Call of Heroes (2016) Historical Martial Arts romp with a dark edge (review)

Hong Kong Legends was a beacon for fans of martial arts cinema, even though they focused on Golden Harvest and overlooked the Shaw Brothers, their early DVD exploits provided ample chance for us fans to see films that we wouldn’t have otherwise. With their unfortunate demise, Cine Asia rose to prominence only they focused on the more modern outing. And as if following a predetermined script, they too became consigned to the history books. After those two brands demise, the Western martial arts fan was only really served by the occasional Donnie Yen film or an auteurist star-vehicle like SPL 2. To the surprise of almost everyone, 2017 marks the return of one of those long lost labels – welcome back, Cine Asia. That first Phoenix from the flames is 2016’s Call of Heroes from genre mainstay Benny Chan.

In the small rural town of Pucheng, we find Guardian Yeung (Ching Wan Lau), an authority figure beloved by his team (including Sammo Hung’s son, Tin Chiu-Hung (billed as Sammy Hung)) and the townsfolk. The relative peace of his town is destroyed with a procession of arrivals. First is teacher Pak Ling (Jiang Shuying) accompanied by a group of young children that she has helped escape sure death at the hand of a rampaging warlords son. Following her is the vagabond Ma Fung (Eddie Peng), who only arrives in town as that is where his horse walked to. The final and most dramatic arrival is Cao Sui-Lun (Louis Koo), the aforementioned warlord’s son.

The martial arts film has never been an easy genre to effectively synopsise and call of heroes sure doesn’t shirk that history. Now that all the players are in town the plot unfolds with all the time-honoured narrative messiness. Guardian Yeung respects justice and wants to execute the wayward Cao, even with the military might (fronted by Wing Ju) that could squash his town and murder everyone in it if even a hair on his head is damaged. Ma Fung also has a history with Cao’s retainer, Cheung Yik (Wing Ju). At the epicentre of all of this is the moral conundrum posed by the head guardian, does he respect justice and the lives of those murdered people even though enacting that justice will surely lead to the doom of his family, friends and everything he knows? The benefit of having a cast of respected actors besides the martial artists is that the dramatic weight is suitably balanced and not a vacuous motivation for the climactic battle.

If ever a narrative could be included as part of the current wave of bleak martial arts cinema, that is it. However, the reality of the film is a little less cut and dry. Chan has positioned this film as an Eastern Western, or a martial arts film that borrows from the iconography and sound design of the Western. It’s as successful as it could be given that these two states are contradictory in any number of ways, however, serendipity has offered up something a little more interesting. Call of Heroes shares a great deal in common with Kim Jee-Woon’s gonzo western the good, the bad, the weird. Like that beloved Korean film, this village never succumbs to the sound stage. Look at a lot of the old Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest films and they all had that air of artificial due to them taking place in sound stages and indoor sets. Of all the things to borrow from the Western, surely this ranks among the best.

As the film starts and we are introduced to all the players and there is an undeniable knockabout tone. Eddie Peng’s Ma Fung beats down a group of bandits just because they woke him and food cramps are uncomfortable, what follows has a wire-aided cartoon slapstick to it. Nothing wrong with that, when Cine Asia was around during its first run it released Dragon Tiger Gate that got a great deal of mileage out of the very same style. However, Louis Koo’s Cao throws a spanner in that theory. His is a character of such violence and chaos, that he openly shoots children dead with his golden pistol and he also shoots a woman in the face. And he doesn’t stop there, everything is a game to him – he strings the entire episode on as long as possible to satisfy his desire for fun. As the film carries on, the darkness drenches the film and mixing that with the cartoonish fight presentation isn’t without its issue, but, it does give the film a certain flair.

Louis Koo. An entirely despicable character whose character arc and motivation are not too dissimilar to the antagonist of Miike’s 13 Assassins, as simple as he is, he works merely on the premise that Louis Koo revels in his performance. Our hero and his foil, Ching Wan Lau, is his true opposite as a morally upright and decent guardian. As fellow actors and comic book characters alike have stated, bad guys have all the fun. In keeping with that, the build-up and the finale is as triumphant as that good guy vs bad guy conflict gets. Even as a fan, too many martial arts films offer scant justification for the anarchy that unfolds in the last act, especially in the modern era, no such claims can be levelled to Benny Chan’s film.

Call of Heroes is one of these films that will tattoo a smile on your face, even if it gets there by cliched means. Not all of those means are by martial arts either, Call of Heroes does the few versus many in a way that has more in common with classic Ealing film Went the day well (?). Outright martial arts scuffles are as fun and chaotic thanks to the masterful choreography of the living legend Sammo Hung’s action team. The only sour note with the eventual face-off between Wing Ju and Eddie Peng is the incongruous use of CG that stands out like a sore thumb, for a film of such period detail in its costume, performance and set, graphics do not belong.

There may be problems, plot holes and it might also end with a duo of bad graphics and an inharmonious metal song over the credits. Yet, long term fans will be used to the fact that these films are far from perfect. Instead, they are thrilling, characterful films full of adrenaline pitched action, and that is exactly what Benny Chan’s Call of Heroes strives for along with an all rare flamboyance and style. The glory days of the martial arts film may be long gone, meaning that when something worth of note does pop up, its an occasion worthy of note.

All that is left to be said is this – welcome back Cine Asia, its great to have you back.

Thanks for reading our review of Call of Heroes

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