| The Heroes | |||||||||||||||
| Native Name: |
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| Director: | Wu Ma Pao Hsueh-li | ||||||||||||||
| Producer: | Ko Fei Katy Chin Chen Tian Ching | ||||||||||||||
| Starring: | Ti Lung Shih Szu Danny Lee Michael Chan Dorian Tan | ||||||||||||||
| Music: | Joseph Koo Wong Mau San | ||||||||||||||
| Cinematography: | James Wu | ||||||||||||||
| Distributor: | Ocean Shores | ||||||||||||||
| Runtime: | 90 minutes | ||||||||||||||
| Country: | Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||
| Language: | Mandarin | ||||||||||||||
The Heroes, also known as The Shaolin Heroes, is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Wu Ma and Pao Hsueh-li and starring Ti Lung, Shih Szu and Danny Lee.
During the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court views the righteous Shaolin Temple as an eyesore and sends a group of soldiers to destroy the temple, led by chief Ko Fei (Ti Lung), a former Shaolin disciple. After Shaolin was destroyed, all of its disciples were captured and detained. Although Ko made them work as hard labors, he was actually helping them increase their physical strength to refine their martial arts. On the surface, Ko seems to be working for the imperial court, but he was assisting his fellow disciples to recover Shaolin. However, his fellow disciples did not accept the token of his appreciation. Afterwards, the disciples fled and revolted before killing the Emperor (Michael Chan). At that time, Ko was also killed and his heroic deed was not known even after he died. Ko is considered a true hero who can tolerate the most insult and humiliation.
J. Doyle Wallis of DVD Talk gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and a positive review praising it for having "one of the better plots in kung fu filmdom" as well as the action choreography and pacing.[1]