I'm not sure what kind of potential First Look Studios sees in Alexi Tan's debut Blood Brothers for the North American market. It didn't exactly set the critics on fire at the Toronto In. Film Festival screening I caught the picture in – lavish and beautiful but narratively uninteresting and extremely stylish and slow when not be, this is like the Cotton Club with fake snow-filled streets and even faker bullets.
Starring faves Shu Qi and Chen Chang, this is inspired by John Woo's classic work Bullet in the Head. Woo is shepherding the project – set in 1930s Shanghai, the gangster pic tells the story of three young men who leave their village in search of a better life and get sucked into the city's criminal underworld.
Expect a mid 2008 release for the U.S. market.
