Cory Yuen's Hero Review

One of the last films he directed in Hong Kong before traveling to the United States to serve as fight choreographer on virtually all of Jet Li's western output and direct The Transporter, Cory Yuen's Hero -- not to be confused with Zhang Yimou's film of the same name -- is one of the most surprisingly overlooked and neglected of Hong Kong action films. Released in 1997 it's as though director Yuen knew what the future had in store for him, as though he knew that while he'd manage to sneak a Hong Kong project in from time to time his shift to working in Hollywood would be more or less permanent and so decided to jam as much old school Hong Kong goodness into this picture as he possibly could.

Hero has got everything that made the golden age of Hong Kong: the period setting, colonial tensions, wildly acrobatic and inventive martial arts choreography, intense melodrama, a gallon or two of blood, an over the top villain, and plenty of wacky slapstick. It turns on a dime, shifting moods easily and often, cycling between action scenes, romance and comedy with a surprisingly deft touch -- the comedy working better here than in most of Cory Yuen's films. It also features one of the last truly great performances by the chronically under appreciated Yuen Biao and the first ever kung fu role by heart throb Takeshi Kaneshiro, whose output to this point had alternated largely between Wong Kar Wai arthouse performances and shallow pretty boy pinup roles with the latter dominating. Will this new, restored DVD edition be enough to give Hero the audience it deserves? Realistically, probably not. But it does give us fans already in the know a huge improvement over any previously available edition.

A loose remake of Chang Cheh's Boxer From Shantung, Hero casts Kaneshiro as Ma Wing Jing, a poor northern man who leaves his home and travels to Shanghai with his elder brother to escape a drought and carve out a new life for himself. But life isn't what Ma had hoped when he arrives. Work is scarce and demeaning and his hot temper hardly makes him an ideal candidate for lowly manual labor. Aimless and losing hope, a chance encounter with righteous gang boss Tam See (Yuen Biao) gives Ma new focus and a new goal. Just as Tam made himself an admired and powerful man with his wit, his fists and his honor, Ma will carve out a niche for himself. But while Ma's skills as a fighter draw admiration from Tam and others, his rash behavior and generaly naivite about life in the big city make him an easy target for manipulation by the more sophisticated and it isn't long before he is an unwitting pawn being used in a battle between Tam and a rival gang lord.

More than a little bit mis-titled -- Ma isn't really a hero, just a muddled kid who eventually must correct a mess he allowed himself to create through his own blindness -- the film is nonetheless a fun ride. Yuen directs with energy and verve, and enlists a good number of the Yuen clan to create some truly memorable action sequences. The scale of the film is admirable, as is the attention to detail, and Yuen does a much better ob with the comedy here than he does in many of his other films -- helped along a great deal no doubt by his versatile cast. Which includes himself in a key role.

Kaneshiro is an actor who drew a lot of criticism for the sheer number of pretty boy roles he took in this time period, criticism that often veers into unfair territory. Yes, he has made his share of fluff but he has a natural screen charisma and a decent range when allowed to use it and the material here pushes Kaneshiro into a lot of territory where he doesn't usually get to go. You expect him to handle the romance element of the film well, and he does, but more surprising are his comic abilities, his willingness to capture the arrogance of Ma at the peak of his power, and he does an admirable job in the action sequences. Is he a natural martial artist? No, of course not, and Yuen shoots Kaneshiro's sequences noticable tighter with more frequent edits than he does with Yuen Biao's but Kaneshiro is game for more than you'd expect and is more than credible.

Solid Kaneshiro may be, and it is his name on the marquee, but make no mistake about it: the real reason to see this film is Yuen Biao. Always overshadowed by his close friends and peers Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao is one of the great gems of golden age Hong Kong, a naturally charismatic performer with style and energy and dazzling martial arts skills. He is magnetic as Tam, a role tha tgives him ample space to shine both as an actor and as a fighter.

This new edition of the film is part of the ongoing Celestial Pictures project to restore films from the Shaw Btrothers library and -- no surprise, given the work done on the rest of this series -- the restored picture looks great. The image is crisp and clear, the print clean of any defects. English subtitles are excellent, clear and well translated. On the whole it's a worthy release of a more than worthy film.