The Unwavering Brotherhood: watchable Hong Kong gangster film

In any case, I would certainly love to have the confidence of the series’ producer, Ng Kin-hung, who started shooting this third film – reuniting with The Brotherhood of Rebel’s director, screenwriters and lead actors and even recycling its narrative framework – before the latter was released in cinemas.

As in that film, The Unwavering Brotherhood tells the story of three mid-level gangsters – Wah (Bosco Wong Chung-chak), Fei (Louis Cheung Kai-chung) and Kwok (Carlos Chan Ka-lok) – who make some very bad decisions for themselves and inadvertently bring about the downfall of their beloved triad faction leader.

Returning director Terry Ng Ka-wai’s engaging, if familiar movie again boils down to a test of loyalty for the trio, this time after they are ambushed on a money transfer assignment; the conflicts here stem primarily from Fei’s need to pay for surgery for his severely ill sister (Angel Lam Chin-ting) and Kwok’s gambling in the stock market.

Next to the leading trio of blood brothers it is, surprisingly, their boss, the honourable Fa Kam, and his fiercest rival for leadership inside the syndicate, Kwan (played respectively by Mark Cheng Ho-nam and Michael Tao Dai-yu in eye-catching supporting roles), who prove the most watchable.

Cheng, who was in both Young and Dangerous 5 (1998) and Election 2 (2006), is hugely charismatic as the endlessly amiable father figure to the protagonists. Meanwhile Tao, who is not at all known for nuanced acting in spite of his range of TV drama leading roles, is suitably despicable as the villain.

The Unwavering Brotherhood offers the kind of comfort watch that long-time aficionados of Hong Kong gangster movies should readily seek out. Instead of wasting time reinventing the wheel, the film simply adopts the same old genre formula and briskly shuffles its tragic heroes to their predictably bitter end.