1986 action, dir. John Woo, Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung:
IMDb /
allmovie. Two brothers on
opposite sides of the law…
This film was the occasion on which a burned-out John Woo finally
got some creative control, rather than working on productions for
other people. And it was hugely well-received, more or less kicking
off the Heroic Bloodshed sub-genre, with its protagonists who might
well be honourable and cool criminals but who were still, at the core,
criminals. Also athletic close-quarters two-gun fights, preferably in
trenchcoats. This genre's influence on The Matrix is clear.
The action is great, of course, but what really struck me on this
viewing was the parts that weren't action. Sometimes they drag, as in
almost any scene with Police Brother Kit (Cheung); much more
impressive is the found-family dynamic of Criminal Brother Ho (Lung)
and his best mate Mark (a young Chow Yun-Fat). These feel like two
guys who really do have each other's backs, who don't need to question
each other to be perfectly in tune.
So Ho gets ambushed on a business trip to Taiwan, and surrenders to
the police to save his fellow criminal buddy Shing. Mark goes looking
for revenge on the Taiwanese gang, and gets it, but ends up with an
injured leg. Three years later, Ho's out of prison and trying to go
straight, but his old gang (with Shing now in charge) really want him
back—or is it that they just don't want him being a loose cannon
anywhere else? Mark, unable to do crimes any more, has become a
pathetic hanger-on, but once they get back together they're good
enough even to save Kit from the consequences of his own idiocy. Well,
in this film at least.
It's all very tawdry at times, but I think that's part of the point:
you may get respect from others in your life of crime, but you're
only ever as good as your last big score.
I talk about this film further on Ribbon of
Memes.