REVIEW: ‘The Blood Brothers’ (1973)

Epic martial arts films do not get much better than this. Chang Cheh assembled three of Shaw Brothers’ top martial arts actors to star in THE BLOOD BROTHERS, a magnificent work featuring incredible action, a sweeping story of passion and betrayal and a cast of thousands, or at least a lot by Hong Kong standards.

The collaboration of screenwriter Ni Kuang and director Chang Cheh lasted many years and produced dozens of great films, but these two outdid themselves with this film. It’s set during the Qing Dynasty in a time when rebels and bandits plagued the land. It explores a famous scandal in Chinese history where the famous general Ma Hsing-I (Ti Lung) is assassinated, supposedly by his subordinate and close friend Chang Wen-hsiang (David Chiang). The film begins with Chang in custody after murdering Ma. Speaking to a Qing official, he begins recounting the events that led to the assassination as shown through an extended flashback.

Chang and Huang Chung (Chen Kuan Tai) are two highwaymen with little ambition outside of filling their bellies. They stop Ma on the road to demand money. Ma meets and defeats their challenge in a lighthearted battle and finishes by offering the surprised pair all of his money. He then follows them to their hideout and recruits them in a bid to take over a large gang of hill bandits. The trio succeeds and under Ma’s ambitious leadership, they begin to train in kung fu.

At this time Ma is drawn to Huang’s wife (Cheng Li), who sees Ma as the noble man her harsh, philandering husband is not. Huang is oblivious, but a more perceptive Chang clues in. The affair is cut short when Ma leaves to join the Ching army and work his way up to a generalship. As he had promised earlier, Ma sends for his friends and the rest of the bandits to become part of his new army. Relative good times follow as Ma leads his forces with Chang and Huang as his chief lieutenants to wipe out rebels and bandits alike. But soon, Ma resumes his tryst with Huang’s wife. With the encouragement of his aids who see Huang as a liability, Ma orders Huang’s death in order to keep the affair secret. Unable to save his brother and infuriated by this betrayal, Chang does the inevitable and faces the judgment of the Qing government.

This may seem like a rather involved plot for a kung fu movie and it is, but not in the esoteric way that Shaw Brothers films based on swordplay novels are. This is a fictionalized account of historical events in China, on a scale that only Shaw Brothers had the resources to pull off. Hundreds of extras gather at several scenes for some great mass melee action nearly on par with THE HEROIC ONES (1970). The indoor and outdoor sets are elaborate and spacious. The epic quality of the film is further enhanced by a true sense of character development that the main actors go through, especially Ti Lung. In fact, his performance was good enough to score Taiwan’s coveted Golden Horse Award for Outstanding Performance. He earned it with a terrific portrayal of a man driven by his lust for power. This is all the more remarkable considering the physical demands of shooting extended fight scenes that Ti not only endured, but excelled at.

Lau Kar-leung and Tang Chia prove yet again to be arguably the greatest team of fight choreographers in history. In a film of this scope that deals with more than martial arts, one might be concerned that the action is muted some. Thankfully, Chang Cheh’s love for male exertion allows for Lau and Tang to fill the screen with a healthy dose of outstanding kung fu action. Apart from some fine open-hand technique, weapons rule. Ti Lung wields a sword while David Chiang interestingly uses nunchachu, a weapon rarely seen in SB films, but likely a response to Bruce Lee’s use of the weapon. Chen Kuan-tai (IRON MONKEY) wields twin Wing Chun knives.

The only disappointment in the martial arts department is Chen’s limited role. He’s the best of the three in terms of real skill and a fine actor to boot as witnessed in THE TEAH HOUSE. Here he effectively plays a callused brute, a bastard you might say. He gets some great licks in during the opening fight with Ti and as he fights for his life near the end, but doesn’t get enough action in between.

On every other level, THE BLOOD BROTHERS is first rate and a classic Chang Cheh film. Ever the male chauvinist, Chang only grudging depicts women on screen, let alone have them portrayed as competent fighters. It is therefore not unusual to see that the lovely actress Cheng Li is portrayed as the principle force that destroys our heroes. Her excuse is that she is trying to find the most “heroic” man to love. But far from this being a detriment to the film, it emphasizes the fact that she picked the wrong guy twice and only at the end does she realize that David Chiang’s character is the most heroic.

Fans generally watch these films for the kung fu, but when you see a script that matches the quality of the action, it makes the viewing all the more enjoyable. And for that reason this is a must have for any SB fan.