Review of Heroes Shed No Tears

Introduction

In order to stop drug trafficking from the `Golden Triangle`, (an area of intense drug production at the intersection of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar) into Thailand itself, the Thai government recruits a mercenary gang of Chinese soldiers to kidnap the drug baron responsible and bring him to Thailand to face justice. Nothing is easy for Chan Chung (Eddy Ko) and his band of mercenaries (including his son and `auntie`) as, along the way, they interrupt the mass murder of a group of French travellers by a Vietnamese border patrol resulting in the shooting in the eye, by Chung, of a Vietnamese general (Lam Ching-ying) who then pursues Chung. This leads to almost endless fights between the two men and their forces along the way to a showdown between Chung and the general.

Video

Restored from high definition film stock, this has a very sharp 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer which is as good as the other recent releases from Hong Kong Legends.

Both Dutch and English subtitles are available.

Audio

There are three soundtrack options: Cantonese 5.1 and 2.0 together with a 5.1 English dub. The 5.1 mixes cope well with the copious number of explosions and gunbattles, allowing the dialogue to be clear despite the lack of synchronisation on all the soundtracks due to the post-production dubbing.

Features

The UK promotional trailer is the trailer for this `Hong Kong Legends` special edition release.

The original theatrical trailer is fairly interesting as you can see how the film was marketed in 1986.

`From Hong Kong to Hollywood: an interview with John Woo` runs at nearly 23 minutes and concentrates on his early career (up to the release of this film) in Hong Kong and how he made the jump to Hollywood. It`s not the revealing documentary of John Woo that fans would love to see on a new release from HKL but there are still some interesting snippets on information in the interview.

There is also a tribute to Lam Ching-ying but, unfortunately, this is a mini essay which runs as text alongside a still photo of Lam; it would have perhaps been more fitting and enjoyable to have a short documentary of his career including interviews with those who worked with him.

The `further attractions` option provides trailers and technical information for the HKL releases of: The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Once a Thief, The Postman Fights Back, Full Contact and Hong Kong 1941.

Conclusion

This is a strange film from John Woo, partially due to the fact that he didn`t have complete independent creative control and was forced by the studio to film a drug and sex scene to make the film more appealing to international audiences. This seems a strange decision as the scene appears completely out of place and unnecessarily slows the pacing of the film. As with all John Woo films, especially those made in Hong Kong, the body count is huge, the stunts and violence plentiful and the `bullet ballet` slow motion is used enough for effect but not overused to the point where it becomes annoying.

Heroes Shed No Tears was filmed between 1984-5 but only released in 1986 after the international acclaim and success of A Better Tomorrow. Perhaps due to the interference of the studio and perhaps because Woo was still perfecting his art, this is not one of his greatest films and is several rungs below the likes of The Killer, Bullet in the Head or Hard Boiled, yet is still great fun to watch, especially if you like John Woo`s stylised `bullet ballet` violence, of which there is plenty.