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A great-looking period piece that may leave you wanting a little more characterization, but still manages to tell an interesting, briskly paced story.

Blood Brothers marks the directorial debut by Alexi Tan, who, under the tutelage of producer John Woo, has created a very watchable film set in 1930’s Shanghai, filled with jazz clubs, gangsters and three men from a small village who are all well out of their depth.

Fung (Daniel Wu) leaves his small village behind to travel to Shanghai with his best friends, two brothers named Hu (Tony Yang) and Kang (Liu Ye) to seek their fortune at Club Paradise, where Kang has secured a job as a waiter.  The club is owned by Boss Hong (Sun Hong-Lei), a local crime figure who rules with an iron fist thanks to his lieutenant Mark (Chang Chen), who serves as his assassin.  The main attraction at the club is Lulu (Shu Qi), Hong’s girl, who Fung immediately takes a shine to in spite of the sweet country girl he left back in their village.

Mark makes an attempt on Hong’s life, but is thwarted by a bodyguard, all of which happens unbeknownst to Hong.  Mark is wounded and when he stumbles into the alleyway beside the club, Fung comes to his aid.

Fung, Hu and Kang are sent by Hong to steal a load of guns, but Fung has second thoughts about entering a life of crime and leaves.  Kang and Hu are captured as the leave with the guns, but Fung returns and easily proceeds to easily dispatch all of the rival gang-members.  The three of them are celebrated as heroes by Hong and honored at a banquet at the club.

Thus begins their true spiral out of control, as Kang enjoys the power they’ve achieved, Hu is increasingly out of his death and turns to the bottle for comfort, and Fung begins chatting up Lulu.  He takes her out after her show one night, and knowing that she dreams of being a film star, they go to a set and play at being actress and director in classic Hollywood style.

Kang is becoming increasingly brutal in his dealings, setting fire to someone he’s been pumping for information; we later find out that the entire building went up, also killing the man’s wife and children.  Hu continues to drink, becoming an embarrassment to his older brother, who then takes his frustrations out on anyone stupid enough to call attention to his brother’s shortcomings.  Fung finally clues in to the fact that Lulu is sleeping with Hong’s number one lieutenant, Mark around the same time that Hong himself finds out, and this is the final catalyst to tearing all of them apart, brothers or not.

Drawing inspiration from Woo’s 1990 film Bullet In The Head, Blood Brothers is a very respectable first effort by the director, but the one failing I noticed (and saw pointed out again and again in other reviews) is a lack of empathy for the characters and their motivations.  You never truly feel the connections between the men involved, so their eventual parting of the ways doesn’t have as much impact as it could have.  The film does manage to build to a decent climax with an elaborate gun battle at the end that’s fun to watch, echoing Woo’s heroic bloodshed films like Hard Boiled or The Killer, with some visuals that reminded me of The Godfather thrown in there as well.

Blood Brothers comes to DVD on a bare bones disc, the only extras are a handful of trailers for other First Look releases.

This is a good film; a visual treat that may occasionally bog down story-wise, but will stand up to repeated viewings due to the atmosphere captured in the film and its charming leads.  Pick this one up.

4