Flaming Brothers

This title doesn't do justice to the genre heroic bloodshed! Yes, there is bloodshed en yes it is heroic,but for the most part it is a story about a relationship between two friends (Alan Tang and Chow Yan Fat) who happen to be gangsters. Let's face it,compared to John Woo titles: Better Tomorrow series, Hard Boiled, the Killer! This movie doesn't have a chance! There is not enough action to make this movie worthwhile. But the acting is outstanding by Chow Yan Fat and Alan Tang. Furthermore there is not much of intrigue or excitement,so why should i watch this movie! Still Alan Tang really has potential for greater action drama's than this one! Return Engagement is an example how this movie could be!

On the back of the dvd case this film is described as a blood soaked gangster thriller. In actual fact, the film is actually just a romantic melodrama with a couple of violent shootouts. A big disappointment.

Good production values, fair acting, good to brilliant action sequences, but what an accumulation of cliches, of caricature characters and foreseeable dialog.

The time between two action phases feels so long and empty that when the dramatic moment arrives, one is more or less disengaged from any possible outcome.

The Flaming Brothers is an entertaining and better than average entry in. the flooded Hong Kong market of post A Better Tommorow gangster films. While the film has its flaws, it still is a good watch and is better than a lot of them. The Flaming Brothers has similar themes that are prevalent in the genre revenge, love, brotherhood and are done much better by John Woo. The Flaming Brothers may not have been directed by John Woo, but it does have Chow Yun Fat, who is sworn brothers with Alan Tam. In this film, The Flaming Brothers is an apt title as it is implied throughout the film the two brothers take the brotherhood thing to another level in an implied homoerotic relationship. The film is over the top as a whole and the love story with their women, the brotherhood and the action are split up in a way that they are almost 3 different films thrown together. The action/violence is very extreme with an amount of bullets and blood 10 times what John Woo would use. The way Woo would do it, it was graceful, here it is presented in a gristly, extremely brutal fashion. The Flaming Brothers checks a lot of boxes with standards/cliches in the heroic bloodshed genre with lots of melodrama, crazy action, good/bad gangsters and tradgedy. However, it is it's excesses that set it apart and in case I failed to mention Chow Yun Fat is in this.

This film sandwiched between the better tomorrow series and the Killer. If you want to see a guy getting shot more times than Scarface, then this films for you. Watch'em slug it out, shoot it out while Yun-Fat owns a 7-