Heroes Among Heroes (1993)

Sick Product of a Sick System

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I recently bought this from my local video franchise which was closing it's store. It had a similar title and design to a Jet Li film I had seen called "The Legend of the Red Dragon". Of course I thought it was a sequel to the Li action flick I liked so I bought it, especially seeing it was starring talented Donnie Yen and the action choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping. Though this was a period actioner and did feature a lot of comedy like the Li movie, this one isn't a sequel. It was actually made before "Legend of..." but it's not a prequel either. Just a clever DVD design. And like that one, we never find out who or what the red dragon is. Also my version unfortunately didn't include either a cantonese or mandarin audio track. English and French only with subtitles. The English dubbing was terrible. But it made the comedy all the more funny, embarrassingly so. Can't say I was too impressed after watching it. The action was OK but not the high standard I was used to from Ping. Too much silly wirework and a lot of the camera tricks were too obvious like the speeding. The fight with the Fire Lotus ladies at the temple was very good though as well as Donnie's fight with the prince in the finale. Not one of Ping's better movies, however. The story played like an after school special about the dangers of opium and alcohol. Boy refuses drug, boy is seduced by drug, boy is addicted, boy is saved and seeks revenge and redemption. Unfortunately a lot of the subplots were left open-ended while it jumps from one action scene to another. I could swear this played more like a comedy than an action period piece. The two actors playing Yen's father and aunt were hysterical, especially Sheila Chan. I almost wanted to see more of their story than Yen's but then that little subplot gets pushed aside and we're back with the action.

What can I say? Donnie Yen has made a fan out of me. Yes, he was in Iron Monkey. This movie started out with the fight scenes being mediocre and all of a sudden the film reeled off one killer fight scene after another. This movie is a classic and any Kung Fu fan should see this. I was only the 39th person to vote on this. That surprised me because this movie is awesome. Musa the Warrior was a killer movie as well. I look for top quality fighting and this movie does the trick. Oh yeah, the plot of the movie is about stopping the distribution of Opium. My brother rented this at Blockbuster and I was skeptical until I saw Donnie Yen's name. I give this movie a 10/10 as far as Kung Fu is concerned!!!!The only meat a priest could eat on Sunday was Nun!!!

This was a pretty good period kung fu movie. Once again, Yuen Woo Ping and Donnie Yen team up in this OUATIC-esque story about Beggar So and Wong Fei Hung teaming up to fight opium dealers. Donnie Yen is excellent, his skills are superb. The actor who plays Wong Fei Hung is talented as well. I wish that Donnie Yen had more fighting time in the movie. His fight against Xiong Xin Xin was good, but it seemed a bit short. I also thought that the movie was too bloody at times. Setting that aside, it is an entertaining movie.

Heroes among heroes is another kung fu movie from the master: Yuen Woo-ping. It stars Donnie Yen (the greatest in my opinion!)) As usual, Yen kicks some major butts in this movie but the story is not really original: Opium dealing involving the ''evil'' british!!(Strongly reminiscent of Drunken Master 2, Tai chi 2 or even once upon a time in china!!) The actor who portrays Wong Fei Hong in the movie is also a good martial artist but Donnie, once again, steals the show with his grace and his charisma. He even uses the drunken style in this movie. There is a good amount of fights in this movie but they are short but the climactic fight is great. Watch this movie for the fights, not for the story, because the fights are from Yuen Woo-ping and Donnie Yen shines, as always!! 7.8/10