“Big Brother” Theatrical Poster
Director: Kam Ka-Wai
Cast: Donnie Yen, Joe Chen, Yu Kang, Brahim Achabbakhe, Tom Caserto, Alfred Cheung, Ye Fan, Semiquaver Iafeta, Tin-Lung Koo, Gladys Li, Ka Wah Lam, Mike Leeder, Jess Liaudin, Billy Lau Nam-Kwong, Fung Lee, Brahim Chab
Running Time: 101 min.
By Paul Bramhall
In the last 3 years alone Donnie Yen has played a kung fu master, a wandering swordsman, a sci-fi version of Zatoichi, a kick ass secret agent, and a legendary crippled gangster. So hey, being the most inspirational high school teacher that’s ever graced the screen seems like a natural progression, and that’s exactly what we get with Big Brother. While Yen has spent virtually the whole of the 2010’s with his name attached to what feels like 10 or more productions at any one time, part of the fun is seeing exactly how many of them come to fruition. Big Rescue, which had Yen teamed up with a group of lovable dogs, didn’t happen. Sigh of relief. Noodle Man, which would have cast Yen alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, didn’t happen either. Cue a bigger sigh of relief. Yen cast as a kind of kung fu version of Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds? I was sure that wasn’t going to happen either, but in this case, I was dead wrong.
Thankfully Big Brother doesn’t come with either Michelle Pfeiffer or a soundtrack by Coolio (or a starring role either, China Strike Force was quite enough of that), however it does come with a huge lump of cheese that’s difficult to shake off. But let’s face it, if anyone’s capable of smashing a lump of cheese into pleasantly digestible bites, it’s Yen and his fists of fury, and luckily he doesn’t forget to bring them along with him. For anyone that’s wondering exactly what kind of movie Big Brother is, from the moment the upbeat opening song plays over the opening credits, declaring “When you believe, you can be whoever you want to be” over and over again, trust me when I say you’ll know pretty fast.
Yen plays a former US marine, who after realising the futility of war and questioning how humans can be so cruel to each other, returns to Hong Kong to teach in a public school ear marked for closure due to its poor performance. Why would a US marine choose to become a teacher in such a school? That’s one of Big Brother’s few cards that it plays close to its chest, and it’s a move that works well when compared to how it wears its heart, which is unabashedly on its sleeve. At the end of Special ID Yen jumps for joy on top of a building, fist punching the air and declaring how beautiful life is in a voiceover. It was a horrible moment that I’ve tried to forget many times. However maybe Big Brother is the reason why I haven’t, because to a large degree, it really feels like the character Yen plays in Special ID went on to become the school teacher that he’s playing here.
Constantly switching between Cantonese and English (usually consisting of “You can do it!”, “Remember, you can do it!”, & “I told you, you can do it!”), Yen dishes out an almost immeasurable amount of fist pumps, high fives, and yes, even a few joy filled jumps as well. However unlike Special ID, here the saccharine nature of it all somehow works. Truthfully, I thought there was going to be a twist at the end in which we find out he’s actually an angel, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, we spend 100 minutes witnessing Yen’s incredible talents, as he takes a group of troublesome students under his wing (and their extended families), and single handedly gets their lives back on the track. Alcoholism, sexism, class discrimination, gang violence, poverty – don’t you worry, have a sit down with Yen and he’ll put you right, usually with a beaming smile and one of those inspirational quotes you see on cards or stuck to fridges.
Most likely Big Brother will be a love it or hate it movie for many people. We’re talking about a production that features songs by James Blunt and Lukas Graham in its soundtrack, and every other line is something along the lines of “Knowledge is power” or “Follow your own beliefs.” If you’re susceptible to vomiting in your mouth, this isn’t the flick for you. However if you’re willing to buy into its good nature, and accept that Donnie Yen can turn your life around with his infinite wisdom and unconditional support, then there’s plenty to enjoy. The kids themselves tick all the stereotypical boxes – the tomboy girl, the quick tempered poor kid supporting his granny, the kid suffering from ADD, twins with an alcoholic father, and a HK born Pakistani kid who longs to be a Canto-pop star (ok, admittedly that last one is kind of unique). However the new faces on the block playing them fit the roles well, and are likable enough.
Helmed by Kam Ka-Wai, after serving as assistant director on the likes of Yen’s Ip Man and its sequel, he finally stepped into the director chair himself for his 2016 debut, the abysmal iGirl. Thankfully Ka-Wai appears to be someone who learns quickly from his mistakes, topping off Wong Jing’s Colour of… trilogy with the solid Colour of the Game a year later, so Big Brother provides him with his hat trick. While his latest solo effort as a director may be undeniably sweet, it’s also undeniably assured, with a pace that moves along at a good clip, and there’s a confidence behind the handling of the material. Despite its sugar coated delivery, Big Brother still delivers a scathing message of the Hong Kong education system, and doesn’t shy away from addressing teen suicides and other issues the authorities would rather turn a blind eye too. It’s a credit to Ka-Wai’s approach, and he’s certainly a director to keep an eye on.
However, this is also a Donnie Yen flick, so people need to be punched in the face. Ka-Wai knows this, and despite being 55, audiences still come with the lofty expectation of seeing Yen kick some butt whenever he appears in a movie, which is as much of a credit to him as it likely is a burden. There are only 2 fight scenes in Big Brother, and although many of his hardcore fans may cry foul at this, it’s worth remembering the action quota wasn’t that much higher in the likes of his classics SPL and Flash Point. Fight choreography duties have gone to Yen’s long-time collaborator Kenji Tanagaki, who most recently worked on God of War, and for many will be most recognizable as the Japanese fighter that Wu Jing faces off against in Fatal Contact. His work on Big Brother could well be considered to be his best yet, particularly in the integration of MMA locks and holds into the brawls.
For a taste of some action audiences will have to wait a whole 50 minutes, but when it comes it hits hard, as Yen is forced to take on a locker room full of gweilo MMA fighters, culminating in him throwing down against human brick wall Jess Liaudin. In true HK movie style, the whole fight is set to gweilo mainstay Mike Leeder yelling “Easy money!” and “First round!” on constant rotation. In what feels like a subtle nod to Sammo Hung’s naked bathhouse fight scene from The Victim, Yen even gets to square off against some bare butted opponents, although thankfully we’re spared any Eastern Promises style exposure. It’s a great fight, and feels very scrappy and desperate, with everyone involved delivering top drawer physical performances. The second fight is saved for the finale, which pits Yen against a group of gangsters one of the students got involved with, before seguing into a one-on-one rematch against Ice Man’s Yu Kang.
It may be a bold statement, but I’d rank Yen’s fight against Kang here above the finales of both Flash Point and Special ID in terms of his MMA themed work. The fact that the fight is prefaced by an unexpected emotional gut punch adds some serious weight to it, however both of them really go at it, throwing each other every which way and clocking up some impressive collateral damage. The amount of damaged property brought to mind when Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren faced off in Universal Soldier: Regeneration, except here we’re not dealing with invincible reanimated soldiers. It may not be intricate or stylish, but as an example of a screen fight which really feels like two people attempting to knock the living daylights out of each other, this is up there. Best of all? It feels evenly matched, which was my biggest gripe in both the finales of Flash Point and Special ID.
It’s strange to talk about Big Brother in the context of the way sometimes average old school kung fu flicks could redeem themselves with a final fight, but somehow the comparison fits with Big Brother. The terminally upbeat nature of it all does begin to show signs of grating in the later parts, however the finale reels everything in as if to say, ok, you’ve got this far – now we’ll give you what you’re waiting for. Until you get to that point though, you’ll have to witness Yen riding his motorbike alongside a field full of running horses, a mini-Yen versus a mini-Yu Kang flashback, and (maybe I mentioned it before), plenty of fist pumps. It’s not every day you come across a movie with the potential to have Dead Poets Society meets Special ID as its tagline, but Big Brother fits that criteria. High five.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10
Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck!
Come on, I think i only say First Round three times, and Easy Money a few times, there is a “I’m gonna make you some money!” in there too
Trust me the original audio for that scene, the air was quite blue including Donnie responding to my now deleted “who’s that Ip Man looking mothafucka?” with a few choice words!
I had a great time working on the movie with Donnie, Kam kar-wai, Kenji and the boys and give it up to Donnie for stepping outside the box and putting the focus on some very relevant HK issues, and yes of course he had to have some kick ass in there, he’s Donnie Yen!
Great line! Can we expect an unrated Blu-ray? 😛
Don’t think I didn’t notice either that you’ve formed an alliance with Semiquaver Iafeta as ‘The Helios Boys’ gweilo package deal.
& was it just me, or did Yu Kang throw in a subtle homage to the Afro Ninja?
Still need to know if this is going to get a release in the UK, limited or not. 🙁
Sounds like a fun film. I’m all in favor of movies that tell you to believe and all that stuff, but film makers need to learn how to be less preachy. Dead Poets Society and The Emporer’s Club had it right.
I was hoping for a lengthy one on one with Donnie and Brahim. I guess he’s one of the many bodies in the first fight.
I can’t belive Donnie is 55 already. I hope I’m in that kind of shape when I’m his age.
actually just had this from a would be actor “Oh Big Mike only works with his friends”….no, i like to work with my friends, but its because they can do the job….I met Jess 13 years ago when i was doing the casting for Fearless, and he’s come close to working with me over here on several projects including Ip Man 2 and Man of Tai Chi, but Big Brother was perfect fit, and as shown by his performance in NIGHT FARE< the man has some major presence!
The rest of the Cobra Kai included Brahim Achabbkhe who came in to help and as ever delivered the goods, Semi who i met on Helios and have worked with on a bunch of projects including Helios, this, Mission Milano, and Abduction, great guy and enthusiasm all the way, Tom Caserto (HKSA) very good skills, young stunt guy and student of Mark Houghton, Lockhart Ogilvie who was visiting from UK
The locker room fight was a bit longer and a lot more lewd! But its a very good sequence as you pointed out, and yes that was an Afro Ninja reference, he thought it was funny as hell when he saw that clip and has tried sneaking it into other projects
One of the naked dudes was Scottish stuntman Craig MIller who gets one hell of a nut shot! And originally Daniel Whyte was supposed to join us, but unfortunately tore his ACL during a stunt rehearsal but was with us in spirit
Good stuff Mike, thanks for the insights. Now when are we going to get a third round of Yu Kang vs Donnie Yen goodness in ‘Ice Man 2’!?
Ice Man 2, posters and trailers randomly appear in HK but all potential release dates seem to be ignored….amazed its 4 years since part one came out and the sequel has yet to sneak out
Mike Leeder – can you help me break into the action film industry? I’ve co-starred in a number of top martial arts films with big names that are comparable to Bruce Lee and Jacky Chan. I don’t have a fight reel, but you gotta believe me: I’m the best there is! Please email me when you get a chance! If you don’t contact me, you’re making the mistake of a life time. I’ve written my first action script. It takes place after an alien attack by Karate-fighting creatures. It’ll have all sorts of huge explosions and big fight scenes. The star of THE RAID already agreed to be in it. So maybe you can get Maria Tran and Mark Dacascos to co-star with me. They can be my sidekicks hehehe P.S. I love your book “Hong Kong Action Cinema”
Ooooooohhhh, you’re asking for lots and lots of trouble! (Don’t kill him, Mike!)
Dear Mike, yeah, same as the dude above me said (I don’t feel like typing all those words- my time is too important), except I’m better. Donnie wanted to fight me, but I thought that wouldn’t be good for my image. Call me. I’m important enough that you can just do a search for my number.
BTW, I turned down the lead in BRAVEHEART (I don’t look good in blue makeup).
Why thank you JJ, sadly thats pretty accurate for some of the messages i get including the “Hi, a sexual predator and low rent Harvey Winestain has told me you will put me in movies’ comment
I am preparing a new version of the casting article, including some of my favourite new additions of the last year or so including the “hey, i saw you hired Jess for BIG BROTHER< he's no good you must be shit at your job to hire him! If you want a star for your next movie, you should call me! Former Belator Champion soon to be Champion again!" (yes thats always a good way to make a first impression, slag off someone i've hired, slag off me and tell me you used to be a champion while offering no reel or anything…guess i should search you out to see your greatness!)….the "Hi Mike, just letting you know I am a Hollywood actor in Beijing (no credits, no showreel, no resume!)….the just happened this week "Hi, i do a lot of interviews about how I am a big star, and the future of cinema and how to be a star in China/Hong Kong, i just got hired to work on my first project, a Jackie Chan movie, and I didn't bother to turn up when I was supposed to because you know BS'ing about my credentials is more important than doing the job" or the classic on Abduction when an Extra starts telling me how he is not really an extra, he's not even an actor, he is actually a STAR in China and Hong Kong……wow I say, what are some of the projects you've done? and he tells me amongst other projects he was one of the stars of HELIOS with Nick Cheung & Jacky Cheung…..wow what role did you play in Helios? This is where it gets really interesting,,,,,"I played the main bodyguard to the bald bad guy in the car park scene….why are you laughing? " Well i played the bald bad guy in that scene and my main bodyguard was Semi…..(beat) "oh sorry, not that scene, the other scene in Macau at the dog track"…..where i played the twin brother of the character in the garage scene and all my bodyguards were guys i know and not you? PLEASE get off the set now
The joys of movie making!
“I played the main bodyguard to the bald bad guy in the car park scene….why are you laughing? ” Well i played the bald bad guy in that scene and my main bodyguard was Semi…..(beat) ” LOL!
I got really excited when I thought i missed a movie where he plays “sci-fi Zatoichi”, and instantly got sad when i realized it was Rogue One you were refering to.
You have my sincere apologies.
I watched Big Brother, and I agree with most of the review.
I was ok with the movie not being full of action, but the dramatic scenes had a lot of issues. For one thing, most of the students were not good actors. Whenever they would cry or scream, it looked incredibly fake, and undermined the movie’s message.
And while I think it’s great to make a movie about helping and encouraging others to succeed, there was way too much mushiness.
It didn’t help to have back to back scenes of fathers crying over their children, and he subplot of the brothers with the alcoholic dad was handled poorly. The fact that issues like alcoholism and suicide were solved almost immediately was incredibly stupid.
I liked the action, but was upset that Donnie was only able to handle Jess because the latter was drugged. The final fight with Donnie and Yu Kang was good, and I liked the scrappiness of it, but I never felt they were evenly matched.
Yu Kang’s character was hardly showcased as a capable fighter and spent a great deal of the fight on the defensive with almost no technique. It seemed like he only gave Donnie trouble because of his strength. Colin Chou and Andy On are still better opponents in this regard.
Although Donnie was never a master thespian, I liked how he acted outside of his comfort zone, and was believable as someone who wanted to do good. Whenever he smiles, it felt genuine instead of forced.
With less mushiness and more structure, Big brother could have been an 8.
“Whenever he smiles, it felt genuine instead of forced.”
You mean to say that shots like this feel forced? 🙂
I get your points, but for me I could forgive them, and almost expect scenes like you describe from HK cinema (and this really did feel like a slice of HK cinema – a Cantonese speaking HK cast, HK locales, and a cheesy soundtrack, just with less synthesizers). The back-to-back scenes with the parents was really no different from the scene in ‘SPL’, when each supporting cop character consecutively receives a call from their loved one, ready to be killed off by Wu Jing. Subtlety has never been a prominent feature of HK cinema, and it certainly wasn’t anymore glaring here than it was in any of the classics we hold near and dear.
Haha! I didn’t necessarily mean that Donnie forced it before. I was just referring to how this was a different character for him, and I don’t know if he would have pulled it off in the 90’s.
Big Brother and Chasing the Dragon show that Donnie has learned a lot since then.
I certainly know that melodrama and sentimental “mush” is a staple of HK cinema, but I didn’t mind it before since I thought the acting was good in many of those films. The sequence in SPL had good acting, and I bought into it because a lot was at stake in the plot.
With Big Brother, it felt like soap opera caricatures invaded and they weren’t convincing.
I don’t know anything about the actors who played the students, but they looked too inexperienced for a major film.
Unrelated, but I wonder who the audience was supposed to be. It can’t be kids because of the violence and Mike saying “fuck” all the time, and it can’t be adults because of the corny scenes. I was a bit at a loss.
“Unrelated, but I wonder who the audience was supposed to be. It can’t be kids because of the violence and Mike saying “fuck” all the time, and it can’t be adults because of the corny scenes. I was a bit at a loss.”
That one’s easy – Donnie Yen fans (aka the whole of China) 😛
Then I’m sure they’ll all flock to his remake of Baby Geniuses. 💀
Does anyone know the title of the opening song (the opening credit)?? thanks in advance.
Maybe tangram – rush forward
What the song part the girl playing gokart with father in circuit
anyone knows the title of the song that has a lyrics of “when you believe” something?