Hero's Blood (1991)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

China Chung

Release Date:

November 1991 (Malaysia)

Genre:

Action

Cast

Robert Mak
Gina Pan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mark Huston
Darren Shahlavi

Country:

Malaysia

Language:

Cantonese

Company:

Aeon Jaya

Very ambitious, but not especially entertaining

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's kind of hard to talk about a movie's flaws when it comes from a tiny country's film industry, and has a budget that couldn't pay for the catering of a large Hollywood production. This particular movie interests me as a genre fan due to the appearance of a very young, pretty obscure actor named Darren Shalavhi. It's also unique for being a period drama from Malaysia which has been seen by more than a few people outside of its home country. I know I haven't seen many movies from Malyasia. So the opportunity to have a different experience seemed worth it, and was made even sweeter when I heard the underrated Shalavhi was among the main members of the cast. I was ready to be impressed, or at least amused.

Then the movie started telling its story, in a very repetitive, shallow way. Basically, a noble's daughter has been kidnapped by a rival, evil warlord, who makes her his bride. Her fiancé, a general, attempts to rescue her, but is captured, and degrades himself in an attempt to escape. After more careful planning, the general and the girl's family manage to kill the warlord and rescue her. The general once again makes a proposal to this particular woman, but is rejected. Her parents give her a new home to live in, apparently because she has decided to become a spinster. Unfortunately for her parents, it seems that she actually waits around and lures various swordsman to their doom using her sexual allure. While all this is happening, the general sends an assassin, who, after infiltrating her home, ends up falling hopelessly in love with the general's ex-fiancé.

The problem with the story, and the way it is told, is that it is quite repetitive. Basically, the girl falls in love, and her lover get's killed or defaced in some horrendous way. It happens over and over again, to the point where she starts going on and on about cruel pathos destroying her chances at happiness (this denouement actually happens well before the end of the movie). While that could lead up to some interesting dialogue, the entirely shallow characterization defeats the purpose. Not a single character has anything to distinguish themselves from anybody else. The only interesting thing about the characters is that they act entirely inhuman. Seriously, what kind of person would ever arrive at the conclusion that the best thing to do to the woman who you chickened out of fighting for would be to propose to her a second time, after you killed her current husband? If the movie does not allow the character's motivations for their actions to be known, than it verges on being the most overwrought kind of melodrama. And bitter denouements of cruel pathos don't help either.

There is a good bit of stuff that is still interesting. While I have little knowledge as to the accuracy of the various sets, props, and costumes, they are all quite nice to look at. Truly, while the cinematography may look flat and dated, the art direction is very colorful, and at times when a complex interior set is shown, almost impressive, considering what was likely a microscopic budget. However, while the sets and costumes look nice, and the swords and spears look vicious, the fight scenes leave quite a bit to be desired. The art direction seems to take a page from the kung fu/wuxia movies of Hong Kong and Taiwan, but the fight scenes themselves resemble something from a Japanese samurai flick. However, they are quite poorly filmed and executed. The problem is that they attempt some realistic, slash at the exposed bit of flesh style of screen fighting, but with no fore sight into how it would look on film. This means that fight sequences are reduced to very, very clumsy hacking with poor camera angles that make it obvious that they are missing each other. The action was choreographed by Darren Shalavhi, who is credited as having had a hand in the stunts. He obviously had little experience. Anybody looking for a good depiction of the martial art of Silat, unique to that region, will be disappointed.

The cast and director worked on a few movies together, most of which are apparently similar in terms of little budget and being fairly obscure. The female lead does a decent job with what she is given, but she really doesn't make much of an impression, while Darren Shalavhi only has a short amount of screen time as a wrestler. He would go on to play a fighting role in Cheung Yam-Yim/Yuen Woo-Ping's TAI CHI 2. Recently, he's been hired by Uwe Boll to appear in crap like BLOODRAYNE, ALONE IN THE DARK, and IN THE NAME OF THE KING. The rest of the cast is not worth mentioning.

This movie is not recommendable. It was said to have been made in 1991, but due to the horrible photography, as well as the melodrama, poor fight sequences, it really seems like it was made in the early fifties. While I recognize that this was not supposed to be a martial arts movie, it is neither an effective drama, nor a rousing adventure. I give it points for trying hard though. I will also attempt to track down PUTERI GUNUNG LEDANG, a recent historical drama from Malaysia, as well as HANG TUAH, an older movie from the fifties about one of Malaysia's national legends. If finding out about this country's cinema sounds cool to you, I suggest you skip HERO'S BLOOD and do the same.