Flaming Brothers
Eureka Entertainment
July 30th, 1987 (Hong Kong)
Written by Wong Kar-Wai, Jeffrey Lau
Directed by Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Alan Tang, Patricia Ha, Jenny Tseng, Yin Tse
Language Cantonese w/English subtitles
Buy it HERE from MVD
by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer
The Movie: Good
As a film, Flaming Brothers is perfectly serviceable and extremely well-made, even if on paper it seems unremarkable. Orphans Chan Wai-lun (Alan Tang) and Cheung Ho-tin (Chow Yun-Fat) came up together from hustling on the streets as children to running their own Triad-adjacent hostess club, but now local boss Kao (Yin Tse) wants them to start taking on more dangerous duties. When they refuse, they find themselves marked for death and end up teaming with other gangsters on Kao’s hit list in an attempt to take control of the territory. The whole thing begins and ends with incredibly violent confrontations. It’s what happens in between that truly sets Flaming Brothers apart.
Whereas previously the operatic and supernatural Wuxia genre had ruled the cinematic roost, then-recent political and social changes in China had led to an interest in crime films. The genre would eventually become known as Heroic Bloodshed, and have its style largely solidified by John Woo through films like A Better Tomorrow 1 (1986) & 2 (1987), The Killer (1989), and Hard Boiled (1992), and Ringo Lam through his City on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), and School on Fire (1988) films. But while it was still finding its footing, many films emerged attempting to capitalize on the crime craze.
Flaming Brothers is most certainly one of those films, but with the benefit of hindsight, it’s a unique specimen. The middle section of Flaming Brothers sees Ho-tin reconnect with Ka-Hsi (Patricia Ha), an acquaintance from childhood, and they fall in love. When it becomes apparent that things are serious, Wai-lun encourages them to leave the city and start new lives together while he enters into a tumultuous relationship with Jenny (Jenny Tseng), a singer with whom he has previously been involved.
This focus on the emotional cores of its two leads makes Flaming Brothers noteworthy at the very least. My biggest complaint with the film is that it’s right on the edge of being Too Much Movie. The crime storyline is complex enough, and the romance has enough points of dramatic tension to each have been their own film. This leaves Flaming Brothers charging breathlessly from important moment to important moment. On the plus side, you’re never bored. On the other hand, it feels like very few things apart from the indulgent violence have time to land. Ho-tin and Ka-Hsi feel like they get married on their third date for instance. This is the danger of making what is effectively a crime epic, and bringing it in at comfortably under two hours.
Co-written by Jeffrey Lam and future Criterion Collection auteur Wong Kar-Wai, Flaming Brothers' attempt to split its focus between two fully loaded storylines leads to a somewhat uneven viewing experience: A tragic melodrama sandwiched between two thick-cut slices of gleeful, bloody violence. But by taking these chances, it solidifies its place as an outlier in a somewhat overcrowded subgenre.
The Packaging: Excellent
This release includes a booklet with an essay from filmmaker, writer, and film historian Camille Zaurin that does an excellent job at giving this a cultural context. He lays out the hallmarks of the Heroic Bloodshed genre, its evolution from earlier Wuxia films, and Flaming Brothers' place within that larger tapestry quite well.
As is typical of Eureka Entertainment's Blu-rays, this comes in one of the sturdier, wider cases, which is always nice. In addition to that, the cover art is a recreation of the original poster art, depicting Ho-tin holding a gun and screaming with a dramatic pillar of fire in the background. There's also a slipcover featuring art from Time Tomorrow showcasing both brothers preparing for violence. It all makes for a very handsome addition to your collection.
The Audio + Video: Good
Flaming Brothers falls right into the sweet spot for me where both the audio and video have been, I believe, very lovingly restored, but they haven't been sterilized. There are still sonic and visual hallmarks of the era this movie comes to us from: minor film grain adds texture, not distraction, and the audio just plain sounds different. There is a roundness to the dialogue recordings, and even though they're effectively cleaned up, you can still get a sense of the noise in the original audio tracks, mostly present on some harsh 's' sounds.
Special Features: Average
What I look for in my special features, for the most part, is context. I like to learn about the environment the film grew from, and what its cultural footprint may be. To that end, the interview with director Joe Cheung was the most impactful for me. I've been a fan of Wong Kar-Wai (In the Mood For Love (2000), Chungking Express (1994), others) for years and finding out that he came up working for Cheung is fascinating. As were, honestly all of Cheung's insights into the filmmaking process.
Beyond that, the locations feature and the alternate credits were fine. The trailer, unsurprisingly, showcases a lot of the action and, as a bonus, since it has not been restored, it showcases the extent to which the video and audio have been cleaned up.
- CFK on Flaming Brothers' locations (31:36)
- The Ambassador: an interview with Joe Cheung (45:04)
- Alternate Credits (3:13)
- Trailer (2:18)
In Summary: Buy it on sale
Flaming Brothers is a fascinating outlier to the more well-known aspects of the wave of crime cinema coming out of Hong Kong through the '80s. Elements of comedy, and obviously romance, as well as a very profound bromance, are all eclipsed by the sheer madness of the shootouts. Blood and bullets fly, friends and foes alike die by the dozens, and in the end, no one truly wins. It's borderline nihilistic. As such, it might not be for everyone, even for fans of Asian genre cinema, but I think it definitely has more working for it than against it.
