HEROES SHED NO TEARS Review: Early John Woo At His Burgeoning Best

Heroes Shed No Tears has been restored in 2k and streams on Film Movement+ on June 7.

The Hollywood appeal for a director like John Woo is something that never should have lapsed after Paycheck. Indeed it wasn’t his best, and still his work warrants longer consideration for industry progression. His most recent return with Silent Night was a blast, and 2024 is looking to keep the energy up some as Film Movement Classics antes up its streaming library with the 1986 war thriller, Heroes Shed No Tears.

A cursory scan of the film’s Wikipedia page alludes to the film’s rough history, coupled with Woo’s apprehension to seeing the finished product. I don’t know if that’s still the case and I can’t blame him for moving on. Although, apart from some of the film’s perceived flaws, it’s worth noting Woo’s tactful handling of many areas of the story, including the relationship between Chan Chung (Eddy Ko) and his son, Keung-chai.

The degree of that relationship is revealed following an explosive raid carried out by Chung and his Chinese commandos enlisted by the Thai governement to rid the Golden Triangle of the drug trade. Their latest objective finds them capturing Samtong, the head of a drug trafficking operation within the triangle, but not before laying waste to some of his army.

Things escalate when Chung and his men arrive to Chung’s home to check on his wife, son and father-in-law, only to realize he’s been ambushed, resulting in an all-or-nothing move to rescue them. The journey continues as the team set out to the Thai border and stumbleupon what would have been a heinous execution by an evil Vietnamese general (Lam Ching-ying). A firefight ensues leaving the general without an eye, and an insatiable need to get even.

The movie keeps a strong pace for much of its runtime as the plot thickens even further with Samtong leaving breadcrumbs for his men to follow. Additionally, the Vietnamese general enlists an army of local tribal soldiers to hunt the commandos down. The odds stack even higher as the film progresses while Chung and his men are forced to mitigate the increasing odds, topped off with perilous terrain and the possibility of Chung losing what’s left of his family now that they’ve been enveloped into the crossfire.

The film has a peculiar mix of actors, including French actress Cécile Le Bailly who plays a French journalist rescued by Chung and the commandos. Korean actress Lee Hye-suk plays Chung’s wife, Julie, who is almost instantly torn from her idyllic life making fabrics to making a run for it with the commandos along with their son, Keung-chai.

Therin lies one of the biggest challenges faced by Chung and Julie, leading to a crucial make-or-break moment in the film for Keung-chai after being captured by the Vietnamese general. A spell of quick thinking on Keung-chai’s part is a key make-or-break moment for father and son as the film plays into the rest of its duration.

The characters also include two commandos, Chau Sang (Fung Lee) and Chin (co-star and action choreographer Chin Yuet Sang). Chau prefers collecting his bounties off of corpses where and when he can, whereas Chin is more of a gambler betting his luck on as many games as he can. This juxtaposition occurs at the top of the second half before another definitive battle laden with some serious and gory guerilla warfare.

We also meet Louis (Philippe Loffredo), a fellow soldier and cohort to Chan Chung whose backstory is introduced in a flashback sequence together with the protagonist. Louis resides in a hut accompanied by a small group of women who have themselves fortified aplenty while living in modest comfort. The comfort is certainly enough for Louis to spend time meditating while wired up to an explosive vest so as to get the drop on anyone intruding. And not for nothing either, as we get to see Chin and Louis etch in some softcore screentime with the beauties.

The core nod to the film’s title though is really where the film gets a little more gripping – when Chung is wounded and about to be captured, and in the heat of the moment as Keung-chai calls for his father, slaps him so as to snap him out of his emotional descent. In response, Keung-chai stands up slowly with both fists balled up and a face full of affirmation, all culminating a scene that preambles a daring rescue that ensues a little while after.

Lam is a plentiful villain in this film opposite Ko’s protagonist, contributing to an epic clash of good-versus-evil that recapitulates with the kind of all-out mano-e-mano brawl that rightly tops Woo’s breakneck actioner. To that end, the action here doesn’t lose a beat when it comes to the red stuff. The guns go bang, people get sprayed with bullets or set ablaze by flamethrower, one guy gets shot in the ass, another guy loses an arm before getting impaled by spears from multiple angles, etc. – you get the idea.

There are some tonal discrepancies every now and then as the movie pivots between solemn and comical at times. Still, characteristic to Hong Kong cinema is the kind of placeholder comedy you can expect, even in a film like Heroes Shed No Tears where characters Chung and Keung-chai are among the film’s few real standouts.

That this movie was shelved for a time until Woo’s follow-up with A Better Tomorrow lends something interesting to think about with Woo’s filmography. It’s not hard to imagine there are things with Heroes Shed No Tears he wishes he could have done better, even possibly after forty years.

At any rate, the film certainly lends the kind of gritty, propulsive war action that speaks to quinquagenarian audiences and cinephiles alike. Barring the more stylish and balletic gunplay that Woo has become so famous for, Heroes Shed No Tears won’t leave you too aggrieved depending on your tastes.

Lee B. Golden III

fcsyndicate@outlook.com | Web

Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!