BLOOD BROTHERS

Directed by Alexi Tan

Review by Roberto Azula

Hackneyed and overly sentimental, Alexi Tan’s Blood Brothers is a by-the-numbers Hong Kong gangster flick that commits the cardinal sin of any crime film … it’s boring.

The story involves three country bumpkins who move to Shanghai to hit the big time, and after one scene transition, are suddenly major thugs in for a crime lord. Daniel Wu gives a third-rate Tony Leung impersonation as Ah Feng, the man with the golden heart who can never adjust to the violence that the gangster’s life entails. Maybe he should have read the job description before he got mixed up in this profession. Painful scenes include Lulu (Shu Qi) doing the done-to-death chanteuse slowly walking down the stairs singing a jazz number routine, Ah Feng and Lulu traipsing about a film lot, and several badly choreographed gun battles. You know, the sort of gun battles where the principle character can waltz in and kill everyone with a handgun while miraculously not getting raked by automatic gunfire.

Silly and inconsequential, Blood Brothers is a good introduction to the syrupy sweet, lightweight fare that sometimes passes for cinema.