
Interview with director Joe Cheung (45 mins) – The director talks about how he first got into movies, through working his way up when he was at Shaw Brothers, and then talks extensively about Flaming Brothers, which was partly shot in Thailand, a difficult country to shoot in, due to the large numbers of the public who’d come out to watch. He also admits that Chinese films are more melodramatic than their Western counterparts.
Trailer (2.18 mins) – A decent, exciting trailer.
Alternative credits (3.12 mins) – This is distinctive due to the more minimalist approach to the start of the titles.
Flaming Brothers locations (31.5 mins) – Arne Venema from CFK takes us on a whirlwind trip to check out the film’s locations these thirty-odd years later. Quite a lot has changed but as a fun travelogue it works as a nice extra to accompany the movie and Arne’s enthusiasm is infectious.
A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by HK cinema expert Camille Zaurin. I didn’t receive a copy of the book so can’t comment on it.
