The Anonymous Heroes (Wu ming ying xiong, 1971)

Chang Cheh

Hong Kong

103 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

Review © 2003 Branislav L. Slantchev

A non-stop action flick that won't be putting other action films to shame, The Anonymous Heroes boasts a star-ridden cast that has two of the biggest action people Shaw Brothers had at the time (Ti Lung and David Chiang), the irresistible Ching Li, the ubiquitous Ku Feng, and a whole sleuth of others, including Ching Miao, Wang Chung, and Yeung Chi-Hing. (There's tons of cameo appearances as well, if you are into id-ing people, this film is a blast.)

If one does not take the film too seriously, then it's definitely a wild entertainment ride. The year is sometime during the 1930s and China is torn by various warlords vying for control of what will soon become mostly Japanese territory. One of these guys calls himself Marshall (Ching Miao) and has just received a shipment of 3,000 new rifles and 280,000 rounds of ammunition. I don't know why the precise numbers are so important but everyone keeps repeating them, so I will too. The point is, that's a lot of rifles that he'll be using for unsavory purposes, like crushing some rebellion in the South.

David Chiang recalling simian past	Ti Lung scratching in bewilderment

The rebellion sends master agitator Brother Wan (Ku Feng) to steal the rifles thereby turning the tide of the revolution. It is unclear whether the guy is a communist (with Mao) or a nationalist (with Chiang). He quickly recruits Meng Kang (David Chiang) and Tieh Hu (Ti Lung), two local rascals that spend their time gambling, brawling (with others and with each other), and whoring. Actually, Meng Kang is the only one shown whoring, which is a bit confusing since he also happens to be Pepper's (Ching Li) sweetheart. Of course, Pepper gets in on the deal to steal the rifles for free.

Now, since it's not that easy to just walk away with 3,000 rifles and 280,000 rounds of ammo, the gang decides to "use guile" (tm). This they do by dressing up as soldiers, kidnapping a senior officer (Tong Dik), borrowing trucks from Pepper's dad, who also happens to be Chief Hung, the guy who runs the transport for the Marshall, and then proceeding to brazenly march into the headquarters of another commander (Yang Chih-Ching) and demand he release the rifles to the kidnapped guy.

Ching Li exhibiting unhealthy urges to see Ti Lung fight	Ti Lung runs away from Ching Li as Ku Feng watches in astonishment

Up until this point everything was funny. Well, except when they shot a soldier to get his uniform (this is not the unfunny bit) totally neglecting the fact that said uniform will have (a) a hole, and (b) lots of blood that would be sort of hard to explain. The soldier, however, must have died of apparent heart attack because there was neither (a) a hole in the uniform, nor (b) lots of blood. Now, where's the fun in shooting someone if he's not going to bleed properly?

Ching Li glowering	The only sensible action is to kill her

The commander, quite sensibly, refuses to release the rifles at which point Meng Kang and Tieh leap onto motorcycles and ride off to procure the Marshall's permission to have them released! Two things immediately become clear: (1) the kidnapped commander, having found himself in the middle of his own military base and threatened by one flimsy revolutionary, will immediately attempt to extricate himself; and (2) the two would-be revolutionaries have no chance in hell of making the scheme work. However, (1) never happens because for unfathomable reasons the commander satisfies himself by mostly sweating profusely. And (2) never happens either mostly because the two dudes actually have no plan whatsoever, which turns out to be helpful when they stumble across an officer who conveniently carries orders to have the rifles released to the Marshall.

Ha-ha! We're all going to die!	Ching Li pouting

Swallowing the coincidences hard is not enough. For the two dudes turn out to be illiterate and therefore fail to secure the one document they need although they do kill everyone and steal an entire briefcase full of procurement accounts and love letters. Just when they are about to walk out empty handed (for the commander, again quite sensibly, refuses to accept the love letters as valid release authorization orders), the Marshall calls and orders him to release the rifles immediately and screw written orders!

Ku Feng, Tong Dik, Ti Lung, Ching Li, David Chiang	The wild East

After soldiers help our almost-revolutionaries load the trucks with what appear to be in the neighborhood of no more than 200 rifles (if we charitably count 20 per chest, it would still give us 400, not 3,000), the chase is on. The film now veers into well-trodden Western territory, with soldiers replacing the Indians (or robbers) who are chasing after the train where our heroes ride. There's lots of shooting that conveniently stops so that Wan can die and not tell the others who his contact is in the City.

Devastated by loss of toy train	David shows Ching Miao how he carried 3,000 rifles

Then there's an atrocious special effect involving an obviously toy locomotive splashing in an obviously miniature river, with an obviously toy wagon crashing into an obviously miniature house. The guys then cover the wagon with leaves and go to the City where they promptly get into a fight and fall for the oldest trick in the book when bandit Yen (Chan Sing) lures them to his lair under false pretenses. They fight some more with guys wielding mean cleavers and then escape only for Meng Kang to be captured by the Marshall.

Six dispatched with two shots	Come to Papa!

Being astonishingly stupid, Meng Kang believes the Marshall when the latter pretends to let him go. At this point, Meng simply deserves the worst death ever just to help natural selection along. Instead of killing himself immediately, he leads the soldiers to his two friends, so that all three can die instead. This they do but not before telling a noodle vendor revolutionary about the rifles. Even though the heroes die, the revolution apparently succeeds (with total disregard for history) because we see about 20 people running down a hill wielding new rifles. The army would be clearly helpless.

Who knew death would be so much fun?	... which is why they are 'anonymous'

The film is well-intentioned but does strain credulity almost to the breaking point. I do not usually quarrel with small logical problems, but here the entire premise was ridiculous. That a cunning revolutionary would recruit two obviously clueless and irresponsible guys, that he would immediately tell them about the plot, that he would not shoot them when he thinks that they won't do it, that getting two military trucks is as simple as pouting at your Dad, that a military commander would never try to get away from one guy when surrounded by tens of his own soldiers, all that is extremely hard to buy into. What was not hard to buy into, on the other hand, was that the two dudes would get themselves killed on a whim. Ti Lung and David Chiang played their roles admirably, making this bit at least believable.

As for the rest, the action sequences are pretty neat, especially when the two leads brawl with each other, or when they slice and shoot their way through at least several thousand soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets on the ready. The special effects, as I mentioned before, were horrible, although not much can be expected on low budgets. Location shooting was a nice change in pace (most Shaw Brothers films I have seen are mostly shot indoors). Catch Ching Li glowering and pouting, this alone is worth the price of admission. Also, Ti Lung looks way too cool in military garb.

The Celestial Pictures DVD has a non-anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) transfer that looks gorgeous. The remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 Mandarin soundtrack is the only audio option. The white English subtitles are mostly error-free, and are readable all of the time. There are plenty of extras in addition to the usual still gallery, trailers, and talent files. There are subtitled interviews with the critic Po Fung (incorrectly listed on the back cover as Bey Logan), David Chiang, and Turbo Law. There is also a somewhat dull audio commentary (I only watched about 10 minutes) with British critics Jude Poyer and Miles Wood.

June 17, 2003