The plot: Brothers Kai (Kai Wang) and Chao (Tianyu Ma) are
on opposite sides of the law: Kai is a smuggler working for crime lord Ha Ge
(Suet Lam) alongside his partner Mark (Darren Wang), while Chao is an
up-and-coming officer in the Hong Kong narcotics division. However, as they
discover how distant they have become from each other, Kai decides to reform
his criminal ways and maybe regain the trust of his brother. In order to do the
right thing by his family, he may have to cut ties with his former employers… permanently.
Kai Wang does quite well as our lead, possibly even better
than the ’86 original as far as the character actually coming across the true
main character. He wields the character’s moral compass with a lot of
smoothness, making his confrontations with his brothers feel like he has some
idea of what makes a “hero”, but still understanding that it takes a lot of
work to convince others that he qualifies. Tianyu Ma is surprisingly good at
being able to get across the hard-nosed detective aspect of the character,
since he doesn’t exactly have the most grizzled physical presence. However, as
convincing as he is, he ends up being a little too petulant in his interactions with Kai for him to be anything
more than someone who needs to learn something in the larger scheme of things.
Darren Wang had one hell of a task given to him, that being
even attempting to hold up to Chow Yun-Fat’s iconic performance from the
original (a performance that this film is more than happy to remind us of, bear
in mind.). I won’t say that he manages to leave as big an impression as his
predecessor, but he still does nicely with the rather mischievous and later
damaged demeanour he sports throughout. Suet Lam gets quite a bit of mileage
out of just saying how much he appreciates “loyalty”, Ailei Yu as his grandson
is convincing both as the initially timid rookie and the conniving gangster
with very few gaps in-between, and Yue Wu plays the resident douchebag with
just enough cockiness to make for an engaging presence on-screen.
Let’s get into the direct comparisons first, as this is
honestly kind of a weird idea for a remake. The 1986 original is an iconic
piece of Hong Kong cinema, one whose influence can immediately be felt just by
sitting down to watch the thing and one which ended up launching director John
Woo and actor Chow Yun-Fat further along their path into becoming cinematic
icons. There are a few ultimately cosmetic differences between that and this
latest iteration, particularly the switch from dealing with Chinese-Taiwanese
relations to Chinese-Japanese relations, and some of the few bits of dialogue
have been shuffled around as far as who is saying what and about whom.
Other
than that, though, this holds onto a lot of the more recognisable facets: The
emphasis on brotherhood and loyalty to one’s ‘family’, the conflict between the
blood brothers on opposite sides of the law, and even John Woo’s legendary
approach to gun fights. Admittedly, that last one doesn’t show through as
strongly here, since it doesn’t carry the same grandiosity as Woo’s main
aesthetic, but then again, this is a rather glossy remake of a low-budget
sleeper hit; it’s comparatively weaker, but at least to an understandable
degree.
As far as portraying the story that connects the two films
together, this manages to highlight enough of the main themes to make it stand
on its own. It may lack some of the more philosophical touches, like Mark
talking about how he is a god (and honestly, after seeing Chow Yun-Fat’s
performance, I can’t argue with that assertion), but when showing the
relationship between the characters, it still lands on solid ground. Along with
the actors doing quite well on their own terms, their chemistry with each other
makes the notions in their dialogue about forgiveness, destiny and whether or
not people are worth forgiving ring true. Kai and Mark work very well as a
double-act, nailing the film’s approach to grey morality in a way that actually
makes up for the shift in thematic focus. It may still be less lofty than what
came before it, but at the same time, that grounding means that the
relationships between characters gets emphasised. As a result, this manages to
highlight enough of the original story, only making certain pieces more
prominent, to make this remake’s very existence feel justified. That’s kind of
a big ask for any remake, especially one that takes this much of a stylistic
detour.
Of course, this film is quite aware of the task it’s been
given. From the minimally-updated title to the relative faithfulness to its
source material, even down to a scene that directly references Chow Yun-Fat as
Mark, this has a certain amount of insecurity about its place as a remake.
Given what I’ve already written above, I’ll admit that I can understand why
there would be a certain amount of apprehension about this whole thing.
However, more so than the fidelity to the story of how brothers-by-blood and
brothers-by-oath treat each other, this film manages to justify itself in
another way: By highlighting how these stories of Heroic Bloodshed still have a
place in the larger picture. As the film carries on and character allegiances
start to truly harden, we are given a few instances of characters actively
questioning whether this level of devotion to another person is advisable. Why
would we have to inspire loyalty in our fellows, when you can just simply
purchase it? Add to that parts of Cang’s dialogue about how silly it is to
“play hero”, and we have another instance of a film preferring honest
connection over cynicism.
As I got into in my last review, I have a lot of
respect for ideas like this, and I’m willing to bet that this story about the
importance of allies involving the cultural strains between Japan and China
isn’t an accident. I won’t pretend to know nearly enough about those strains to
comment on accuracy or even efficacy, but… let’s just say that I am growing
increasingly tired of how isolated we as human beings have become, and anything
that emphasises the antithesis of that is an easy way to get my approval. That,
and the film itself worked pretty hard to earn that in the first place.
All in all, while I can’t see this even getting close to the
original as far as cultural impact or even collective recollection, it does
well enough to be able to stand on its own merits. The acting is solid, the
direction takes advantage of both the similarities and the differences between
this and its core inspiration, and the writing sells both the old-school
brotherly conflict of the original and
highlighting certain attitudes to show why we still have some use for that kind
of story. If nothing else, I’m thankful that this recent release got me to
watch the original for the first time, and the fact that this doesn’t feel like
a direct insult to said original makes that sit a lot easier than it would’ve
otherwise (e.g. what happened when Beauty And The Beast came out last year).
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