All Men Are Brothers (1975)
directed by
screenplay by
Chang Cheh & Ni Kuang
Years ago, I had a friend who became obsessed with martial arts movies, building up a vast collection, creating an online database, and screening them every week for a host of friends. To be honest, as much as I loved many of them, I struggle all these years later to remember more than a few details about many of them. Too many, in looking back, suffer from choppy plots (though how much of that depends on the dubbing is a serious question), and many have plots generally indistinguishable from each other. Still, when the chance came to build up our own little collection (thanks mysterious stranger forced to sell off your movie collection to meet your tax debt!), we did so. For the most part, though, we haven't gotten around to watching them. Now we are.
Chang Cheh was one of the greatest of Hong Kong directors, directing some of the seventies' most fun movies, including The Kid With the Golden Arm and The Five Deadly Venoms. He had directed earlier classics, including Golden Swallow (sequel to King Hu's monumental Come Drink With Me) and The One-Armed Swordsman. He had a taste for elaborately costumed period pieced and big actions scenes when the budget allowed. His movies focused on brotherhood, honor, and lots and lots of fake blood. John Woo served his apprenticeship under Cheh and has talked often about how he was influenced by his teacher.
Unfortunately, All Men Are Brothers is a disappointment. It's a sequel to his own earlier The Water Margin (both are based on The Water Margin, a classical Chinese novel), a movie I haven't seen. The story isn't especially compelling, the characters are vaguely drawn and several are difficult to tell apart from one another, and the action, and this is the most important thing, isn't especially good. There are a few solid fights - a wrestling match, the death of the Tattooed Tiger, and one of two others. Still, there's just nothing that makes me go, yeah, this is great.
Verdict: away it goes
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| David Chiang and Ti Lung |
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