Branch Road Hero (歧路英雄)
Dir: Rui WangCast: 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.
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:
