Brothers Five
Director: Lo Wei
Year: 1970
Rating: 7.0
After just watching the action choreography from Sammo Hung and
Simon Chui in Twelve Gold Medallions, I wanted to see what it was like in
their previous film Brothers Five. For me Sammo Hung was one of the best,
most ingenious action choreographers ever in Hong Kong film - something that
often got lost once he became a big action star - but his resume in which
he was action choreographer before he became a star is enormously impressive
- Shaw films but also a few King Hu movies and the best Angela Mao films
among many others. This was his second film with that duty.
In the first The Golden Sword in 1969 directed by Lo Wei as is this film,
it was Han Yingjie that started off doing the choreography but he had to
leave mid-way through and Lo Wei handed it over to Sammo and Simon. People
can knock Lo Wei and they do but the guy seemed to be able to recognize talent
if nothing else - Sammo, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Han Yingjie was one of
the best around at the time with Come Drink with Me and Dragon Inn to his
credit and he was also the brother-in-law to Sammo's Peking Opera Master!
The world of martial artists was a close one.
Of the 100 minutes or so of running time, about 70 minutes of it must be
action. Maybe more. It is insane and in truth there is probably way too much
of it. Nearly all of it is large set pieces, often one against many and though
within that format there is a lot of variation it is exhausting and the number
of people killed could fill a medium sized stadium. There are a lot of different
fighting styles and weapons but what really stands out is how intricate and
complex much of the choreography is with lots of moving pieces to meld into
one coherent fight. A lot of the Wuxia films from this period - 1966 - 1970
- were graceful and elegant but the action often felt very basic - thrust-counterthrust
and leap - primarily because most of the actors just didn't have the skills
as actors did later on. As much fun and satisfying as the Chang Cheh Jimmy
Wang Yu films are with fields of dead bodies left behind, much of it consisted
of bad guys running into his sword. This one feels different as the actors
were clearly well-prepped and trained to follow the instructions and in the
big set pieces there are a lot of people just going after one another with
blades, kicks, daggers flying all over. Keeping that under control is pretty
impressive.
Of course with much of the film being handed over to Sammo, there isn't much
time left to develop a story but it is good enough. This almost has a Bollywood
motif of separated siblings finding one another at the most opportune of
times. Here there are five brothers who were all sent to live with different
foster families when their father was killed by the evil Master Lung Cheng
Feng (Tien Feng). Twenty years later a woman is attempting to find then all
and gather them together to revenge their father and hers as well. This is
the wonderful Cheng Pei-pei adorned splendidly in a white wide brimmed hat
and white ensemble. Our first glimpse of her in a carriage is a stunner.
Without knowing of each others existence or who their father was, they are
coincidentally all headed towards Flying Dragon Villa where Master Lung resides
along with hundreds of minions. Before they find one another there is a lot
of killing to be done. Once together - identified by a scar on each of their
hands that completes a line. Under Cheng Pei-pei they learn the Five Tigers
with One Heart stance that hopefully can defeat Lung and his massive sword.
The five brothers are again coincidentally martial artists but Sammo gives
them all different styles - Yuen Hua fights primarily with a sharp metal
hat, Lo Lieh does it with a whip and an assortment of small daggers, Chang
I (or Yu) who was a Beijing Opera school student has a small sword, Chin
Han (the one married to Ivy Ling Po) is the burly blacksmith who uses an
enormous hammer to crush skulls and Kao Yuen was your standard swordsman.
Then of course there is Cheng Pei-pei slicing and dicing with sword and dagger
and who with blood flying everywhere manages to keep her white outfit immaculately
spotless. We would expect nothing less. One final note - the script is written
by Ni Kuang who was one of Hong Kong's most popular writers - he did the
Wesley books and scripted hundreds of films - Twelve Gold Medallions among
them.
