We are in the middle of a Chow Yun-fat revival. A retrospective of Hong Kong action films is playing across the country letting fans see him on the big screen in A Better Tomorrow, City On Fire and The Killer. These films and a few others are also out on home video after being unavailable for over a decade. In addition to his popular titles, we’re getting a rather obscure film from this era arriving on Blu-ray in Flaming Brothers. Even though this came out in 1987 when Chow was stepping up to being an international action star; I don’t recall seeing this VHS box on the shelves at Dave’s Videodrome in Carrboro, NC when Chow Yun-fat-mania swept America in the early ’90s. From my limited research, it appears Flaming Brothers didn’t legally get released until the mid-aughties. The film fits in well with Chow Yun-fat’s other Heroic Bloodshed movies of the era.
Cheung Ho-tin (Chow Yun-fat) and Alan Chan (The Dynamite Brothers‘ Alan Tang) were homeless orphaned kids growing up on the streets of Macau. Ho Ka-hei (Winners & Sinners‘ Pat Ha) was a girl at an orphanage who secretly fed them until she was adopted by a family in Hong Kong. The two hustle their way up the mobster ladder so that they get their own nightclub that might be a brothel. Before the girls dressed up as Playboy Bunnies can get their tails fluffed, things go bad quick. The local cop doesn’t appreciate a gift from Cheung. This isn’t a good place for the usual protection by the law. Nastier things happen when a rival gang drops by the big opening. They aren’t happy about the “brothers” and one of them gets kidnapped. Instead of negotiating, the “free” brother and his goons turn their rivals into Swiss cheese. While dealing with gun smuggling operation in Thailand, Cheung encounters Ka-hei once more. She’s stunning and has his heart once more. However she causes a major problem when she make Cheung chose between loving her and being a mobster with Alan. Can he really give up the only life he’s known? Who is going to watch Alan’s back when mobsters step on their turf?
Flaming Brothers has a strange vibe that Chow and Alan are playing this film as if they were Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. They exude a strange charm between scenes of massive bloodshed. You see people get nasty bullet wounds on the screen. Imagine Ocean’s Eleven except with people getting ventilated when the casino heist goes wrong. Director Joe Cheung (Rosa – coming out on Blu-ray in November) manages to make these tone shift work. The script is written by Wong Kar-wai who became a legendary director with Chungking Express and In The Mood For Love. He adds quite a bit of depth to the relationship that other Heroic Bloodshed films avoided to focus on the gunplay. He gives us a twist that has Chow Yun-fat in a 7-Eleven uniform. If you’re delving into Chow Yun-fat’s movies from this time, you must get a copy of Flaming Brothers to see him choose between love and bullets.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer is taken from a 2K restoration. You get to see so much of Macau. The Audio is LPCM 2.0 Cantonese. You get that late ’80s soundtrack music clearly. There is also an English Dub in LPCM 2.0. The dub is just a little less intense in the line readings compared to the Cantonese. The movie is subtitled in English.
Illustrated booklet has an essay on Heroic Bloodshed by Camille Zaurin.
Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema is great in giving us context of not only the film, but life in Macau. I had no idea that the colony didn’t have its own airport. You had to fly into Hong Kong and take a boat to the Portuguese colony. They get into the careers of the cast and crew. They let us know that Hong Kong squibs hurt more to stuntmen than the US version. Always worth listening to them since they know their stuff (both live in Hong Kong).
CFX X Flaming Brothers Locations (31:36) takes us to the sites in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand. Macau has casinos that look like their versions back in Las Vegas including the Wynn and Paris. Black Sand Beach now has a brown sand mixed into the black. You will experience Hong Kong’s party street.
Interview with Joe Cheung is archival
Alternate Credits (3:12) are the English version with a disco beat. Don’t watch before you see the film.
Trailer (2:18) opens with guns blazing and bodies dropping.
Eureka! presents Flaming Brothers (Limited Edition). Directed by Joe Cheung. Screenplay by Wong Kar-wai. Starring Chow Yun-fat, Alan Tang, Pat Ha, Jenny Tseng, Patrick Tse, James Yi, Philip Chan & Norman Chui. Running Time: 103 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: September 16, 2025.
