Brother’s Five (1970)

I wish every old Kung Fu movie that I love could be remastered as perfectly as Brothers Five. The colors are brilliant, the footage is seamless and the sound is excellent.

What an enjoyable piece of Kung Fu cinema by the Shaw Brothers this Brothers Five is. I am not sure what the obsession with the number five and Kung Fu is with this team but like Five Deadly Venoms (their most popular move in the west) Brothers Five combines a nice story with some kick ass action.

One thing that is different in Brothers Five than your standard Kung Fu movie, is the inclusion of a powerful heroine. Yen Lai (Cheng Pei-Pei) is a matchless swordswoman who sets out to find five brothers to avenge the killer of her father’s best friend. Her father’s friend Gao was killed by a master Kung Fu practitioner by the name of Long Fen-Cheng.

“Cheng Pei-Pei’s scenes were the best of them all
and her swordplay was poetry in motion”

This late master had five children (boys) that Yen Lai’s father hid for their protection from the evil Long. The brothers have all grown up separately and their skills and work are all drastically different. One brother is a drifter and wears a metal hat that is actually a vicious guillotine (this one seems to have influenced the Mortal Kombat character Kung Lao). Another brother is a bit of a brute, he’s a blacksmith who can fight but has no formal martial arts training. The third brother was very likable, a Shaolin trained scholar who is an expert in a short spear and throwing darts. The fourth brother leads up a security detail (escorting gold) and is a master of the sword. The fifth is a roguish Robin Hood type who fights with a whip and daggers.

The five all get a portion of the movie to themselves, showcasing their skill and reasoning for hating the Flying Dragon Manor (home of Long Fen-Cheng). One of the brothers is enough to take out 100 of Longs men , even his generals but against the master himself they can do nothing. The five each try the man, fail and eventually get together since a combined force is necessary to take on the invincible Long Fen-Cheng.

While the story isn’t as nicely played out and complex as The Five Deadly Venoms, the aspect of family long lost reuniting for the common goal of ridding evil is pretty cliché but enjoyable. While Yen Lai is the guide and the glue necessary to bring the brothers together, her motives are completely driven by her father’s wishes and it would have served better to have her onscreen a lot more than she was.

The editing on certain scenes are a bit dodgy I must warn, one restaurant fighting scene showed one brother jumping from one table to the next and the odd movement made it quite evident that cables were involved. The fighting was sketchy when it came to the martial artists who weren’t very good as opposed to those who were comfortable with the scenes. Cheng Pei-Pei’s scenes were the best of them all and her swordplay was poetry in motion.

I will warn you that this isn’t the dubbed Kung Fu movie that you have grown accustomed to. Brother’s Five is in Mandarin with English subtitles and looks amazing on Blu-Ray. Watching this in HD showed the film in the manner that it was meant to be seen and not once did I miss the streamy lines, blurred transitions, snow or misplace audio that comes with older Kung Fu movies. If you get a chance to grab it in Blu-Ray do so. It is a Shaw Scope, which translates into excellence, so please check it out.