Blood Brothers is the story of three close friends, Fung, Kang, and his little brother Hu. They begin the story as poor fishermen from Zhujiajiao, a small village on the outskirts of Shanghai. They are young and trapped by unfortunate circumstances; they decide to move to Shanghai in search of whatever opportunities the big city may have in store for them. Once in Shanghai, they are tempted by riches they once could only imagine, but they never expected to become involved with the criminal underworld. They are quickly drawn into the vicious and seductive life provided by the most infamous nightclub in Shanghai, the Paradise Club, a place where the dance stage sparkles with beautiful women such as Lulu, the resident songstress and object of every man’s desire. Behind the bright lights, a stream of blood flows deep and wide as Boss Hong, owner of the Paradise Club and a powerful figure in the crime world of Shanghai, discovers that Mark, his right-hand man, is having an affair with Lulu. All the while, both his enemies and his allies are plotting to wrestle control of local gangs away from him. As the three brothers rise to power, Fung has to make a choice between this life of crime and unrequited love, or a return to the man he once was. Hu has been struggling with his own weakness and reconcile himself to the dangers of his new life in Shanghai while Kang, blinded by a lust for power, pursues his own ambitions at any cost. By the end, lives will be lost, though redemption may still be within reach.
FUNG had been content with his simple village life. Due to unforeseen events, he had no choice but to seek refuge in Shanghai. Fung is faced with a life he never dreamt of or wanted. Forced into this world of violence, a heroic side of him emerges, much to everyone’s surprise – especially to himself.
Along the way, Fung befriends MARK, a charismatic enforcer who seeks the righteous path but is tormented by his past. There is more to him than meets the eye – a secret that will change the course of all the lives around him.
LULU is a gorgeous free spirit who Fung falls in love with. She dreams of stardom and does what she must to survive without any regret. Though beneath the surface lies a tender heart hiding a tragic conflict.
KANG is the most ambitious. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. He craves power and misguidedly thinks that he is seeking it for a greater good. He will not let anything stand in his way, be it friend, foe or even family.
XIAO HU is the most innocent and naïve of the three. He blindly admires his brother, Kang, so much so that he would follow him to the ends of the world. Unfortunately, this new world would pull him spiraling downwards. Unable to cope with his fears and weaknesses, he must choose between the two people he loves the most.
Su Zhen is Fung’s childhood sweetheart, a virtuous, angelic figure close to his family who helps to care for his mother. Fung hopes to marry her one day.
At the Paradise Club, Fung, Kang and Xiao Hu encounter Boss Hong, a charismatic showman, and a self-styled movie producer. But underneath this exterior, he is a ruthless man who controls part of the city’s underworld, a crime boss extraordinaire filled with greed.
Daniel Wu is Hong Kong’s brightest young star of his generation. Born in San Francisco, Wu embarked on an acting career with the help of mega-star Jackie Chan. His good looks and martial arts expertise proved attractive to many Hong Kong directors looking for that “next big thing”, and this helped in the development of his career. In 1998, he was nominated as the Best New Performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in City of Glass. In 2003, he was nominated for Best Actor at the 40th Golden Horse Awards for Night Corridor, which he also produced. At the following year’s Golden Horse Awards, he was crowned Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Jackie Chan’s New Police Story. Wu has also made a name for himself with Hong Kong’s internationally renowned art house directors such as Stanley Kwan (Everlasting Regret) and Yonfan (Bishonen). Most recently, he starred in Feng Xiaogang’s The Banquet, garnering international fame as Prince Wu Luan. The multi-talented Wu also made his directorial debut with The Heavenly Kings, a “mockumentary” which won him Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2007.
In a stellar career now spanning more than 50 movies, the intelligent and sexy Shu has made her mark in a number of critically acclaimed feature films in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her breakthrough came when Hou Hsiao-Hsien cast her in Millennium Mambo as Vicky, a nightclub hostess torn between two men. Shu has proved her acting credibility by garnering several awards: in Viva Erotica in 1996 for Best New Performer and Best Supporting Actress at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards; in Portland Street Blues in 1998 for Best Supporting Actress at the 35th Golden Horse Awards; and in Three Times for Best Actress at the 42nd Golden Horse Awards. She has become well known internationally from her role in 20th Century Fox’s 2002 box-office hit The Transporter, from Corey Yuen’s So Close and from her role in the Pang Brothers’ sequel The Eye – Part 2 in 2004. She recently took on a role as a tough female gangster in the Korean comedy sequel My Wife is A Gangster 3. The awards she has won and the diversity of roles she has undertaken are a true testament to Shu Qi’s wide-ranging skills as an actress.
Yang began his career as a model and made his acting debut in a TV drama. In 2004, he became an instant celebrity in Taiwan and throughout Asia following his film debut in the romantic comedy and box office hit Formula 17. Yang showed a totally different side to his TV persona and his performance won him Best New Performer at the 41st Golden Horse Awards. His follow-up work was another comedy entitled
Li was born in 1981 in Beijing. Her brilliant performance in her debut film, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl made her the youngest actress ever to win the Best Actress at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards, but also saw her voted Best Actress at the Paris Film Festival in 1999. Since her first film, Li has appeared in several television series, making her one of the most promising young actresses in China. She won the Best Actress again at the Romanian Film Festival for About Love in 2005. In addition to her acting career in film and television, Li enjoys huge popularity in the Chinese advertising and fashion industry.
Sun Hong Lei is from Harbin, a city in the Northwest of China. He started his career as the lead singer of a band performing mostly in local bars. He then decided to pursue acting, enrolling himself in the Central Academy of Drama. Sun moved on to perform in several stage dramas and made a strong impression playing both policemen and assassins in a variety of TV shows. He was quickly discovered by Zhang Yimou, who cast him in The Road Home and Happy Times. From there he played opposite Gong Li in Zhou Yu’s Train as a hedonistic vet who offers her more than she thought she had. His latest film before Blood Brothers is Tsui Hark’s new classic Seven Swords, in which his character Fire-Wind leads an army to invade and destroy Martial Village. In addition to Blood Brothers, Sun will appear in Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol in 2007.
Chang Chen made an incandescent screen debut at the age of 14 in Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day in 1991. After a brief hiatus from acting, he returned to the screen with a co-starring role alongside Hong Kong legends Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheung in Wong Kar-Wai’s award-winning Happy Together (1997). In 2000, he achieved worldwide stardom opposite Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang in Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In recent years, Chang has become one of Asia's most sought-after leading men and has starred in numerous internationally acclaimed films by some of the world's preeminent directors, including Wong Kar-Wai (2046, Eros), Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Three Times), Su Chao Pin (Silk) and Tian Zhuangzhuang (The Go Master). He will next be seen in Kim Ki-duk's romantic drama Breath.
Alexi Tan was educated in London and later undertook his graduate studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He began his film career as a stills photographer. In 2000, Alexi directed his first film 17.17, a six-minute experimental short which premiered at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. With this first exposure to the film world, he discovered where his true passion and talents lie. In 2002, Alexi moved to Asia to pursue his career in film directing, and at that time he started to direct TV commercials and music videos. His videos have won numerous international awards. In 2003, he directed Double Blade, a 15-minute short film shot entirely in Los Angeles starring Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou (Initial D, Curse of the Golden Flower) and a Hollywood cast featuring Leila Arcieri and Danny Trejo. Amongst the crew that Alexi was able to assemble was Andrzej Sekula, the cinematographer of Pulp Fiction. Double Blade caught the attention of filmmakers John Woo and Terence Chang, who subsequently agreed to produce his first feature film Blood Brothers.
Tim Yip kicked off his film career in 1986 with John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow. Over the past twenty years, he has been involved with both costume design and art direction in many movies and theatrical performances. He has worked with prominent directors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, including Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Wayne Wang (Eat A Bowl of Tea), Stanley Kwan (Rouge), Clara Law (Autumn Moon, Temptation of a Monk), Tsai Ming-Liang (What Time Is It There?), Tian Zhuangzhuang (Springtime in a Small Town) and Feng Xiaogang (The Banquet). In 2000, Tim received international recognition for his work on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, wining both an Oscar for Best Art Direction at the Academy Awards and Best Costume Designer Award from the British Academy of Film. His achievements both in Asia and abroad have earned him global acclaim. His works not only merge modern and classic art forms but meld East and West, exploring new combinations of art and film.
Yau began his career in the film industry as a production designer in Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1996. He then moved onto working as Art Director on several films throughout the late 1990s including The First Option, Beast Cops and When I Look Upon the Stars. His reputation reached the peak in his career with 2046 for which he won Best Art Direction at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards in 2004 and the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005. Blood Brothers is his latest film.
Taburiaux started his career as a cinematographer working extensively in television commercials and music videos. After collaborating with Olivier Vidal, Christophe Fraipont and Olivier Megaton on several short films, he made his debut feature as Director of Photography on Megaton’s Exit in 2000. Since then Taburiaux has worked on two other features, The Great Challenge and Scorpion, with Julien Seri. Blood Brothers is his most recent film.
Cheng studied Electronic Engineering at the Shanghai University of Science & Technology. After completing his B.S., he moved onto studying film-making in the United States, firstly in Philadelphia and then in Los Angeles. Cheng spent several years working as an editor on various film and television projects before returning to China in the late 1990s and since then he has directed a couple of television series. Cheng resumed his editing career with Zhang Yimou’s latest films including House of Flying Daggers, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles and Curse of the Golden Flower.
Kwok started as an action actor in his career which has spanned more than three decades. Since the mid-1970s he has appeared in more than fifty films, most of them Hong Kong martial art movies. While continuing to work as an actor, Kwok began choreographing fight scenes for films in the 1980s; amongst his work as an action choreographer, The Touch enjoys the highest profile for which Kwok was nominated for the Best Action Choreography at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2003. In addition to his achievements in action choreography, Kwok is such a versatile talent that he has worked as a director, writer, producer and art director on several film projects.
Belardinelli is a freelance composer who runs a music studio in New York. He composes original scores for a variety of different projects ranging from television commercials to the soundtracks for experimental films. His collaboration with Alexi Tan began with Tan’s short film, 17/17. Blood Brothers is Belardinelli’s first move into composing for full-length feature films.
Chappell was born in 1970 in Nottingham, England. Under the influence of his grandfather, a well-known pianist, he decided to choose music as his profession at an early age. After graduating from Manchester University with a degree in Sound Engineering, he moved to live in Australia for a year. In 1994, Chappell arrived in Hong Kong and began to work as a sound editor in film. His career has flourished since his arrival in Hong Kong; he has participated in more than a dozen films and has been nominated three times for major film awards in Asia. He was nominated for Best Sound Effects for PTU at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards in 2003, Best Sound Design for The Legend of Zu in 2002 and Best Sound Editing for Time and Tide in 2001 at the Hong Kong Film Awards.