Dai si hing

This is such a pretentious film that has copied a lot of Hollywood films from the 80s', 90s' up till recent ones related to the "High School" genre. The storyline is so weak and laughable. Donnie Yen's teacher role was absolutely ridiculous as other characters, from the thugs to those students in this film, all of them were dramatized and exaggerated so badly. The director couldn't do anything better since the weak and pretentious screenplay. I just couldn't understand why and how after so many years since the mainland Chinese filmmakers took over the Hong Kong movie industries, the productions have been deteriorating to a degree so pathetic and so hollow, almost every movie looked like adapted from children's books, so naive, so pretentious and so distant from the reality. Characters and roles in almost every movie just looked so stereotyped and one-directional predictable.

Big Brother is a highly entertaining movie that mixes social drama with some martial arts action elements. The movie tells the story of a veteran with a troubled past who comes back to his former Hong Kong high school to work there as a social science teacher. The school faces several problems such as reduced funds, obsolete infrastructures and difficult students. The protagonist uses quite unusual strategies to help his students and invests a lot of energy and time to solve their individual problems. While he soon gets along with his students, his colleagues and the principal are quick to criticize him and Henry Chen soon realizes that being a teacher might become his biggest challenge yet.

Donnie Yen's latest movie is so efficient because it combines social drama and action scenes in a very balanced way. The plot is quite mature, profound and serious. The occasional fight scenes offer welcome breaks from the intense content. The film convinces with intriguing characters that have troubled pasts. Viewers will connect with the war veteran who was everything but an obedient student, his former friend and antagonist who wasn't given the chance to realize his dreams and especially the students who have serious problems such as poverty, criminality and addictions. The film comes around with life-affirming, optimistic and positive message that are truly inspiring, especially if you are a student or teacher yourself.

Some people might criticize that this film features less spectacular fights than other movies starring Donnie Yen but this reduced and realistic approach suits the film very well. Other people might argue that such an intense social drama would be better off without any big fights at all but the serious content is much easier to digest with these vivid sequences. Big Brother leaves the trodden path, tries out an unusual combination of genres and succeeds almost perfectly to my very positive surprise.

If you like social dramas and martial arts films, you will adore this movie that turns out being one of the best in Donnie Yen's impressive career. The content, messages and vibe of the movie will make you think even long after the movie is over. Big Brother is a film for your body, brain and heart and one of the most positive surprises of the year.

The story line was repeated by many similar movies before and also very predictable but nevertheless, it's still a good movie worth watching at home over a bluray or DVD. There are a few very touching scenes which would make you shed some tears as well. But if you are expecting lots of kungfu or martial art movie, then this is not the one as actions are secondary in this movie.

Are you serious? Although this movie is a very positive movie, it still have A LOT OF problems.

The main plot of this movie, you seen many times before. Group of hard to deal with misfit students get a new teacher with out of the box methods to try to bring them back in the right path. You could even say that doing this trough karate/martial arts has also be done before, so its nothing new. But having a guy like Donnie Yen could really make it fun and if lacking in originality, it could be just entertaining.

But the reality is ... it turn out not to be really about this. Donnie's character Mister Chen does teach to these kids and help them solve their problems and everything, but the martial art parts seem to be completely on the side. What i mean is that yes there is some VERY well done martial arts choreography like you would expect from Donnie Yen, but not only they happen not that often but they also seem to be added on the side to justify having Donnie in the movie.

He never actually teach martial arts to the kids. What you got is a movie about students with problems and Donnie helping them fix them and making them better students. And in some ocasions an action scenes occur. The problem is the fighting seem completely disjoincted from the rest of the movie, and the "vilains" are completely underdeveloped and appear as an aftertaught.

Yet despite this critics i can't say i was bored or disliked the movie. There is a few parts that are the product of where the movie happen and seem a bit strange for us North Americans, but in general i still found some interest in these kids and Mr Chen. And the action scenes/fights there was were a lot of fun. So i would say i had decent fun with the movie.

Be warned tough that unless i am unaware of it, this movie is only available in chinese language with subtitles. Couldn't find a french dubbed version or even an english dub. Chinese speak fast and the movie is heavy on plot, so prepare yourself to read a lot.