The Anonymous Heroes
Reviewed by YTSL
David Chiang (AKA John Chiang). Ti Lung.
Chang Cheh. Lau Kar Leung (AKA Liu Chia-Liang). These are individuals
whose names are familiar to even those Hong Kong film fans, like myself,
who are not particularly well versed with regards to Shaw Brothers movie
details and lore. And while it is true enough that this might partly
be the result of one’s having viewed some of these folks’ post 1970s, non-Shaw
Brothers output (which include, in the case of Ti Lung, the first two “A
Better Tomorrow”s, “People’s Hero”, “Drunken Master II” and “The Kid”),
it is on their earlier works -- most of which have not been legitimately
plus widely accessible for decades -- that a great bulk of their exalted
reputations rest.
It thus was with a certain high level of anticipation
that I decided to check out THE ANONYMOUS HEROES; and this not least since
Celestial Pictures was hawking this Shaw Brothers re-release as a 1971
top ten box office hit as well as prime example of the work of not just
one but, instead, all four of these HK movie legends. At the same
time though, on account of my not being unaware that that which had David
Chiang (as “a red blooded man of action” named Meng Kang) and Ti Lung (as
another fight loving individual who Meng Kang addressed as elder brother
Tieh) as its lead actors, Chang Cheh as its director plus Lau Kar Leung
as its co-action choreographer (along with Tang Chia) has been getting
a negative as well as lukewarm reception from some quarters, I also tried
to mentally brace myself for the possibility that there would be components
of the offering that might not be to my liking.
This I think I was successful in doing for the
most part. Alternatively, I have to admit to feeling insufficiently
prepared for this circa 1926-1927 “post-Chinese revolution adventure of
rebels battling against warlords” turning out to be less of an intense
kung fu flick than an often blithe-feeling (and, accordingly, not all that
emotionally involving), brawl-style action effort. On a positive
note, this state of affairs made it so that David Chiang could be revealed
to have a very winning cheeky smile and grin -- plus near irrepressibly
carefree, cock-of-the-walk persona -- while Ti Lung struck me, plainly
and simply, as having been a truly handsome hunk of a young man.
Indeed, these two actors’ combined charm offensive, along with a conveyed
sense of being utterly comfortable as a star pair, went a long way towards
making the extremely male-centric THE ANONYMOUS HEROES -- whose lively
but still largely useless main female character’s role was described by
Po Fung (a Hong Kong film critic whose interview is one of the DVD’s extras)
as being “to helplessly love [that of] David Chiang” -- as watchable for
me as it was.
If truth be told though, my preference would have
been for THE ANONYMOUS HEROES -- whose titular characters are specifically
pointed out at one stage of the movie as being Meng Kan, Tieh and Cheng
Li’s Pepper -- to have been far less jocular acting. In fact, this
trio’s behavior was apt to come across as annoyingly childish as well as
casual (rather than cute or even commendably gung ho), and thoroughly ill-befitting
of the volunteer dissidents that they effectively became post meeting with
a mature military man turned Kuomintang activist named Wan (portrayed by
Ku Feng). Especially in light of their assigned mission -- one that
involved stealing 3000 new rifles and 280,000 rounds of ammunition from
the 3rd Division forces that was under the command of Marshall Chin (who
Ching Miao essayed) and transporting it all some miles south to Nanjing
(which appears in the English subtitles as “South City”) and into the hands
of Wan’s deputy (Chen Shang is played by Cheng Lui) and other comrades
there -- being a formidable plus serious one, it all seemed rather ridiculous,
inexplicable and inappropriate for there to frequently be such a playful
air about them (and to the film as a whole).
Another aspect of THE ANONYMOUS HEROES that I
found distractingly problematic was its being too easily obvious that quite
a few sections of the work’s exterior scenes had actually been shot indoors.
Perhaps this thirty something year old movie’s technical weaknesses would
have been less obvious to contemporary audiences as well as those down
the years who could only view copies of it that were less clear and clean
than that which has come about from Celestial’s digital restoration efforts.
Also in the interest of fairness, here’s stating that the costumes worn
-- and many of the props utilized -- by the extra-filled film’s cast were
generally far from shabby or cheap, and consequently pretty impressive,
looking.
Additionally, although the scenes in THE ANONYMOUS
HEROES that involved a train had not struck me as being well staged but
not all that especially remarkable when I viewed them, I have since learnt
-- via Po Kung’s comments re them -- that they might well have been among
the first in a Hong Kong movie to feature such a vehicle together with
a chase scene that had the pursuers of it doing so on horseback (in the
style of Hollywood Westerns). What with my having recently viewed
similar scenes in the released-in-1992 “Shanghai Heroic Story” (plus being
able to recall the presence of action scenes involving a train in other
efforts like the partially Lau Kar Leung directed “Drunken Master II”),
it appears that these original ones were very successful in having captured
the imagination of other Hong Kong film makers as well as the audience
of such works.
My rating for this film: 5.5
Reviewed by Yves Gendron
As part of Chang Cheh’s famed early seventies
“Blood Brothers’ cycle that showcased the deadly duo of David Chiang and
Ti Lung, this 1971 production ANONYMOUS HEROES is notably different from
its fellow brethren in two crucial ways. First, it’s much lighter in tone
with its two stars playing out their roles like two exuberant rascals.
Second, instead of being a swordplay drama or angst-filled k-f pot-boiler
like the other blood brother movies, ANONYMOUS HEROES with it’s sporadic
gun-fights, it’s war-like setting and it’s train wagon chase plays more
as a romp by mishmashing film genres which were highly popular in the sixties
and seventies; the American Western, the Italian Spaghetti Western as well
as the WWII caper movie (like THE DIRTY DOZENS or GUNS FROM NAVARRO)
In the war-torn nineteen twenties China, ruthless
warlord Chin (Ching Miao) has received a shipment of 3000 powerful rifles
which will make his army an invincible force. This does not sit well with
undercover revolutionary agent Wan (Ku Feng) who recruits local hot-tempered
men of action Meng Kang (David Chiang) and Tieh (Ti Lung) to attempt a
daring caper aimed at stealing the weapons. With the help of Meng and Tieh’s
feisty female friend Pepper (Cheng Li) they manage to accomplish the deed
but afterward they have to escape the clutches of Warlord Chin’s troops
that are sent after them. So now the question is; will they manage to succeed
in their mission and live to tell the tale afterwards?
Chang Cheh may have been a master at martial
art filmmaking, but with this would be western/war movie inspired action
caper he unfortunately delivered what could be best described as an under-achievement.
The film’s first third is actually not so bad as it establishes both the
characters and situation in a smooth, amusing light-hearted way. It’s afterward
however that things get spoiled with first a tedious and dull twenty-minute
long section in which disguised as officers Chiang and company manage to
remove the rifles. Then there is an extended train chase sequence
in which the action bits look largely forced and clunky. In a way, the
film feels as if Chang Cheh had been merely commissioned to direct this
would-be caper movie and besides lacking the means and the expertise to
deliver the goods he also lacked any real affinity with the material he
was given to do it any justice and therefore delivered pretty much a lame
duck.
At least, both David Chiang and Ti Lung look good
in stolen army uniforms and their genial enthusiastic rogue characters
as well as the brawls they engage in during the first and final third section
save the film from been a complete dud. Quite evidently Chang Cheh knew
where the strength of his movie was; not in any big stunt or convoluted
plotting but in the charisma and action delivered by his stars. Usually,
of course in most of the Blood Brother movies Chiang played the cocky suave
dude while Ti Lung was the tormented brooder. This time though, Ti too
has some fun playing a rogue albeit a simpler one than Chiang, who once
again as in the other Blood movies is the pivotal character.
Shaw Brother actress Cheng Li is the third
billed star in the movie. Although she’s given a terrific introduction
as a feisty girl who even Chiang, and Ti Lung are intimated by, but afterwards
(except for bringing some needed car trucks) she hardly does anything and
she is restricted to the typical flower vase role. This is of course hardly
surprising considering that Cheng Cheh was well known to have little use
for women characters even as a romantic interest, as the crucial relationships
in his films were actually between his male leads. So if she is of so little
actual use why have her as the third billed star? Well, although the glorious
days of female dominance were coming to a close at the dawn of the seventies,
the door wasn’t closed yet, so to add Cheng Li, who was a big young female
star at the time, was probably thought a savvy commercial move. She was
even probably cast in the movie by the Shaw bosses before Chang Cheh and
Ni Kuang (his regular screen-writer), had written the script. At
least they gave her some character and at least one or two meaty moments.
If the wagon-train pursuit is reminiscent of
a western and the heroes disguised as enemy military officers feels taken
from a WWII caper movie, the easy going exuberant nature of the heroes
and their relationship both between them and with the girl appears to be
taken out from the western classic BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (69),
or so say the two pundits speaking on the ANONYMOUS HEROES DVD commentary
track, Stefan Hammond and Miles Wood. That both film heroes meet a similar
blaze of glory fate reinforces this point. Despite what the commentators
say however ANONYMOUS HEROES owed nothing to Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A
TIME THE REVOLUTION (also known as FISTFUL OF DOLLARS or GET DOWN YOU SUKA)
as it was released in 1972 quite some time after Chang Cheh’s film.
There are some interesting miscellaneous tidbits
about ANONYMOUS HEROES that may be of interest to regular H-K movie fans.
Ku Feng who plays a heroic revolutionary in ANONYMOUS would fifteen years
later play the ruthless ticketing chief officer fighting revolutionaries
in Tsui Hark’s classic PEKING OPERA BLUES; a film which by the way did
manage unlike ANONYMOUS HEROES to fully assimilate its many Western cinema
influences. Cheng Li is the real life daughter of character actor Cheng
Miao who plays the ruthless warlord in the film, but they have no scenes
together. Cheng Miao had already played the warlord at least once in the
very first patented Blood Brother movie VENGEANCE (70). In that same movie
Yuen Woo Ping and his younger brother Cheung-yan appeared briefly as the
warlord bodyguards. In ANONYMOUS they put on army uniforms once again appearing
as two drunken officers who are beaten by Chiang early in the film. Besides
the Yuen’s, Lau Kar-wing, Fung Hark-on and gangly stunt man Hon Gwok-choi
are briefly glimpsed while the future Charles Bronson of Asia, Chan Sing,
has a small part as he usually did in Blood Brother movies.
Despite being a rather clunky movie, ANONYMOUS
wasn’t a dud at all at the box-office and ranked fifth on the local movie
chart, as the viewing public was still under the magnetic spell of the
Chiang/Ti Lung heroic pairing. This wasn’t to last long much longer though,
as six months later the meteoric sensation Bruce Lee would appear and would
change H-K martial art cinema forever and become the one adversary the
deadly duo could not defeat.
On average, Chang Cheh made between 4 to 5 films
a year. Under such a rapid production rate it’s perfectly understandable
that he occasionally made some lesser movies and with its clunky action
bits and sloppy superficial plotting ANONYMOUS HEROES is one of them. Still,
it remains an overall decently crafted movie which has some moments, such
as the friendly brawl between Chiang and Ti Lung in which they demolish
their abode in the process, the couple of brawls done inside a gambling
den and of course the final fight where our trio try to bayonet their way
out of a desperate situation. A lame duck perhaps, but good enough as mild
entertainment.
My rating for this film: 6.0