HEROES OF SUNG begins with the defeated Emperor and his son conspiring with loyalists Jing and Meng to smuggle two Imperial seals south to reestablish their rule. Jing and Meng are attacked when they try to slip out of the enemy camp and barely manage to make it back to their respective bases. The dying Jing entrusts his seal to Tian Long (Pei-Shan Chang) and- without telling him- gives Fan Tienhu (Lo Lieh) a fake seal. Long and Fan, fighting together, use a "joint hand style" that enables them to hook their scabbards together and spin like a propeller- but, because Fan is "arrogant and impulsive," he's given the fake seal. Meng, meanwhile, gives his beautiful daughter, Hong-Er (Shih Szu) HIS seal. Our heroes hook up and head South. The beautiful but devious Miss Yan (Chia Chien Li) comes up with a plan to get Fan's seal (Hong-Er's seal is mysteriously stolen by Master Yan, using his weapon of choice, a claw on a chain, which he lowers through a hole in the roof): Miss Yan will marry Fan. Fan falls for it, and promises to bring the Yan clan the missing seal. There are some crazy wire-fu stunts in HEROES OF SUNG, but they seem oddly in keeping with what's going on: twice, we see the joint hand style employed by the Tiens; there's also a scene where Fan magically glides through the air parallel to the ground and rebounds, going back in the direction he came; and- my favorite- a scene where Master Yan is literally split down the middle. The precious seal is recovered from alongside the halved villain. HEROES OF SUNG is nothing if not a whole lot of fun. Recommended.
3 Reviews
What did the man say to the naked woman? Definitely not that, please!
ckormos113 June 2019
The opening scene is all dialog to establish the story. Two imperial jade seals must be delivered to the south of China in order to crown the prince as the new emperor. Meng and Jing head south on the mission. Jing arrives wounded at Lo Lieh's cave. Meng arrives at Shih Szu's house.
The exposition dialog drags the first 20 minutes or so of the movie but then the fighting picks up. All the fights involve weapons and I rate most of the fights above average.
Lo Lieh had the best line of the movie when he asked the naked woman "Aren't you cold?" I can't imagine any man ever said that to a naked woman!
Hao Li-Jen (1911 - 1978) is an actor I affectionately call "Old Snaggletooth". He has an impressive 222 movies to his credit and has shared the screen with everyone from Jimmy Wang Yu to Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan. He has played the role of "villager" enough times to fill an entire village. In this movie he has many lines plus he draws a sword but I can't say he really uses it.
With the short run time of only about 80 minutes the final fight could have certainly been much longer. Also, I dislike hokey weapons in favor of authentic Chinese. The claw and chain appears hokey but is actually a real Chinese weapon though not from the time period of the movie.
The exposition dialog drags the first 20 minutes or so of the movie but then the fighting picks up. All the fights involve weapons and I rate most of the fights above average.
Lo Lieh had the best line of the movie when he asked the naked woman "Aren't you cold?" I can't imagine any man ever said that to a naked woman!
Hao Li-Jen (1911 - 1978) is an actor I affectionately call "Old Snaggletooth". He has an impressive 222 movies to his credit and has shared the screen with everyone from Jimmy Wang Yu to Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan. He has played the role of "villager" enough times to fill an entire village. In this movie he has many lines plus he draws a sword but I can't say he really uses it.
With the short run time of only about 80 minutes the final fight could have certainly been much longer. Also, I dislike hokey weapons in favor of authentic Chinese. The claw and chain appears hokey but is actually a real Chinese weapon though not from the time period of the movie.
Second tier adventure entertains
Leofwine_draca21 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A second-tier Shaw Brothers adventure with the usual plot consisting of a couple of jade seals acting as the MacGuffin with the heroes transporting them and a big gang of bad guys trying to get them. Shih Szu is the ass-kicking heroine who gets the blood sprays going in her copious fight scenes while Lo Lieh has the most interesting role as a good guy who ends up easily seduced and tricked by the villains. Not a huge budget on this one which is evident from the cheapness of the SFX in the fight scenes, but it's watchable enough in its own way if you don't expect too much. The villain's death is one of the most gruesome and outrageous I've seen of any Shaw movie.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
