GO BROTHER! (快把我哥带走) (2018)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Zheng Fenfen
Cast: Peng Yuchang, Wendy Zhang, Zhao Jinmai
RunTime: 1 hr 56 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Purple Plan 
Official Website:

Opening Day: 30 August 2018

Synopsis: What does it feel like to have a brother who makes a fool of his sister every day and has no sense of family? Shi Miao’s only hope, is for her brother Shi Fen to disappear completely, even her precious birthday wishes are "take my brother away quickly". Unexpectedly, wishes come true and her brother becomes her best friend Miao Miao’s elder brother. Shi Miao feels sorry for Miao Miao but secretly thrills at the thought of finally getting rid of the “devil king”! The life without brother becomes a dream that Shi Miao enjoys every minute but she gradually finds out the hidden secret behind the detestable behaviour of her brother.

Movie Review:

Not to be confused with GDH’s ‘Brother of the Year’, ‘Go Brother!’ explores similar themes of siblinghood but with a fantasy twist. The bickering brother and sister couple here is Shimiao (Peng Yuchang) and Shifen ("Wendy" Zhang), the latter apparently the long-suffering victim of the former’s mischievous ways. Besides pranking her by fiddling with her alarm clock (thus causing her to wake up late for school) and stealing her allowance (so he can participate in some ‘game card’ sweepstakes), he also gets her to cover for him when he gets into trouble, such as when he is summoned by his teacher for snipping the names off exam scripts (so he can sell them to the highest bidder). It’s no wonder Shifen is thoroughly frustrated with Shimiao, and to make matters worse, her parents seem oblivious to her brother’s bad behaviour.

So when no one seems to remember her sixteenth birthday, Shifen wishes that her brother were taken away. Unbeknownst to her, she wakes up the next morning to find that she has indeed become an only child; moreover, Shimiao is now the older brother to her celebrity-obsessed best friend Miaomiao (Zhao Jinmai). After an obligatory period of initial confusion, Shifen tries to make up for her guilt for having inflicted her ‘suffering’ on Miaomiao by attempting to protect Miaomiao from her own brother. Yet she is taken aback when Miaomiao doesn’t seem at all distressed by Shimiao’s naughty deeds, which in turn forces her to re-examine her own bias towards Shimiao. Not surprisingly, Shifen begins to have a change of heart about Shimiao, realising that there is not only method to his mischief but also a deeper objective.

In fact, Shimiao has been trying to protect Shifen from the harsh truth of the state of their parents’ marriage: blaming their father’s alcoholism, their mother has already moved out and gotten together with someone else, and is now seeking a divorce to finalise the separation. The script co-written by director Zheng Fenfen expresses this in possibly the most convenient way – that is, by having Miaomiao’s own parents experience similar marriage woes that compel her mother to want to divorce her father too – although in this regard, it isn’t exactly clear if this is also consequent to Shifen’s birthday wish. No matter, the film leaves no question about Shimiao’s thoughtfulness, turning what was previously selfish, foolish and childish into selfless, mature and loving acts of sacrifice and love.

Oh yes, like its Thai spiritual companion, ‘Go Brother!’ reaffirms the bond between brother and sister, celebrating the complex undercurrents of emotion within that run the gamut from affection, annoyance, frustration and even resentment. The photos and sentimental end credits song encapsulate what Zheng hopes that her audience will take away from her film, i.e. to cherish the siblings we have been blessed to grow up with and to continue to be there for each other even through adulthood. It’s a poignant message all right, and Zheng’s earnestness ensures that the last act of her film that shows the depth of Shimiao’s care for Shifen is touching and heart-warming at the same time. It also packs a damning message to parents who have been neglectful of their own children, perfectly captured in a scene where Shimiao tells his mother and her boyfriend just what to look out for in order to make Shifen happy.

Notwithstanding, the film as a whole isn’t quite as compelling as it could have been. Watching Shimiao pull off his tomfooleries around Shifen and then Miaomiao is amusing for a while but quickly wears thin, and never quite builds to a point where we would empathise why Shifen would wish for her brother to go away in the first place. Ditto for her subsequent vexation when she sees Shimiao doing what he would otherwise do to her onto Miaomiao, and that in turn diminishes the emotional turn-around that both we and Shifen are supposed to feel in the later half of the movie. And that’s not forgetting the fact that the whole fantasy set-up isn’t well-defined enough, in order that we know just what had changed and what remains in reality after Shifen’s wish comes true.

Still, relative newcomers Wendy Zhang and Peng Yuchang are endearing in their respective roles – one the ingenuous younger sister who comes to realise how sheltered and shielded her life has been, and the other the irascible sibling who turns out to be an attentive and thoughtful older brother. The supporting cast are unmemorable, but given how the movie revolves around Zhang and Peng’s characters as well as their relationship, you’ll probably not mind much. The same can be said of the movie as a whole, whose parts are too average to leave much of an impression but packs enough of an emotional punch towards the end to manage a minor recommendation. There’s been strong word-of-mouth on this one in China, which in turn has translated to box-office momentum, but between the two, ‘Brother of the Year’ is the brother-sister movie of the year to check out.

Movie Rating:

(An emotional finish redeems an otherwise utterly average comedy about the love-hate relationship between siblings, which doesn't go, go, go far enough in laughs or drama)

Review by Gabriel Chong