Brothers (2007 - Chinese)

Source: DVD (SS2)


My first seating through an entire chinese film this year ... And it was mediocre! Andy Lau caught my eye on the cover, and I thought I'd give this gangsta-film (yes, another gangster film from HK!) a go ...



The Map reminded me that the cast was a who's who of '40-something and 50-something year old HK lead actors' ... these guys looked a lot younger then that!



What made me REALLY laugh was the way Andy Lau plugged his CYMA watch ... heh heh.

LoveHKFilm.com describes the show best, here is a few notes from their comments ...
Lest we forget, there's also a movie, and though Andy Lau gets much more screentime than his CYMA watch, its arguable if he has much more impact. Lau is only a glorified supporting player in Brothers, a gangland thriller from director Derek Chiu that's most famous for reuniting TVB's Five Tigers, who were so dubbed back in the eighties as some sort of marketing push by the local television behemoth.
Actually, only four of the Tigers return. The missing Tiger is none other than Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, who's too busy having an international film career, leaving the other four tigers - Andy Lau, Felix Wong, Miu Kiu-Wai, and Ken Tong - to represent, along with Eason Chan, who we assume is the Tony Leung stand-in.
Chan has turned in some decent work recently in Hooked on You and The Pye-Dog, and having him around is actually quite promising. To the younger actor's credit, he holds his own versus the grizzled veterans surrounding him.
Chan plays Shun Tam, the brother to gang boss Yiu Tam (Miu Kiu-Wai). Shun is now returning from his education in the states after an assassination attempt on their dad, Tin Tam (Wang Zhiwen). The attempt comes courtesy of rival triad Uncle Nine (Henry Fong), who angles to knock off both Tin Tam and Yiu Tam and install both he and his son, Kui (Ken Tong), as the new leaders.
However, the wily Yiu Tam seems to be one step ahead of Uncle Nine and Kui, apparently expecting their treachery and betrayal. What is unexpected is Yiu's attitude towards his brother Shun, who's completely naïve to criminal procedure, constantly trying to call the cops and usually getting grief from the uncooperative Inspector Lau, who's all hot and bothered about catching Yiu Tam and not anyone else. As Uncle Nine and Kui begin to take violent action, Yiu Tam starts to take steps to get his brother out of harm's way.
Or is he? There's a curious edge to Yiu's actions, almost like he may be trying to get his brother killed instead. This is because of a prophecy once told to his father, that the two brothers would one day do harm to each other...