Blood Brothers

The film is set in the closing years of the Qing dynasty. Two highwaymen, finding that the man they meant to rob is stronger than they are, swear brotherhood with him instead; the three form a bandit band together, then join the imperial army and rise through it. The eldest reaches the rank of provincial governor. But his desire for the wife of one of his brothers ruins everything, and he starts looking for a way to have that brother removed. The story rests on a real event: the killing of the governor Ma Xinyi by his own sworn brother in 1870 was among the most discussed cases of the Qing period, and the official account never convinced everybody. Chang Cheh tells it from the killer's point of view rather than the state's. Ti Lung took a special award at the Golden Horse for playing the governor. One of Chang Cheh's assistant directors on the film was the young John Woo, and brotherhood and betrayal would sit at the centre of his own films later.