Bloody Brotherhood - The Wages of Virtue

Feb

17

Bloody Brotherhood - The Wages of Virtue

≡ Category: Action, Category III, Drama, Essential, Hong Kong, Movie Reviews By Country |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Category III
Director: Johnny Wang
Year: 1989

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE

Much of exploitation cinema tends to be inspired by social conditions. For example, in 1970s Italy, the anxiety the population felt about a busted economy and the disintegration of law and order into complete anarchy gave rise to the Poliziotteschi (Italian crime) genre. In South Korea, the civil war and ongoing truce between North and South Korea informs most of their action films.

During Hong Kong’s Golden Age (1985-1995), triad movies were haunted by the upcoming 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Mainland China.

Critics of Hong Kong films often deride the ever popular brothers-who-grow-up-on-opposite-sides-of-the-law trope. They think that the supposed overuse of this theme stems from the success of A Better Tomorrow. They have a point, but think for a moment — if you were going to make movies about America’s civil war, wouldn’t it be natural to invent a plotline that featured brothers on opposite sides of the conflict?

Bloody Brotherhood is a variation of this theme.

While attempting to sneak into Hong Kong from Mainland China, brothers Wah (Andy Lau) and Wai (Lam Wai) become separated. For good reason, each believes the other is dead. Fate will reunite them in the most tragic way possible.

Wah is rescued by a kindly old fisherman and his daughter Kin (Irene Wan), who ends up becoming his girlfriend. While defending his food stall from gangsters running a protection racket, Wah impresses the local triad boss Tong Fai (Michael Chan) with his fighting skills. Wah ends up joining Tong Fai.

Unfortunately, rival gangster Hoi (Shum Wai) is willing to use every sleazy trick in the book to undermine Tong Fai, putting Wah and by extension, his girlfriend Kin in danger. Will Wah be willing to walk away from the triad life for the sake of Kin?

Much has been made of Andy Lau’s limited acting abilities, but he’s playing a country bumpkin here, and his naturally goofy persona works for the part. Even so, he should be thankful that he was surrounded by such strong actors.

Playing triad boss Tang Fai, Michael Chan does a fantastic job selling the proposition that there is such a thing as a triad leader with principles. Remember, this is a guy that makes his living extorting small businessmen by ruining their business, beating them up, and probably even killing them if they don’t pay up. He’s a parasite. On the other hand, he refuses to deal drugs, open gambling parlors, or run whores, because he’s “righteous.” Yeah, uh, okay.

In constrast, his rival Hoi is a total scumbag. Shum Wai impersonates a walking asshole with complete success. Your skin itches watching him.

Lam Wai, as the more hard-bitten and cynical of the two brothers, provides welcome grit and gravity to Bloody Brotherhood.

But really, there are no weak performances. Ku Feng, Dick Wei, Phillip Ko, and Sin Ho-Ying are all impressive in small roles.

The fight choreography, by action directors Hung San-Nam and Tony Tam, as impressive as it is, is not particularly flashy for a Hong Kong flick. There’s a reason for that. Director Johnny Wang seems to be striving for heightened realism in this flick. His main concern is not to blow you away with awesome fight sequences, but rather to involve you in the melodrama. In that, Wang succeeds splendidly.

Many have said that Hong Kong gangster flicks glorify the triads, in part because they were financed with triad money. It would be difficult to support that claim on the basis of Bloody Brotherhood. In the world of Bloody Brotherhood, the triads threaten every life they touch, including those of the triad bosses. Righteousness, honor, loyalty and strength are no guarantee of success or safety. In such a treacherous environment, there’s no way of knowing who will survive. Obviously, this ratchets up the suspense considerably.

Bloody Brotherhood is a bruising melodrama that takes no prisoners. The heroes are admirable, the villains are despicable, and the outcome is always in doubt, almost to the final frame. Hooray for Hong Kong!

Note: Bloody Brotherhood has a Category III rating. Personally, I don’t understand why — the violence is no harsher than the typical Category IIb stuff out at the time, and there’s no sex or nudity to justify the rating, either.

(Saturday, June 26, 2010. I just watched Bloody Brotherhood again. It’s better even than I remembered. It’s structured perfectly, the performances are all tremendous, and it’s filmed with surpassing vigor by director Johnny Wang. A truly great film.)