Regarded by many as Chang Cheh’s most accomplished masterpiece, a scandalous epic on a truly grand scale. Staring two of Hong Kong's leading kung fu actors, this big budget adventure broke box office records and is still considered to be one of the best tales of love and loyalty in the martial world. Ben Johnson soaks it all up...
Distributor: Intercontinental Video Ltd Format: Region 3 NTSC Length: 118 min Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) Audio: Mandarin Subtitles: English, Chinese, Malay, Indonesian Extras: Interviews; Behind the Scenes; Trailers, Colour Stills; Original Poster; Production Notes; Cast and Crew information Sound: Stereo, Dolby Digital 2.0
Year of Release: 1973; Origin: Hong Kong; Studio: Shaw Brothers
Director: Chang Cheh; Producer: Run Run Shaw; Script: Chang Cheh, Ni Kuang; Action Director: Lau Kar-leung, Tang Chia; Cast: David Chiang Da-wei, Ti Lung, Chen Kuan-tai, Ching Li, Cheng Miu, Fan Mei-sheng
Alternative Titles: Ci Ma (Mandarin title); Chinese Vengeance; Dynasty of Blood; Kung Fu Invaders
Trailer: Click below to view the trailer for The Blood Brothers.
Plot Synopsis
Ching Dynasty , China : Told in flashback, as plucky prisoner Chang Wen Hsiang (David Chiang) writes out his confession for the fat cats in Manchu towers, we’re treated to a rags to riches tale, culminating in Chang’s arrest for the assassination of one of the Ching Government’s most distinguished officials. Chang wasn’t always held in such high regard. Formerly a bandit, Chang and his self-assured, if slightly dim-witted, partner in crime Huang Chung (Chen Kuan-tai) were once your average provincial highwaymen, robbing the taels from wondering rich folk with swords, knives, nunchakus and the like. One dusty stranger on horseback turns out to be the well trimmed, smartly suited Ma Hsin Yi (Ti Lung), a bandit himself, if a little more successful. He stops for a quick duel with Huang, which doesn’t result in any clear winner, only for Ma to give the boys all of his cash anyway. He’s the determined sort, clearly able and proficient, so Chang and Huang seek to buddy up, forming a tri-bandit alliance with shared dreams and aspirations. So close, they refer to each other as brothers.
One dream is to run their own school of renegade hoodlums, which they achieve once they combine forces and take on the Hill bandits. The three storm their hideout waving chains and blades, beating them into submission, until the Hill Gang enthusiastically conform with their enemies and instigate their own militia under the determined tutelage of an increasingly power-hungry and career-driven Ma. In one scene, Ma becomes so ruthlessly engaged in a drive for the ultimate in self-recognition that he kills one of his own gang members after a badly-timed, and rather inoffensive, attempt at mockery. Chang remains as optimistically coy throughout their steady rise of heroic perception, while the dismissive Huang still has his hands full with an uncertain wife, Mi Lan (Ching Li), who appears to have married far too young and taken a shine to the new kid on the block. Ma and Mi Lan hit it off (if you know what I mean, wink wink) and Ma is so guilt-stricken that he ups sticks and heads for the city, where he sits exams to become a government official.
Ma’s promotion from bumpkin to something is welcomed by his Hill friends back home, who travel the long road to the Government’s regal headquarters to meet their newly appointed brethren. Ma looks sinister in Manchu garb and neat moustache, promptly appointing Chang and Huang as part of his own personal team of state bodyguards. But it is the lurking figure of Mi Lan, the temptress of inevitable destruction, that fears to break up the sacred pact of the men’s prosperous brotherhood. Ma and Mi Lan get it on, again, but they are discovered by the loyal Chang. Chang tells Huang of Ma’s hideous betrayal, but Huang doesn’t believe him, until it is too late: he is ambushed by Ma’s own men, on Ma’s orders, and sliced to death with a big sword. Such deception cannot go unpunished, despite the accolades have been bestowed upon his former friend, so Chang vows for revenge, hiding up a look-out post until Ma arrives to reclaim his throne.
Chang leaps onto the General like a tonne of bad news and impales the man with a dagger. At once, a thousand identical extras leap to protect their Master from Chang’s fearless attack, to which Ma summons them to withhold their weapons and challenges Chang to the climactic duel we’ve been baying for. It’s a top-notch slug fest, and Chang gets the upper hand, twisting his dagger all out of shape in a bloody montage of rage and redemption, proclaiming his murderous act in front of the hundred or so Ching guards who quickly shove him into stocks. This is where the film began, as Chang awaits his heavy sentence: the punishment is death. He is led out to be executed and has his heart removed. The film ends with Mi Lan sobbing into her handkerchief, instead of perhaps rescuing him, which might have been a better idea considering the whole bloody mess was, of course, her fault.
Review
I say ‘of course’ because with Chang Cheh at the helm, the chauvinist auteur of male masochism, it is telling that the film’s only female character is also the film’s most destructive force. The love triangle moments are handled with all the grace and style of a Hollywood melodrama, beautifully framed and shot, with such precise attention to detail in set and design that each frame doesn’t look a day old. The Blood Brothers is one of those special films that retains a certain timeless excitement that many of the movies made in Hong Kong around the same time just don’t come anywhere close too. This is undoubtedly why fans agree that out of the many collaborations between Chang Cheh and Ni Kuang at the Shaw factory, this one is just off the scale.
The true event of Governor Ma Hsin Yi’s assassination at the hands of his lifelong brother-in-arms Chang Wen Hsiang is depicted lavishly for the big screen, far from the gospel truth, in custom Shaw-scope so glossy and glamorous it hurts the eyes. At some points, the hundreds of extras rival Ben Hur-style theatrics, particularly during the monolithic battle scenes that evoke Chang Cheh’s previous exertions in The Heroic Ones. Of course only Shaw Brothers could be capable of pulling off such an enormous film, with money thrown at the screen at every opportunity, and it stands proudly as a testament to Chang Cheh as one of his most accomplished, well-rounded films of this era. Not only down to the worthwhile script and luxurious pace of story telling, but also aesthetically, with the returning folly of his favourite duo Ti Lung and David Chiang. Chiang is as youthful and happy-go-lucky as ever, like a kung fu Mickey Rooney, while Ti Lung commands his close-ups with all the gusto of a seasoned Broadway hack, stretching his portfolio from grief, to awe, to horror, to hate, to lust and back to grief again, enough to warrant him the top gong at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards claiming Best Actor. His powerful persona is almost enough to knock fellow co-stars off the screen, so it is worth noting that the film’s most experienced fighter, Chen Kuan-tai, also does sportingly well in support as the story’s third brother, even though his superior athleticism is a little underused.
The mastermind behind the violence is the formidable Shaw pairing of Lau Kar-leung and Tang Chia, who create such fresh choreography it still looks brilliant over thirty years later. Aside from the final gruelling slug fest which pits brother against brother, it is the mighty group fights that dominate, most of which are weapon affairs, with each lead assigned a designated tool: Ti Lung opts for blades; David Chiang waves a mini three-sectioned staff; Chen Kuan-tai dices with butterfly knives. The cast function adequately in the open hand moments too, particularly considering the relative inexperience of the two leads.
But where it really stings of maturity is when Chang Cheh, a blockbuster veteran by this stage, senses exactly when to put the breaks on, a clear-cut sign that we, the viewer, are in perfectly safe hands. And if the themes of betrayal and codes of conduct amongst men seem overly familiar to you from all those gun-toting ‘heroic bloodshed’ movies, then it is worth remembering that a young John Woo acted as Chang’s assistant director on this movie.
A fantastic adventure, one that everyone should indulge in.
Regarded by many as Chang Cheh’s most accomplished masterpiece, a scandalous epic on a truly grand scale. Staring two of Hong Kong's leading kung fu actors, this big budget adventure broke box office records and is still considered to be one of the best tales of love and loyalty in the martial world. Ben Johnson soaks it all up... 
I say ‘of course’ because with Chang Cheh at the helm, the chauvinist auteur of male masochism, it is telling that the film’s only female character is also the film’s most destructive force. The love triangle moments are handled with all the grace and style of a Hollywood melodrama, beautifully framed and shot, with such precise attention to detail in set and design that each frame doesn’t look a day old. The Blood Brothers is one of those special films that retains a certain timeless excitement that many of the movies made in Hong Kong around the same time just don’t come anywhere close too. This is undoubtedly why fans agree that out of the many collaborations between Chang Cheh and Ni Kuang at the Shaw factory, this one is just off the scale. 
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