Branch Road Hero (歧路英雄)(1994)

 

Branch Road Hero (歧路英雄)

Dir:  Rui Wang
Cast: Rong Chang , Changyuan Li , Bingyan Yan, Fan Liu , Xia Ma, Dekun Yang, Yongming Liu
Plot:  Countless HK dollars and a rotten dead man body are flowing upon the sea area between Shenzhen and HK. Authenticated nu Shenzhen policemen, all the HK dollars which flow from HK are fake . SZ police immediately inform HK counterpart and require cooperation to solve the case.
Year: 1994
Country: Mainland China  

Aka: 英雄血

Trailer (edit by me from the original dvd ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOB-m5bOVNo
Notes:  The movie is released in China on dvd by Super sense audio & audio Reolutinon (oh yeah that’s what is said on the cover of the dvd). It does not carry any subtitles so, unless you know some Chinese, the movie will be hard to follow.

The director, Rui Wang, started his career with an action movie called Bloody Fight On Tianshi (血战天狮号) and his last action film was the one I am reviewing.

Ron Chang, on the other hand, had a pretty long career with movies such as Meeting of the two heroes (双雄会), Deadend of Besiegers (1992), 'Ming wang xing' xing dong (“冥王星”行动), Sword Brothers (虎兄豹弟). The beautiful Bingyan Yan, according to the Mtime.com, just acted in this flick (what a beauty guys...).

Personal opinion: After a long break, here I am again reviewing another flick from the big red China.

The glorious 90s, a time long gone in both China and HK... well, that’s how things go anyway, our life continues.

This movie is a traditional drama/crime, a genre really popular in HK during the 80s and 90s, a kind of cinema that the mainlanders liked a lot.

The plot is not new if you are into HK flicks: we have a rape and we have revenge, we have bullet ballet, we have fights, we have explosions, we have drama as well.

The rape scene is short and you don't see anything but everything that comes before that is pretty obvious (humiliations, swearing, beating).

I really liked Rong Chang acting, really convincing, especially when he gets angry, he shows the rage every men would have in this kind of situation. And his martial skills are pretty good too.

Anyway, let’s talk about the action scenes. Those are just a few and pretty short as well, but I gotta admit that even though they were not really good, I was cheering for Rong Chang (lol) the whole time.  In the final fight there are a lot of explosions, pity that some were just useless/fake, for ex. the bad guys shoot something on the ground, and this thing explodes, or Rong Chang is running and something explodes without reason.

Overall I was not disappointed by the movie, the action was meh is true but I liked the rest of it, the drama and the vengeance was great. It’s a pity that it is not released with subtitles because it would be worth a try also for people with no Mandarin knowledge.

Oh and before I forget, in Luo Wei‘s room there were a lot of posters of western and Chinese movies. One caught my attention: a really big one, behind the bed. On it some Chinese characters that were saying: Italian blah blah. And I said to myself: Italian?! What the hell was that movie?!? So I asked my girlfriend and we found the original Italian title… another surprise: Bonnie e Clyde all'italiana (1982)! A movie with Ornella Muti and Paolo Villaggio! The movie was released in China at the cinema dubbed in mandarin! Unbelievable…

Some snapshots from the original dvd: