All Men Are Brothers (1975)

All Men Are Brothers was a sequel to The Water Margin (1972) and loosely related to Delightful Forest. Having shown great restraint in The Water Margin, Chang Cheh reverted to form and brought out the Buckets O’ Blood and high body counts in All Men Are Brothers.

Along the lines of “I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord,” David Chiang’s character plays a tune for the Emperor of Song. The emperor is so taken with his music that he declares he will pardon the Heroes of Liangshan if they can destroy the rebel Emperor Fang La. The heroes begin their quest with great success but also at a great cost. Finally, all that is left is to breach Fang’s fortress walls and bring him down. After a failed attempt, a Fellowship of the Sword is assembled with Yan Qing, Black Whirlwind, Tattooed Dragon, Fearless One, White Stripe, Sun Er Niang, and Zhang Qing. The seven heroes enter the fortress in order to spy on their enemy and determine how to help the Liangshan army get through the gates. Black Whirlwind, whose heart is bigger than his brain, starts a domino effect that results in tragedy.

As short as The Water Margin was on action and death, All Men Are Brothers was long. The film kept the swordplay coming though it began to follow a repetitive and predictable pattern. The same four fight choreographers worked on this film-Tang Chia, Lau Kar Leung, Lau Kar Wing, and Chan Chuen. The fights were much better in this film, at least most of them. David Chiang’s wrestling moves still made very little sense to me. Chen Kuan Tai’s fight used a variety of weapons and moves and as usual, he knew how to sell them. Bolo made an appearance as an evil general decked out in a leopard caveman shirt. Poor Black Whirlwind learned the lesson, “never play another man’s game” too late during their fight. There was also a fight in deep water with swimmers against warriors with spears in boats that appeared inherently dangerous for those involved.

Fan Mei Sheng dominated every scene he was in with his enthusiasm. He all but said, “Hulk smash!” as he gleefully swung his axes in battle. Chen Kuan Tai was able to join the fun in this film after being sidelined in the last, just like Danny Lee. Ti Lung still had very little to do until the end and was still in that awful wig. Though they kept trying to focus on David Chiang’s character, I found his performance uninteresting. The last two of the seven were bland and barely registered though I was happy a woman made the team. Ku Feng once again played Welcome Rain, a leader who felt the loss of each warrior serving under him.

The sets were enormous for the keep, though not as intricately designed as The Water Margin’s sets, it was above and beyond normal SB fare. Shaw Tower, the famous pagoda, made a cameo appearance in this film for an early battle. Once again, the cast of extras was quite numerous. Thankfully, the awful contemporary music from the first film was replaced with a more organic sound. The ‘chicka-chicka-chow’ Shaft effect was still used around David Chiang’s character though.

All Men Are Brothers lacked the subtlety of its predecessor with bodies covered in #2 red finger paint and dropping like flies. Perhaps it was more realistic to paint the cost of war in blood. Or it could have just been Chang Cheh being Chang Cheh. As always, I grade these older niche films on a curve.

28 March 2024

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