Bamboo Brotherhood (1974) User Reviews

IT'S ALL IN THE FAMILY... BUT THE FAMILY IS A TRIAD ONE!

[[e-mail] · 7/10 · 30 December 2020]

Unfortunately, when you get into the Martial Arts genre, reviews on websites are mostly by people who weren't even born when the genre ruled, so they focuses on DVD's tech values overlooking about the rest (often they don't even know that Kung-Fu movies were released in movie-theatres). Okay, Kung-Fu craze of 1973 mostly brought us trashy exploitations, nonetheless a careful viewer can distinguish a slightly better movie from another: and that's the case of The match of Dragon and Tiger, aka The Bamboo Brotherhood. It's a standard revenge-story with a not-standard touch: in the prologue, we see the massacre of a couple, but we see it with the eyes of their kid, who arrives on the scene soon after his father was slaughtered and his mother was raped and murdered. So the kid can only imagine what happened and director Yu Kuan Jen shows it to us through a series of tragic still photos, instead of real action. Very unusual and effective idea. The assassins are relatives of the victims: all brothers and cousins of the same Triad family in a fight for supremacy. Then the opening credits begins on a great Jazz-like music (I dont know if composed for the movie or, as usually happened in those pics, stolen somewhere) and kid's passage from a lost cub to a vengeful adult is admirably solved in few seconds during the music, as we see him running in desperation, then, in a crossfade, his childish feet becomes man's feet and now he's a fully growed-up jumping from a parked train and ready to exacts his revenge. A script shortcoming dont' explains who raised the child and teached him Kung-Fu, but it's a flaw that you forgive as soon as the vindicator starts to kill one by one his 'lovable' uncles: he kills the drunkard-one (actor Ou Yau Man) in a raining night; another one, sex obsessed uncle played by actor Sit Hon, is killed inside a brothel; the third one (actor Chen Chiu) is killed alongwith his henchmen on a running train. Not only does the avenger kill, he also kidnaps his cousin (actress Tan Mei Fang), a spoiled girl walking around on horseback. She's the daughter of the Triad big boss (actor Lei Ming) and she's unaware of her father's crime: she don't know he murdered her cousin's parents to achieve the command in the Triad. Predicatbly the cousins falls in love each other, even if theyr relationship is very far from Hollywwood love-affair style: the girl is logorroic whereas the cousin is a taciturn, unsocial borderline personality. In the meanwhile the elder son of the big boss returns from Europe: he's a western-educated modern guy (actor Goo Leng) who refuses to obey the Triad Law and openly insult his father for being the fratricide he is. And this another interesting twist in an otherwise formulaic Kung-Fu actioner: a thinkingful hero's opponent who tries to break down the ancient rules of chinese retaliation. At this point things goes from bad to worse: in the final showdown the hero his ambushed by enemies leaded by a second-in-command (Actor Yu Chiung-Chiu), but he manages to kill'em all. Incredibly, when he is finally face to face with his uncle, he would be going to give up killing him, since the girl begged him to spare her father. But the old boss tries to hit him in the back and, in doing so, is accidentally killed by the collapse of some heavy bags of rice that choke him. The gun-armed son of the big boss arrives on the scene and, seeing the corpse and believing his cousin responsible for that, aim his gun to the cousin... but then he hrows the pistol and challenges the relative to solve the feud according the ancient chinese way he tried to evade... a long fight ensues, but it seem quit obvious that neither cousin wants to kill the other, eventually stopping when the girl arrives begging to put the feud to an end. The westernized cousin leaves walking exhausted by the fight, as his sister and wounded cousin embrace each other. Honestly directed and effectively played by a cast of vets, THE MATCH OF DRAGON AND TIGER is that kind of little joy only a fan of old school Kung-Fu pics can love, not only for his good action bu also cuz the critic relief on the opinable revenge-driven behaviour of the personages, becomes a critic look to the tired revenge-formula of the genre himself. And this self-critic undoubtedly raises the movie slighlty above the many tech or dialogue flaws. Main star Yao Tien-Lung was one of the youngest Kung-Fu actors in Taiwan as he debuted just 19 years old as stuntman and Martial Arts coreographer in 1969. Here his acting is unripe and mannerist, full of grimaces of rage and twisted looks, but adequate, as well as the occidentalized cousin played by regular stuntman Goo Leng, is well portrayed and comes off in a fine way, considering Goo Leng was just an acrobat usually with no lines in movies, just action.

One movie with at least five different titles

[ckormos1 · 6/10 · 20 September 2019]

This movie has many alternate titles including "The Dragon and Tiger" or "Match for Dragon and Tiger" or "Blood Avenger" or "Bamboo Brotherhood" or "The Dragon's Executioner". There is also a 1973 movie with a similar title "The Dragon and Tiger Joint Hands". I have also reviewed that movie on IMDB.

This movie starts with a child witnessing rape and murder. He grows up during the opening credits and is an unbeatable hero. The first fights are beatings because the hero is so good. The pace then slows down as the daughter of the villain and a hooker are introduced. The plot is revenge so you can guess how it ends.

My copy is a digital file that plays as wide screen on a HDTV. The dialog is dubbed into English. I do not recognize the voice over actors but they do the job without being distracting. It seems to be a true wide screen and the resolution is comparable to a DVD but without any restoration.

Yu Tien-Lung had his first lead in 1972 "The Insanity Being". I also reviewed this movie here. I also reviewed another of his leads 1973 "Infernal Street" which I rated as just average. Other than his movie credits I have no information about him. He has good posture during his fights. The moves are smooth, show enough power, and are close enough to the target. He does a few extended sequences of about ten moves or so without a cut. All of this adds up to good as can be expected for a lead in this genre in 1974.

I rate this as just a tad above average for the year and genre. I recommend it for only hard core fans of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.

Utterly nondescript

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 28 May 2017]

THE BAMBOO BROTHERHOOD is an utterly nondescript martial arts story made in Taiwan. The story has literally nothing that you haven't seen done elsewhere, and every element of the story is either average or below average. The stock narrative sees a man's family massacred and him going after the villains for revenge, only to complicate matters by falling for the daughter of a gang member. This latter sub-plot merely exists to pad out the narrative a little longer. There are no famous actors in this film, and the fight choreography is sadly lacking, leaving it an utterly unmemorable viewing experience.