Heroes Shed No Tears (1986) ★★★½
In order to stop drug trafficking from the 'Golden Triangle', (an area of intense heroin production at the intersection of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar) into Thailand itself, the Thai government recruits a mercenary gang of Chinese soldiers to kidnap the drug baron responsible and bring him to Thailand to face justice. Nothing is easy for Chan Chung (Eddy Ko) and his band of mercenaries (including his son and 'auntie') as, along the way, they interrupt the mass murder of a group of French travellers by a Vietnamese border patrol resulting in the shooting in the eye, by Chung, of a Vietnamese general (Lam Ching-ying) who then pursues Chung. This leads to almost endless fights between the two men and their forces along the way to a showdown between Chung and the general.
This is a strange film from John Woo, partially because he didn't have complete independent creative control and was forced by the studio to film a drug and sex scene to make the film more appealing to international audiences. This seems a strange decision as the scene appears completely out of place and unnecessarily slows the pacing of the film. There's also a comedic gambling sequence which could be completely without any effect on the story, but would certainly make the film flow better. It could have been shot by someone else and inserted by Golden Harvest against Woo's wishes but that's just speculation.
As with all John Woo films, especially those made in Hong Kong, the body count is huge, the stunts and violence plentiful and the 'bullet ballet' slow motion is used enough for effect but not overused to the point where it becomes annoying.
Heroes Shed No Tears was filmed between 1984-5 but only released in 1986 after the international acclaim and success of A Better Tomorrow. Perhaps due to the interference of the studio and perhaps because Woo was still perfecting his art, this is not one of his greatest films and is several rungs below the likes of The Killer, Bullet in the Head or Hard Boiled, yet is still great fun to watch, especially if you like John Woo's stylised 'bullet ballet' violence, of which there is plenty.
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