User Reviews

"All Men Are Brothers" is the sequel to "Water Margin" a.k.a. "Seven Blows of the Dragon" from 1972. At the beginning of "All Men Are Brothers", we learn that the emperor forgives the 108 Liangshan rebels since he finds they have the same enemies. The small army tries to conquer the city Hangchow, but is defeated. They send 7 spies to gather information about the city's defense before they attack a second time.

The sequel didn't completely fulfill the expectations I had after "Water Margin". The first half hour (note: I am reviewing the 102 min. restored DVD version, not the severely cut video version!) is promising, when the emperor is enchanted by music so much he forgives the Liangshan men, followed by an unusual battle on the seaside of the town. But after that, everything is drowned in gallons of bright red blood. One of the 7 spies is killed after an heroic fight against 20 enemies. Than the second spy is killed after an heroic fight against 20 enemies, then the third... It becomes predictable, with killing for its own sake, which is a pity as the first movie was much more interesting.

New World had already brought The Water Margin to the U. S. as Seven Blows of the Dragon, so they also played the sequel here as Seven Soldiers of Kung Fu, which is I guess thematically a decent sequel title.

Co-directed by Chang Cheh and Wu Ma, this follows up the 108 Bandits having freed second-in-command Lu Jun Yi and being called by their former enemies to stop a rebellious new faction, led by Fang La, and promised a pardon upon the success of that mission.

Where the first film takes time to introduce the viewer to so many characters, All Men Are Brothers is all about action, with gigantic battles taking place on the sprawling Shaw Brothers backlot sets.

If you've watched enough Chang Cheh movies, you may have been a bit weirded out when The Water Margin ended and all of the heroes were alive. Don't worry - he comes back to form on this, which ends with the kind of sacrificial bloody battle that he's better known for. In fact, this just might be the bloodiest of all Shaw Brothers films. The American cut goes to black and white in some of these moments, one of those tricks that get you an R rating instead of an X.

The early to mid 70s were a magical time for martial arts films, as just about anything could come to America and play drive-ins, grindhouses and even occasionally mainstream movie theaters.

All Men are Brothers features an allstar cast and loads of blood drenched action. Every sword stroke causes blood to spray out everywhere. The walls in the city and the fighters clothes get messy early into the fights. This may just be the bloodiest movie the Shaw Brothers ever made. And did I mention the cast? David Chiang, Ti Lung, Fan Mei Sheng, Chen Kuan Tai, Bolo Yeung (he actually gets to fight!), Danny Lee, Ku Feng, Tetsuro Tamba, Wang Chung, Chan Wai Man, and a TON of other recognizable actors have small roles. And with Tong Gai and Lau Kar Leung doing the action, you know its gonna be good.

I didn't know where to fit this into my review but I must mention the awesome soundtrack. It makes David Chiang seem even cooler than he already is.

SEVEN SOLDIERS OF KUNG FU is a direct sequel to SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON (1973), an epic about the 108 Warriors of Chinese legend (and the book, 'Water Margin'), an outlaw band who fought on the side of the people against corrupt officials. Here the 108 are pardoned by the Emperor and assigned to go after a rebel army encamped at a fortress in Hangchow. Seven volunteers enter the fortress as spies to try and find a way for the Emperor's army to gain entrance. When one of their number, the blustery ill-tempered Black Whirlwind (Fan Mei-Sheng), starts a fight and alerts the guards to their presence, the fortress is sealed up and escape is blocked. Only one man (star David Chiang) manages to flee and get the plans back to the army. Another member of the team hides near the underwater gate to let the army ships through the only available entrance once the attack begins.

The plot sounds better than it actually plays out. There's a lot of clutter that distracts from the story. Until the final battle nothing quite moves the way it ought to. The camera-work relies too much on zooming and panning. Still, the film is shot on all those magnificent Shaw Bros. sets, including the famous bridge overlooking Kowloon's Clearwater Bay. There are a lot of clever scenes, an exciting final battle, and a fairly interesting cast led by early 1970s Shaw Bros. stalwarts David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan Tai and including the comical heavyweight Fan Mei-Sheng as Black Whirlwind. Yang Sze (aka Bolo Yeung, from ENTER THE DRAGON) plays one of the rebels who fights David Chiang in one key scene. Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba returns briefly from the first film.

It's not as good as SEVEN BLOWS... but it's worth seeing by fans of early 70s swordplay kung fu. The tape viewed toned down the bloodshed in the fight scenes by turning the film to a sepia tint during those scenes.

ADDENDUM (May 11, 2010): Since I did the above review, both SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON and SEVEN SOLDIERS OF KUNG FU have come out on Region 3 DVD from Celestial Pictures in their restored, uncut Hong Kong versions under their original titles, THE WATER MARGIN and ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS, respectively. (THE WATER MARGIN has also come out on R1 DVD, from Image Entertainment.) Seeing ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS uncensored in its original widescreen aspect ratio, and in its original language, made me appreciate the film a lot more than I did when watching it on a bootleg VHS back in 2001. And it's especially good when watching it right after THE WATER MARGIN. (I also recommend the book on which both films are based, "The Water Margin," aka "All Men Are Brothers," aka "Outlaws of the Marsh.") In the original draft of my review, I neglected to single out Lily Ho's vigorous performance here. At the time, I'd seen her in very few movies, but have seen her in many since and consider her one of the great Shaw Bros. actresses. She could play contemporary career girls, secret agents, period courtesans and fighting femmes, all with great flourish. This was her last film appearance; she retired thereafter.

ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS, the second half of THE WATER MARGIN (aka SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON), offers less exposition than its prequel, but still boasts some good ensemble acting 'midst the political intrigue and an even higher body count. Repeated aquatic assaults on a seaside fortress (where undersea nets rigged with bells alert the villains when the heroes attempt a sneak attack) account for some of the mayhem, but it's the gory hand-to-hand combat on land that takes the greatest toll as, one by one, the fabled fighters fall. Chang Che never made a movie I didn't like (at least, not that I know of) and the pristine print now available (from the Dragon Dynasty collection, if I'm not mistaken) is picture Perfect. David Chiang, as "The Master of the Eighteen Tumbles," returns to mix it up with Yang Tze ("Bolo" from ENTER THE DRAGON) in one of the better fight scenes, but Ti Lung isn't on screen long enough to do very much (he literally fights with one arm tied behind his back in a genuinely shocking appearance near the end of the movie). One of the villains vows, early on, to "turn him and his men into an army of ghosts." It's a great line, and ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS lives up to its promise. Another spectacular Shaw Brothers spectacular.

Another all-star martial arts epic from director Chang Cheh, ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS is an example of the Shaw Brothers studio at its most vibrant. It's a follow-up to THE WATER MARGIN and begins in a choppy, all-over-the-place kind of way, with cameoing stars dying sudden deaths. After half an hour it settles down into a more traditional and intricate plot in which a team of heroes are assembled to find their way into a fortified city and tackle the powerful traitor and his army residing within. The intensely likeable David Chiang leads the ensemble, with excellent support from the likes of Fan Mei Sheng and Chen Kuan Tai along the way. The fight action is almost non-stop at times and the film builds to a bloody climax with plenty of the intensity and satisfying heroic deaths that the director was known for.