Archive for September, 2006
The Heroic Ones
Chang Cheh’s most famous films from the 1960s are known for their strong solitary heroes — Jimmy Wang Yu, Ti Lung and David Chiang. But in the 1970s, his most popular movies featured large groups — such as Five Deadly Venoms or the huge ensemble in The Water Margin.
The Heroic Ones was Chang’s first step from his solo-hero films to his Gang Of Manly Men movies. Instead of a single, vengeance-minded man, The Heroic Ones features the super-masculine 13 Generals and their warfare-obsessed father King Li (Ku Feng).
Fourteen stars is a big change from a single hero, but the story of Heroic Ones only focuses on 4 or 5 people, with the remaining actors serving as mostly nameless extras, ready to die as needed.
The 13 Generals are all sons (biological and adopted) of King Li, who has raised them all to be military masters. But his 13th son, Li Tsun Hsiao (David Chiang), outshines them all at tests of manliness. He drinks, fights and grabs more glory than all his other brothers combined.
Fighting two different attempts to overthrow the Tang emperor, as well as handling their own internal struggles, the 13 Generals get plenty of chances to show off their martial arts skills. And, just like the size of the cast, the fight scenes show Chang’s evolving style and point the way to the kung fu films of the 1970s.
Eschewing most of the high-camp fantasy seen in wuxia films of the 1960s, action directors Lau Kar-Wing, Liu Chia-Lang and Tong Gaai keep the swordplay powerful but realistic. Writer, actor and filmmaker Bey Logan says that the fighting in The Heroic Ones uses actual martial arts styles. I’ll have to take his word on it.
The Heroic Ones may presage the cinematic trends of the 70s, but it’s not that good of a film judged on its own merits. Plot threads appear and disappear, the brothers mostly congeal into an undifferentiated mass and the resolution is far from satisfying. Chang seems out of his element, which isn’t a surprise, and the film suffers from its lack of focus. But Chang would quickly adapt, as would the rest of Hong Kong cinema.
The Heroic Ones
Dir: Chang Cheh
Released: August 14, 1970