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HEROES AMONG HEROES (1993) |
Those of you who actually take an interest in Chinese history, especially of the history of Wong Fei Hung, then you would no doubt realise the historical inaccuracies with this film, but this doesn't stop a film being made regardless. After all, Once Upon a Time in China had taken liberties with history, so why not this film? Heroes Among Heroes explores the story of Beggar So Chan, a rich kid who is talented in martial arts, but his hot-headed temper often gets him into trouble. His naivety of situations doesn't help him either; and he falls into a trap laid by Prince Barac (Hung Yan Yan), who wants to use him to neutralise the threat posed by Wong Fei Hung (Wong Wong) and Officer Lam. Prince Barac is actually in cahoots with foreign businessmen, making and selling opium in China, hoping to gain huge profits. Opium smuggling is something that both Wong and Officer Lam try very hard to stop, not at all easy when Prince Barac is a member of the imperial family, and have strong connections. The rest of the film sees So Chan deteriorate from arrogant youth to an opium addict, and when Wong later cures So Chan of his addiction, he becomes a recluse, unable to face his family and friends. He recovers, of course, and teams up with Wong and Officer Lam to defeat Prince Barac and his smuggling ring. For those of you who are interested in trivia, Wong Wong, who plays Wong Fei Hung, is actually a student friend of Jet Li in their days at the Beijing Wushu school. Wong Sau Lin, who plays the leader of the Fire Lotus Sect, is also from the same Wushu school. So, with this trivia in mind, one can compare the performances of both Jet Li and Wong Wong in their portrayals of Wong Fei Hung. In my opinion, Jet Li wins outright, but Wong Wong also gives an impressive performance, although he is more stouter in stature than the leaner Jet Li. Wong Wong is not as good looking either, but his fighting skills speaks for itself. The film is quite good in places, especially the fight scenes, but ultimately, the added inclusion of slapstick humour and other cheesy comedy scenes spoil the film as a whole, which is a huge pity because this film could have turned out to be another classic like Iron Monkey. In Heroes Donnie Yen plays an arrogant upstart than the cool righteous Wong Kei Ying he played in Iron Monkey, and for me, it just doesn't work. I think Donnie would be better playing characters like Wong Kei Ying; in fact, Donnie could easily play Wong Fei Hung, if he was given the chance. Hung Yan Yan, famous playing Clubfoot Seven in the Once Upon a Time in China series, changes from being a good guy to playing a baddie, and performs enough to make us believe he can be a bad guy, but the end fight between him and Donnie Yen is a disappointment. The inaccuracy I was talking about earlier is the fact that Wong Fei Hung had not been born when So Chan was a youth; his father, Wong Kei Ying, would have been a better choice facing So Chan. Also, the So family did not reside in Fushan, and the film shows Princess Yiteh (Fanny Yuen) as a Western-educated woman, which in reality, no imperial princess would be given the opportunity to leave the Forbidden City, much less going to the West. Pedantic, I know, but it is usually these little
things that build up into what would be a huge mess of a script. Careful
attention to detail, and better scripts would give better films, and unfortunately
for this film, it fails in many of these little areas. It's not so much
as Heroes Among Heroes, but a Loser Among Heroes. |
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RATING 6 / 10 |