Chinese Heroes (2001)

Chinese Heroes (2001)
Aka Dragon Hero; The Top Secret
Chinese Title: 中華丈夫
Translation: Chinese Husband

 

Starring: Max Zhang, Chin Kar-Lok, Leila Tong, Lee San San, Ken Wong, Kwok Nga-Cheung, Sik Siu-Lung
Director: Douglas Kung
Action Director: Douglas Kung

 

Chinese Heroes was one of a handful of movies made by Yuen Woo-Ping’s production studio during the early 2000s. The most infamous of these are the Shaolin vs. the Evil Dead films, although I have to say that I really enjoyed The Undiscovered Tomb, which I’ll review some day. Despite the fact that few genre fans remember (or have actually seen this), and that it seems to be more of a footnote now in the career of its star, Max Zhang (The Brink and Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy), it’s actually a decent film with some great martial arts—arguably the best to be seen in a HK film from 2001.

We open with a Chinese man, Kimura (Kwok Nga-Cheung) , and his Japanese wife fleeing through the forests of China with their daughter, Sakura (Leila Tong, who showed up in City Hunter and Bride With White Hair as the lead female protagonists when they were children). The three are being pursued by a clan of ninja, who eventually catch up to them. A fight breaks out, and the beleaguered family receives help from a country bumpkin named Brother Yen (Max Zhang). Yen escapes with Sakura, the wife gets away later, and Kimura blows himself up in one of the most outright bizarre CGI effects I have ever seen in my life.

The wife arrives at the town and is attacked yet again by the ninja, but is saved by a mysterious fighter in a mask (we later learn that it’s Master Shen, played by Chin Kar Lok of The Green Hornet and Nite Life Hero). Meanwhile, Brother Yen and Sakura are also in town, looking for a place to stay and something to eat. Yen inadvertently gets involved in a competition between rival kung fu schools and becomes the champion of one of the schools. A duel is set up between him and the other school’s champion, Rocky. Rocky is a rural migrant who has come to town with his mother looking for work. Rocky and his mother graciously take in both Yen and Sakura until the day of their duel.

The competition itself was organized by Madame Ho (Lee San-San, from Cop Shop Babes and Jiang Hu: The Triad Zone), the owner of the local casino, and Nakata, a Japanese businessman who’s actually a ninja. Those two fall in love, and Nakata respects Brother Yen from afar, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. The duel eventually takes place, and Brother Yen lets Rocky beat him. Rocky gets rich off the winnings, and Yen is ostracized by the townsfolk because they had lost their savings betting on him. Meanwhile, Yen falls in with Master Shen and his band of orphans and learns kung fu from him. We also learn that Master Shen has been treating Sakura’s mother, who went into a coma from the wounds she sustained in the beginning. Eventually, those pesky ninja show up once more and a final battle is in order.

From a story perspective, the best way to describe Chinese Heroes is “meandering.” It spins its wheels for the majority of its 99-minute run time, jumping back and forth between various character subplots. And there are a lot. So many, in fact, that the main external conflict only accounts for about a third of the movie’s duration, that being the first 10 minutes and the last 20 (or so). The rest of the time jumps back and forth between the martial arts competition, the love story between Madame Ho and Nakata, Rocky becoming a rich snob, Sakura getting work dying cloth, Yen’s training, and God knows what else. There’s a lot happening, but little of it matters in the grand scheme of the story.

The story was written by producer (and former Girls n’ Guns starlet) Sharon Yeung Pan Pan and Ho Yiu-Wang, who also contributed to all the other films produced by Wo Ping Creation Time. In some ways, it feels like they’re shooting for the epic scope of the Once Upon a Time in China films on shoestring, which is why there are so many characters to keep track. Unfortunately, the external conflict has to mean something, and a clan of ninja running around China looking for a secret MacGuffin message whose content we never actually learn is essentially meaningless. Were the Japanese planning a surprise attack? Was it the secret to Chinese kung fu? I dunno. Without us knowing why we should care about the message, it’s difficult to care about the danger of it falling into the wrong hands. Of course, when a major character is sacrificed at the end to destroy the message, it deflates much of the little suspense that had been generated before.

Thankfully, the action is quite good and becomes the film’s saving grace. Director-choreographer Douglas Kung has never been a household name, even at the Shaolin abodes of us kung fu movie fans, but he has solid experience behind him. He spent most of the 80s and 90s working on Girls n’ Guns films, like Princess Madam; City Cops; and Mission of Condor. His last major job was Wushu: The New Generation with Sammo Hung in 2008. I actually liked his work here and am disappointed he hasn’t done more well received films.

Despite being a period piece made in 2001, Kung wisely keeps the wirework to a minimum, cranking it out mainly to have our characters to some exaggerated flips and somersaults. He also insists on not speeding up the actors, or so it appears. He has an especially good eye for weapons choreography, and the sword-on-katana duels that begin and end the film are quite good. One character wields a pair of kama for variety, which is always a nice touch. The group fights consist of simpler moves and less-complex exchanges, but the one-on-one battles are a lot more intricate. There’s one CGI-heavy fight—a dream sequence—where the ninja start throwing shuriken at their opponent, which transform into scorpions that burrow inside their victim. Weird stuff.

The first highlight is the opening ninja ambush, where Kwok Nga-Cheung uses the saber, or dao, against a bunch of ninja wielding katana. Max Zhang throws a few kicks in this fight as well, but mainly spends the scene fleeing with Sakura. The second highlight is the one-on-one duel between Max Zhang and the actor who plays Rocky, which is long and brutal. Both actors lay on the shapes in addition to more modern kicks and it looks great. The finale is a big group duel against the ninja, which features some more good swordplay from Max Zhang. Sadly, Chin Kar-Lok gets injured and doesn’t perform as much here. The climax ends with a great one-on-one between Max and the lead ninja, starting with a sword fight and ending with a brutal hand-to-hand duel. Great choreography and moves from the two actors.

2001 wasn’t an especially good for martial arts films in HK, Taiwan and the PRC. I mean when your top examples are the stunt-heavy The Accidental Spy and My Schoolmate is a Barbarian, you know that things aren’t going well for the genre. Despite the story shortcomings, Chinese Heroes at least delivers the goods in its fight sequences, and should be remembered for doing that during an era where the industry was living far below its potential.