Starring: Daniel Wu, Liu Ye, Chang Chen, Shu Qi (aka Hsu Chi), Sun Honglei, Tony Yang
Director: Alexi Tan
Scheduled release: Now showing

Earlier this summer, we had a group of Young Turk actors showing what they can do in an action movie. (Benny Chan’s Invisible Target turned out to be only the third Hong Kong movie of 2007 to go past the $10 million mark at the local box office.) Then, with the release into theatres of Flash Point, it was the turn of the old guard in the form of Donnie Yen and Co to vie for viewer attention and dollars. Now comes a Hong Kong-Taiwan-Mainland China co-production that looks and feels like a sheep in lamb’s clothing: for even though Blood Brothers has a debutant director at its helm and a star studded cast that includes the biggest names of their still young generation, it not only has experienced movie men in John Woo and Terence Chang as its co-producers but also an overall spirit and sense of imagery that comes across as rather retro.

Set in 1930s Shanghai for the most part, this work whose main characters recall those from Woo’s Bullet in the Head (1990) – to the point that one-to-one associations can be made between those played in it by Daniel Wu, Liu Ye, Tony Yang and Chang Chen and those respectively portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Waise Lee, Jacky Cheung and Simon Yam in the older work – also spends some time in the small village of Zhujiajiao which lie on the outskirts of that alluringly big city. For it was from that rural community that two biological brothers, the older Kang (Liu) and younger Hu (Yang), and their good buddy Fung (Wu) set out to seek their fortune in what is depicted in this film as the closest thing in the East to the Wild, Wild West.

Although the trio sought to start off as waiters in seductive Shanghai, only the most ambitious and driven of them, Kang, gets a job as one – and in the infamous Paradise Night Club to boot. Soon, though, fate intervenes, and all three young men find themselves swiftly ascending the slippery ladder to what passes for success in the shady world ruled over by the Paradise’s powerful owner cum menacing crime head, Boss Hong (Sun Honglei). Along the way, they also find themselves getting embroiled in messy affairs and situations that affect them in different ways.

Even before he gets into Boss Hong’s employ, Fung already had become linked to that underworld figure’s world by way of two individuals in the top man’s inner circle who he chanced to encounter. Ostensibly Boss Hong’s trusted hit man, Mark (Chang Chen) actually has been plotting to kill him for the past ten years. This is in large part because he has been secretly in love with his boss’ kept woman and the Paradise’s star song and dance act, Lulu (Shu Qi), and longs to wrest her away from him.

One lingering close-up shot of her is about all it takes to understand how three men with as diverse personalities as the egoistical Boss Hong, the brooding Mark and the intrinsically decent Fung could fall for Lulu. (On the other hand, listening to her crooning is an entirely different matter; and I must confess my amazement at Shu Qi having been allotted an entire song to sing solo in this film!) It also is manifestly clear that all this love and lust will only beget trouble.

Less immediately obvious though is who will be affiliating with whom when the time comes to choose sides. At the same time, however, that is what will help determine who will be left standing come the end of a work whose makers looked to have pulled out the stops to make it look good but, ultimately, comes across as more artificially stylized than genuinely stylish.

Yvonne Teh