Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Brothers Five Blu-ray Movie Review

I hope I never end up in a showdown with someone who knows the “five tigers with one heart” kung-fu move.

Reviewed by Dustin Somner June 22, 2010

Over the course of the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to review two other Shaw Studio classics arriving on the Blu-ray format (The Heroic Ones and The Deadly Duo). Given my longstanding appreciation for classic kung-fu cinema, the recent flood of these films onto a still-maturing format came as a bit of a shock, especially given the long wait we endured during the DVD era. I’m not entirely sure what accounts for the respect bestowed on these films at this stage in the game, but fans of the genre should consider themselves lucky to amass such an impressive collection after years of neglect.

For any martial art historians out there, Brothers Five was a 1970 Shaw Studio film, directed by a 52-year-old Wei Lo (who also directed Fists of Fury with Bruce Lee the following year). Mixing extended sequences of single-take fight choreography with a basic revenge plot, the end result is a highly entertaining stroll down memory lane.

If looks could kill...

Separated since childhood, the five Gao brothers remained unaware of their family origin, or the defeat of their father at the hands of the villainous Lung Chen-Feng (Feng Tien). Years later, each brother has pursued a different path in life (wanderer, blacksmith, philosopher, thief, and security chief), yet each of them soon find their own reason to seek an audience with the vicious gangsters of Teng Lung Villa. Unbeknownst to the five brothers, the master of the Villa is none other than the evil Lung Chen-Feng, who’s searched for the siblings ever since killing their father and taking control of the brother’s rightful home. In their individual journey to an inevitable showdown with Chen-Feng and his gang of scoundrels, each brother happens across a young woman named Yen (Pei-Pei Cheng), who identifies the Goa men by the identical scar across their hands (meant as a way for them to reunite when the time is right), and reveals the history of their long-forgotten childhood. Yen turns out to be the daughter of Hero Yan, the man responsible for saving the boys after their father was murdered. Knowing each brother couldn’t possibly defeat a warrior as powerful as Lung Chen-Feng, Yen trains the vengeful warriors in the secret technique known as the “five tigers with one heart”, and joins them on a mission to reclaim the Teng Lung Villa.

If you’re searching for non-stop action, rest assured you’ve come to the right place. During the 100-minute runtime of the film, I’d wager there’s only around 20 minutes of actual dialog that’s not accompanied by some form of violence. Yen simply travels from scene to scene establishing contact with each brother by witnessing them handle various conflict through copious blood-letting. Each of these encounters can be tied back to the gangsters of the Teng Lung Villa, creating the need for each brother to individually visit the Villa and “set things right”. Upon their arrival, further fighting ensues, until all brothers are introduced to one another by the lovely Yen. Don’t ask me how she manages to find the five siblings with such ease, or why they all conveniently descend on the Villa at the same point in time, since such questions merely sidetrack us from the main reason we love films of this sort—the violence. After all, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who turns on Star Wars for the romance between Han Solo and Princess Leia (at least I hope that’s the case), so it remains unnecessary to complain about a threadbare plot when the action is this glorious. Each character within the story is given a unique fighting style and weapon that suits the lifestyle they’ve undertaken, injecting a healthy dose of variety into each battle. One minute we’ll witness the lethal ability of a metal hat, while the next features a large iron hammer as the instrument of destruction. Clearly the body count is high (I’d wager the brothers dispatch at least a thousand goons during the course of the film), resulting in an outrageous amount of flying ketchup, and scores of bruised stuntmen by the end of the day. Needless to say, if you have an aversion to over-the-top violence, avoid this film at all cost.

As much as I enjoyed the first 100 minutes of Brothers Five, the final two minutes nearly wrecked it for me. As I mentioned in the opening synopsis describing the film, the siblings inevitably incorporate the mystical kung-fu move known as “five tigers with one heart” as they attack Lung Chen-Feng. We essentially wait the entire movie for a payoff moment that amounts to little more than a circus trick involving a standing pyramid where the five brothers spin in a circle. Anyone with half a brain will laugh at the realization that the clumsy display requires all brothers to turn their backs on their opponent at the same time, leaving little logic behind the goofy spinning idea. I know I’m going against my own rule in criticizing the level of realism in a kung-fu production, but is it really too much to ask for a certain cool factor in the move these guys train their butts off to perform?

Brothers Five Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080i utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 26Mbps), Brothers Five sports an admirable visual presentation for a film of this vintage. I wouldn't rank fine object detail quite as high as the concurrent release of The Heroic Ones (also courtesy of Well Go), but it clearly surpasses all prior editions, offering sufficient texturing on the fabric of clothing and the surface of background set-pieces. In fact, detail occasionally becomes a bit too revealing, demonstrating the budgetary limitations of several artificial environments (foam rocks and fake vegetation). From a coloring standpoint, the film incorporates a variety of rich hues in the lush foliage of the backgrounds and the vibrant ornamental clothing worn by various characters. This is likely the element that demonstrates the most significant upgrade over prior editions of the film, since it incorporates a much stronger visual presence that simply wasn't possible on inferior home video formats. Unfortunately, there's one area of the visual presentation that becomes a bit problematic from time to time. What I'm referring to is weak contrast differentiation in several shadow-heavy fight sequences, making it difficult to track figures that disappear in the darker sections of the screen. This only becomes a problem during two scenes around the mid-point of the film, but the battles drag on long enough to eventually become distracting. On the positive side, I never noticed any combing related to the interlaced transfer, and aliasing is kept to an absolute minimum.

Brothers Five Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unlike the concurrent release of The Heroic Ones and The Delightful Forest (also from Well Go), Brothers Five contains only the native mix in lossless 2.0, forcing English-speaking viewers into a situation where subtitles are mandatory. I typically choose the native language option as it is, so I wasn't overly concerned by the lack of options (though I acknowledge others may feel differently). Given the limitations in sound design at the time of the film's production, it's not terribly surprising to find high-volume crackle, modest clipping, and strike effects that remind me of my five-year-old nephew pushing pre-defined buttons on his Casio keyboard. All of these problems would seemingly relegate Brothers Five to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Blu-ray audio tracks, so you might be surprised to discover I still awarded the film a 2.5/5 on the audio portion of the disc. My reasoning behind this decision isn't an implication that this is an average quality release, but rather an indication of the limitations Well Go worked with in delivery the final audio presentation. As we all know, you can't turn apples into oranges, so the fact that we aren't given a jaw-dropping mix should be tempered by a realization that the source material doesn't allow for extensive improvement.

Unfortunately, my forgiving assessment of the audio track doesn't extend into the awful grammar and spelling demonstrated throughout the English subtitles. I'd never suggest Well Go complete an entirely new translation for the subtitle track (especially given the low retail price of this release), but merely hiring someone to spend an afternoon cleaning up the basics would've been appreciated.

Brothers Five Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only included supplement is a collection of three trailers for other Shaw Studio classics.

Brothers Five Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Brothers Five is an easy recommendation for anyone who considers themselves part of the kung-fu fanclub. Combining epic fight choreography, decent acting, and an entertaining revenge plot, the film's a perfect example of a relentless action experience, earning a deserving spot in the upper echelon of its genre.