Brothers Five
A lot has been written about Lo Wei and his departure from Shaw Brothers for Golden Harvest, where he would help launch Bruce Lee to stardom. And even more has been written about Shaw Brothers failing to sign Bruce Lee due to their general refusal to pay money to anyone.
Brothers Five highlights another important talent that Shaw Brothers lost in that exodus to Golden Harvest – Sammo Hung. Not even 20 when Brothers Five was made this was only his third film as action director (paired with Simon Chui, who was about five years older but equally new to the role).
If history had gone another way and Sammo had stayed with Shaws the cinema of Hong Kong would be poorer for it. I think Sammo, more than any other single individual, is responsible for the movies made in Hong Kong during its golden age (late 70s through early 90s). As a director, star and – most importantly – producer he’s central to the whole thing.
So to think of him working on Shaw Brothers movies, being pushed to work faster and simpler, instead of learning how to do the exact opposite on films like Touch of Zen…well, I’m glad things didn’t turn out that way.
Brothers Five, the second pairing of Lo Wei and Sammo Hung, is a fun showcase of their combined talents. Full of ridiculous Lo Wei details (such as the giant golden hand mace or a deadly calligraphy brush) and long-take complicated fights it’s a lot more fun than its very boring title might lead you to believe.
An interesting casting note here is Kao Yuen as middle brother Gao Kong. He certainly doesn’t stand out. As the only brother without a fun weapon or cool outfit I couldn’t quite figure out why he was there.
Though he didn’t make many films with Shaw Brothers he had quite a long career before joining the studio. But unlike many other folks who joined Shaw Brothers in the late 60s Kao Yuen didn’t come from the Cantonese film industry, but from the opposite side of the political spectrum.
Broadly speaking Mandarin-language film studios in Hong Kong were divided into two camps: Right Wing who supported Taiwan and the KMT; Left Wing who supported the Communist government of China. Shaw Brothers was Right Wing. And all of Kao Yuen’s earlier films were for Left Wing studios, mostly Feng Huang Motion Pictures.
While talent did go between the two sides it wasn’t super common. I can’t find any details on what led to Kao Yuen’s switch. A curious, but unexplained, little story.
Ian Whitney
Published: 2025-12-14