Hong Kong action cinema
"The Brothers" played a key role in the creation of the heroic bloodshed crime genre of 1980s Hong Kong action cinema. Plot elements of "The Brothers" was reimagined for John Woo's internationally acclaimed breakthrough "A Better Tomorrow" (1986), which involved a similar conflict between two brothers on opposing sides of the law. In particular, Ti Lung's character in "A Better Tomorrow" is similar to Tony Liu's character in "The Brothers" (in turn based on Amitabh Bachchan's character in "Deewaar"). In turn, "A Better Tomorrow" was a landmark film, credited with creating the heroic bloodshed genre, which was influential in Hong Kong action cinema, and later Hollywood. "The Brothers" also established Danny Lee (playing Sashi Kapoor's character from "Deewaar") with a police officer persona later seen in Hong Kong crime films such as Woo's "The Killer" (1989).