Reviewed by: Hyomil Date: 04/07/2011 Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 01/23/2009 Summary: technically excellent, easy watch. The production staff, lead by John Woo, has made this film technically excellent. Thanks to Daniel Wu and Hsu Chi, Blood Brothers has a couple of slick performances that make it an easy watch. The problem is that the film is evocative of every “coming-to-the-city-to-make-our-fortunes” movie that came before it. Production staff does a great job capturing the look of 1930’s Shanghai but the scenario feels about as old. Action direction by veteran Phillip Kwok is well designed to wake you up when the story starts to drag. happyfortune.org Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 11/09/2008 Blood Brothers owes more than a little debt to the 1973 Chang Cheh movie of the same name. The film was hugely influential on John Woo, who was a producer on this picture, so it should probably come as no surprise that Blood Brothers also is heavily inspired by Woo's Bullet in the Head. Like a lot of these derivative sorts of works, Blood Brothers tries very hard to be something more powerful than it is, and loses the viewer in the process. The brothers of the title are Daniel Wu, Tony Yang, and Chang Chen, who decide to leave their small village to seek out their fortune in Shanghai. This leads them to working for Boss Hong (Sun Hong-Lei) at the Paradise Club, a popular nightspot headlined by the lovely Lulu (Hsu Chi). Boss Hong is only using the club as a front for his illegal activities, and soon the trio become wrapped up in Shanghai's underworld, and each of them deals with their new responsibilities in different ways. Blood Brothers doesn't veer too much from the usual plot of a movie of this type. There's double-crosses, hidden romances, lots of sappy music, and, of course, the mandatory shootouts in slow motion. This is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but where Blood Brothers really falters is in its' editing and pacing. Far too many scenes linger on for too long. When this is combined with the melodramatic nature of the acting, Blood Brothers fails to keep any sense of forward momentum. The shootouts do manage to create some excitement. But let's face it -- we've all seen this type of stuff done before. Even with some nifty ultra-violence delivered via a fountain pen to the throat of a poor sap, this is John Woo shootout 101 tactics all the way. If you're really itching to check out a modern take on the heroic bloodshed genre, then you might want to give Blood Brothers a try -- but don't set the bar too high, or you're likely to be disappointed. [review form www.hkfilm.net] Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: Gaijin84 Date: 10/07/2008 Summary: Big letdown... Three close friends, as close as brothers, move to Shanghai in order to follow their dreams. Kang (Lau Yip) is a smooth and unpredictable tough guy, protecting his friends from any trouble. Fung (Daniel Wu) is kind and naive (almost to the point of being a simpleton) and steadily grows wary of Kang's aspirations and temper. Kang's younger brother Xiao (Tony Yang) is seemingly dragged along for the ride, but starts a slow descent of self-destructive behavior once he arrives in Shanghai and cannot adjust to the new lifestyle. Eventually, the three are incorporated into a local gang run by Boss Hong (Sun Hong-Lei). When Fung starts to become interested in the Boss's girlfriend (Shu Qi), conflicts inevitably rise within the organization. Before long, a power play between Kang and the lead enforcer (Chang Chen) develops for control of the gang's future. I could not agree more with MrBooth's review. The film is shot beautifully, but the script and plot just doesn't match the style. For a bit I was thinking that the actors just weren't up to snuff, but then I realized that the script was very mediocre. They just couldn't rise above the quality of the writing. The first half of the film was almost impossible to follow timeline-wise, as one scene jumped to the next and seemed to have leaped forward many months in the process, all without much of an explanation. This made following the characters' emotional progress very difficult, as they do things and make decisions that never seem to correspond to their actions in a previous scene. There were also some parts (ex. the brothers stealing the guns) in which sudden dramatic music was very distracting and did not mesh well with the scene. I felt that the director was trying to make it similar to the old Shaw Brothers production, but it felt totally out of place and silly. By the end, you're just waiting for it all to be over, as you can predict what is going to happen pretty easily. Blood Brothers is a movie that had a lot of potential, but ultimately is a big letdown. 4/10 Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 02/28/2008 Summary: 4/10 - a bit boring Three brothers from the country go to Shanghai with dreams of working as waiters, but get involved with organised crime, which eventually brings them into conflict with each other (actually quite quickly). The film's story is broadly similar to 1973's BLOOD BROTHERS (and therefore also to 2007's THE WARLORDS). It's also broadly similar to every film about country boys going to Shanghai in the 1930's ever, e.g. BOXER FROM SHANTUNG (and therefore also to 1997's HERO). Basically it's not a very original script, nor is it very well written. It's a shame, because the movie is technically solid - it looks good, sounds good, and has some decent action (not a lot). The cast do a decent job, but struggle against a script that doesn't provide much character motivation or depth, fails to generate much tension and is frankly a bit boring. Reviewer Score: 4