Tian tang kou (2007)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Alexi Tan

Writers:

Alexi Tan (written by) &
Dan Jiang (written by) ...

Release Date:

16 August 2007 (China)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The days of innocence have passed. They must make their choices like men. But at what costs? Is blood really thicker than water?

Plot:

Set in Shanghai during the 1930s, the story is inspired by John Woo's classic work Bullet in the Head, released in 1990. |

Cast

Daniel Wu	...	Ah Feng
Ye Liu	...	Da Gang
Qi Shu	...	Lulu (as Shu Qi)
Tony Yang	...	Xiao Hu
Xiaolu Li	...	Su Zhen (as Lulu Li)
Honglei Sun	...	Boss Hong
Chen Chang	...	Mark
Jun Zhao	...	Mei
Dian Lun Zhang	...	Xi Yan (as Zhang Dian Lun)
Jie Gao	...	Boss Chen (as Gao Jie)
Yong Xin Gui	...	Newspaper Boy (as Gui Yong Xin)
Li Qiu Zhang	...	Lulu's Maid (as Zhang Li Qiu)
Ren Yuen Wu	...	Hu's Father (as Wu Ren Yuen)
Xiao Hu Ding	...	Rickshaw Man (as Ding Xiao Hu)
Xiang Hu	...	Young Vietnamese Man (as Hu Xiang)

Also Known As:

Blood Brothers (International: English title)
Gate to Heaven (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence.

Runtime:

Canada:95 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Taiwan | China

Language:

Mandarin | English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Canada:14A | USA:R | Australia:MA | Netherlands:16 | Finland:K-15

Company:

CMC Entertainment

Soundtrack:

Tian Tang Kou

Epic look tries to conceal a small scale story

Three friends from the sticks go to Shanghai and become gangsters in around the Paradise club. As time goes on and they climb up the ladder they find their relationships tested.

Replace Shanghai with Chicago or New York and you'd have an Oscar nominated film for the art direction and costuming. This is a great looking 1930's gangster film moved to China and its a joy to behold. Its one of those movies you'd like to use as a moving piece of art on the wall.

Unfortunately the script is really lacking. Dialog is sparse and not very colorful. Its almost bland retread dialog and it takes the edge off things. the characters are less then thrilling. The look the part but they don't have much beyond the look to carry them. Worse is the plot line which is a tad been there done that, but also really lacks any real action. yes there are some beatings and shootings but nothing really large scale until the final half hour, or rather the final shoot out. There is no real action to lift these characters up and put them into a a heroic or anti-heroic pantheon- there is nothing that makes them larger than life. It could be argued that the film that looks this good, opulent and often epic, but is ultimately a small scale story over inflated. had this been filmed less grandly it would have played differently-probably better-since we would not have been waiting for something epic to happen. This isn't to diminish the final shoot out which has a very high level of "Hong Kong Cool" its just that the 90 minutes that proceed it are undeserving of the pay off.

Worth a look on cable or as a borrow, but not something I'd search out (or watch again) (Just a question-how many Chinese films over the last decade or so all are called Blood Brothers in English?)