''The Brothers'' (

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

: 差人大佬搏命仔 ''Cha yan daai liu bok meng chai'',

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

: ''Cha ren da lao bo ming zai'') is a 1979 Hong Kong action crime-drama film directed by Hua Shan, written by Lam Chin Wai and Yuen Cheung, and produced by

Runme Shaw Runme Shaw, K.St.J (; 1 January 1901 – 2 March 1985) was the chairman and founder of the Shaw Organisation of Singapore. Runme Shaw and his brother, Run Run Shaw, together known as the Shaw Brothers, were pioneers in the film and entertainm ...

under the

Shaw Brothers Studio Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd. () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, and operated from 1925 to 2011. In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...

. The film stars Tony Liu,

Danny Lee Sau-Yin Danny Lee (; born 6 August 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, film producer, screenwriter, director, action director and presenter. He is known for frequently portraying Hong Kong police officers in films such as '' Law with Two Phases'', '' The K ...

, Chau Li Chuan,

Ku Feng Chan Sze-man (born 3 July 1930), better known by his stage name Ku Feng, is a Hong Kong actor. Background He studied in Beijing, and has appeared in hundreds of films, many of which were produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio Shaw Brothers ...

, and Nam Hung. It is a remake of Indian action crime-drama film ''

Deewaar ''Deewaar'' () is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar). It stars Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy and Parveen Babi. The fi ...

'' (1975), written by

Salim–Javed Salim–Javed were an Indian screenwriting duo, composed of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, working in Bollywood. They are noted for being the first Indian screenwriters to achieve star status, becoming the most successful Indian screenwriters ...

. In turn, ''The Brothers'' inspired

John Woo John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gu ...

's ''

A Better Tomorrow ''A Better Tomorrow'' () is a 1986 Hong Kong crime action film directed and co-written by John Woo, and starring Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-fat. The film had a profound influence on Hong Kong action cinema, and has been recognised as ...

'' and played a key role in the creation of the

heroic bloodshed Heroic bloodshed is a genre invented by Hong Kong action cinema revolving around stylized action sequences and dramatic themes such as brotherhood, duty, honour, redemption and violence that has become a popular genre used by different directors wo ...

crime genre of 1980s

Hong Kong action cinema Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese culture, Chinese and Culture of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling an ...

Plot

Hong Kong Cinemagic Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The webs ...

'' provides the following plot summary.

Cast

The following are the film's main cast members. * Tony Liu (Lau Wing) as Zhang Zhigang *

as Inspector Zhang Zhiqiang *Chow Lai-Kuen as Yanfen *

as Boss Qian Laosan *Nam Hung as Mother Zhang *Chiang Tao as Zhou Hei / Blackie *Ricky Wong Chung-Tsu as Young Zhigang *Harada Riki as Father Zhang * Chan Shen as Boss Huang Shou Ren *Alan Chan Kwok-Kuen as Huang's assistant *Wang Han-Chen as Dock worker *Yang Chi-Ching as Police chief *Wong Ching-Ho as Mr. Wang *Hung Ling-Ling as Mrs. Wang

Production

''The Brothers'' is a remake of ''

'' (''The Wall''), a 1975 Indian crime film. Written by

(

Salim Khan Salim Abdul Rashid Khan (born 24 November 1935) is an Indian actor, film producer and screenwriter. As a screenwriter, he wrote the screenplays, stories and scripts for numerous Bollywood films. Khan is one half of the prolific screenwriting d ...

and

Javed Akhtar Javed Akhtar (born 17 January 1945) is an Indian poet, lyricist, screenwriter and political activist. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in ...

) and directed by

Yash Chopra Yash Raj Chopra (27 September 1932 21 October 2012) was an Indian film director and film producer who worked in Hindi cinema. The founding chairman of the film production and distribution company Yash Raj Films, Chopra was the recipient of s ...

, the story was loosely inspired by the Bombay underworld gangster

Haji Mastan Mastan Mirza (1 March 1926 25 June 1994), popularly known as Haji Mastan or Sultan Mirza, was an Indian mafia gang leader, originally from Tamil Nadu and based in Bombay. He was one of an infamous trio of mafia gang leaders in Bombay for over ...

. The original film stars

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (f ...

superstar

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succes ...

(as the criminal brother played by Tony Liu),

Shashi Kapoor Shashi Kapoor (pronounced �əʃi kəpuːɾ (born Balbir Raj Kapoor; 18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017) was an Indian actor and film producer who is best known for his work in Hindi films. A recipient of several accolades, including four Natio ...

(as the cop brother played by Danny Lee),

Nirupa Roy Nirupa Roy (born Kokila Kishorechandra Bulsara; 4 January 1931 – 13 October 2004) was an Indian actress who had appeared in Hindi films. Noted for her portrayals of tragedy and sorrow, Roy was known for her acting ability, and was uncharitab ...

(as the mother played by Nam Hung) and

Iftekhar Sayedna Iftekhar Ahmed Sharif (22 February 1924 – 4 March 1995), often mononymously credited as Iftekhar, was an Indian actor who mainly worked in Hindi cinema. He is known for his role as a police officer. Career Iftekhar was born in ...

(in the role played by Ku Feng). ''The Brothers'' is a mostly faithful remake, with many of the same scenes, as well as dialogues transcribed directly from the original in many places. There are some notable differences. It has a shorter 90-minute length, compared to the original's 176 minutes. Other changes reflect the shift from

Indian culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term also ...

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...

, such as the setting changed from

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, and the Bombay underworld changed to the Chinese triads. There are also cultural references changed to reflect Chinese culture; for example, the number on the criminal brother's badge is changed from

786 __NOTOC__ Year 786 ( DCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 786 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eur ...

, a number with symbolic significance in

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

, to 838, which signifies the Chinese Year of the Horse.

Legacy

''The Brothers'' played a key role in the creation of the

crime genre of 1980s

. Plot elements of ''The Brothers'' was reimagined for

's internationally acclaimed breakthrough ''

'' (1986), which involved a similar conflict between two brothers on opposing sides of the law. In particular,

Ti Lung Ti Lung (born 19 August 1946) is a Hong Kong actor, known for his numerous starring roles in a string of Shaw Brothers Studio's films, particularly '' The Blood Brothers'', '' The Avenging Eagle'', '' Clans of Intrigue'', '' The Duel'', '' The Sen ...

's character in ''A Better Tomorrow'' is similar to Tony Liu's character in ''The Brothers'' (in turn based on Amitabh Bachchan's character in ''Deewaar''). In turn, ''A Better Tomorrow'' was a landmark film, credited with creating the

genre, which was influential in

, and later

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

. ''The Brothers'' also established Danny Lee (playing Sashi Kapoor's character from ''Deewaar'') with a police officer persona later seen in Hong Kong crime films such as Woo's '' The Killer'' (1989).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brothers, The (1979 Film) 1970s crime drama films 1979 films 1970s Cantonese-language films Hong Kong action films Hong Kong crime drama films Films about brothers Films set in Hong Kong Remakes of Hong Kong films Films with screenplays by Salim–Javed Triad films 1979 drama films 1970s Hong Kong films