Code of Honor
Director:
Leung Po-chi
Year:
1987
Rating:
6.0
Aka - Brotherhood
A dependable triad tale that takes place over a 20-year period. It is hard
to imagine that The Godfather wasn't in the back of their mind. Chow Yun-fat
plays the son of a respected triad head who doesn't want to join his father's
business and . . . he doesn't. Having Chow in the cast was a pure play for
box-office; to get people in the seats who don't read film reviews but just
decide what to see by the poster or the cast. A review would have told them
that Chow shows up for a cup of coffee and leaves. 1987 was a very busy year
for Chow after a very successful 1986 in which A Better Tomorrow made him
a huge star. Until he was cast in the John Woo film, he had been a popular
actor but far from the nickname he was soon to pick up, God of Actors. Now
all the producers wanted a piece of him if only for a few minutes - I would
guess Chow gave this film a day or perhaps two of his time. He doesn't even
get near to a gun or throw a punch. He appeared in eleven films in the year
- including A Better Tomorrow 2 and City on Fire.
The title of Code of Honor or Brotherhood is eventually meant to be ironic
because by the end the only person to show any honor is someone outside of
the brotherhood. Just a regular citizen who believes in friendship - not a
code within the triad that means nothing when the chips are down. It
begins in the early 1970s with a gang chasing after Ho Chen-tung (Ko Chun-hsiung)
in a Vietnamese refugee camp. In a bloody scene he escapes death because of
the help of a refugee, Wang Han (Lam Wai), but his daughter is killed. Jump
ahead many years later and Ho is the head of a large triad group with his
lieutenants under him running various enterprises. One of them, Mad Piao (Shing
Fui-on) pipes up that he has produced a number of films but they have all
lost money!
Ho at this point is an elderly man who for all intents and purposes has
retired but still has his fingers in the business - settling conflicts between
the triad under-bosses. He has a good friendship with Wang, the man who saved
his life and has set him up in a legit business. His son (Chow) has moved
to Australia and invited his father to come live with him. Then it all begins
to fall apart as Inspector Mak (Dick Wei) is intent on putting Ho into jail
for crimes he committed long ago. He is relentless and hard as a hammer.
The betrayals begin all around.
There is some really rough, brutal action - a scene where fingers are cut
off - where the betrayers are punished - an attempted rape and there is a
terrific foot chase through the streets and buildings of Hong Kong that is
wonderfully shot. The director is Billy Chan, better known as an actor in
action films. The acting is fine by everyone - Ko Chun-hsiung becomes a sympathetic
character as he gets older, the other bad guys, especially Shing Fui-on and
Shum Wai are as nasty as an egg left in the sun and Lam Wai as the quiet man
who feels he has obligations is terrific. So don't go in expecting Chow Yun-fat
to mow people down in a Heroic Bloodshed but it has a nice balance of drama
and brutality.
