Flaming Brothers - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Flaming Brothers



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I make absolutely zero bones about the fact that I have a bias for pretty much anything out of the 1980s. It was the generation of “greed is good”, insane action heroes like Arnie and Sly Stallone, and of course, the music was off the charts. That was back in the day when a $20 bill would net you two concerts and a few beers out with your girl, and you came back with a buck n’ a quarter at the end of the night. And don’t forget the Hong Kong cinema either. Back then, the entire Hong Kong industry was undergoing a paradigm shift as it transitioned from the traditional Shaw Brothers style of action/martial arts filmmaking to the era of Jackie Chan, Benny “the Jet”, Sammo Hung, and, of course, Chow Yun-Fat. Chow Yun-Fat deviated from the rest of the crew from his old opera house and deviated away from high-paced martial arts films, and instead focused on firearm-heavy action films that were nicknamed “Gun-fu” flicks back in ye olden times (yes, the 1980s is over 40 years in the past, even though it doesn’t feel like it). And while we don’t often see Chow Yun-Fat in the same limelight as the previously mentioned superstars, he still was one of Hong Kong’s biggest action heroes and remains one of my favorite Hong Kong actors to this very day, especially his blood-soaked soaked actioneers of the 80s and very early 90s.

And this go-around, we have a near-forgotten little gem called Flaming Brothers, with him and Alan Tang side by side as triad gangsters. Both boys grew up orphans on the street, clinging to each other as they fought for every scrap of food they could. Years later, the boys have grown up and have established themselves with the underground. But on a routine visit to Thailand to broker a deal, older brother Alan (Alan Tang) comes home to find his brother Ho-Tien (Chow Yun-Fat) has fallen in love with a girl from their youth and wants to go legit. Angry at the proposition and furious that his family is being split up, Alan banishes his brother from his presence while he continues to do their dirty work together. But the Hong Kong underworld is a fickle business, and Alan’s own ambitions come to an end when his own boss betrays him and starts hunting his family. Now it’s up to the two brothers to take care of the threat once and for all in a bloody showdown that will leave their entire world in shambles.

The best way to describe Flaming Brothers is “simple, but chaotic”. Like most Hong Kong action films of the '80s and '90s, the plot was not exactly Martin Scorsese-level, instead having us tag along while Alan and Ho-Tien do their low-level gangster stuff, bouncing around between serious drama and near slapstick levels of comedy at times. The middle act follows the two as they fall in love, struggle with anger at the breakup of their partnership, while the final 30 minutes are basically one non-stop orgy of destruction with squibs, fake blood, and more rounds being fired than your average Marine armory is capable of storing. But hey, we’re not here to see The Godfather, this is Chow Yun-Fat shooting people with his trusty 1911 (like the Beretta 92 was in America, the 1911 was to Hong Kong cinema. Literally EVERY action movie has a dozen 1911s in it).

As I said, Flaming Brothers is really chaotic, bouncing around from one tonal shift to the next. One moment, the two brothers are laughing and joking about doing a drug deal, to mooning over a cute girl, only to fall into somber melancholy after one of the members suffers a tragic loss. Even the action is strangely crazy as well. Moving from classic machismo one-offs, to full-on gun battles ala Hard Boiled or The Killer, and even some brutal child murder thrown in for good measure. While Flaming Brothers isn’t going to hold a candle to classics like Hard Boiled or The Killer, it certainly covers all the bases of Hong Kong action movies during the late 80s.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Taken from a newer 2K restoration, Flaming Brothers actually looks really good in 1080p. It’s a budget film that wasn’t exactly shot using hundreds of millions, but it certainly looks very organic and pleasing here. Thick 80s grain is present, but it’s not obtrusive or swarming either. Colors are a bit warm and sometimes pushed towards the white end of the spectrum, but primary shades come through nicely, as does the rich maroon-looking fake blood. Black levels are generally great, but I did notice a few milky-looking scenes near the end (such as when Jenny comes out of nowhere to rescue Alan from the gunmen). But overall, this is a very VERY nice looking disc for a film that hasn’t seen much love over the years.









Audio:

The audio comes in the original Cantonese Mono and an English Dub in stereo, both in lossless LPCM format. The Cantonese track naturally is going to be the way to go with this sucker, but I did notice that with the Cantonese track, you have forced English subs instead of having them switchable (not a big deal, but as someone who understands Cantonese, it would be nicer if they were able to be turned off). Either way, this is exactly what you would expect for a Mono Hong Kong track from the 80s. Vocals are clean and clear, but I noticed some crackling and harshness on the high end, and fidelity is just “good”. It’s not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, and I noticed that this seems to have been cleaned up, as my old VHS tape was HORRIBLE by comparison. Overall, it’s a nice upgrade from what we’ve had, and while it’s not going to blow the doors of anyone’s home theater, this is a perfectly serviceable mix.









Extras:

• Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Time Tomorrow [2000 copies]
• Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Flaming Brothers by Hong Kong cinema expert Camille Zaurin [2000 copies]
• New audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
• Archival interview with director Joe Cheung
• New video locations piece by CFK
• Original theatrical trailer

Final Score:

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Flaming Brothers is a flaming ball of 80s cheese, but it hits the spot like Mac n’ Cheese when you just want some classic machismo-laced gun battles. The action is crazy, the plot even crazier, and Eureka!’s new remaster for this film is amazing. I haven’t seen the film since I imported an old VHS tape from Hong Kong in the late 90s, but the uptick in quality from what I remember is MASSIVE. Audio suffers a bit, but that’s not uncommon for cheap, budget action Hong Kong films. Extras are not wild, but they cover the bases, and the audio commentary included appears to be a 20-year-old one from what I can tell (in the commentary, they talk about Nicholas Tse as an up-and-coming action star, which would put it squarely in the 2005-2009 era if memory serves me). All in all, this is a great release from Eureka! Entertainment of a lesser-known Chow Yun-Fat actioneer. Thumbs up.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Alan Tang, Ming-Wai Chan, Patricia Ha, Phillip Chan
Directed by: Tung Cho "Joe" Cheung
Written by: Jeffrey Lau, Wong Kar-wai
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: Cantonese: LPCM 2.0, English LPCM
Subtitles: English
Studio: Eureka Entertainment
Rated: NR
Runtime: 102 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 16th, 2025

Recommendation: Fun Watch

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