Heroes Shed No Tears (1986)

Things that go boom in the night...and the day

If you watched Hard Boiled and thought, “Hmmmm...there weren’t enough bullets and bodies,” Heroes Shed No Tears might be the film you are looking for. One of, if not John Woo’s first action film, he pulled out all the stops for this mercenaries attempting to get a drug lord safely from the Laos/Vietnamese border across hostile territory to the government of Thailand to claim their rewards.

Chan Chung leads a squad of Chinese mercenaries. Their mission is to capture the drug lord, General Samton, and take him to Thailand. Chan is promised an American green card. His co-harts are in it largely for the money. Capturing the general proves to be easy. The journey not so much, as it turns deadly fast as Chan’s family has to be rescued, the General’s men are on their trail, and along the way he manages to infuriate and wound a Vietnamese Colonel who vows to hunt him down with his men.

From beginning to end, Woo found an excuse to blow things up. In one fight I thought to myself the only thing missing was a flame thrower. Voila! A dude with a flame thrower showed up! The combatants’ shooting style appeared to be pray and spray as no real aiming took place. Fortunately for them, the stunt men were quite adept at flying and falling. People were shot, stabbed, set on fire, impaled, blown up, tortured, and then shot again. There were numerous creative ambush scenes. The final battle between Chan and the Colonel was brutally realistic, even when it included flaming poles.

Eddy Ko did a solid job as the squad leader and father of an annoying if not resourceful child. Lam Ching Ying (Mr. Vampire!) was the merciless Colonel tailing Chan Chung. How he lost his eye was actually the most interesting effect in the film. Chin Yuet Sang’s Chin was given way too much time for his “comedic” antics.

Aside from the sketchy details of where they were at any given time, there was a glaring issue with the intrepid band of soldiers. The colonel hired local tribesmen at the point of a gun to track Chan Chung’s group. Why this was necessary was beyond me. Chan’s group was hardly stealthy. Most of the time they were on main roads and well used paths. They were loud, slow, took time to gamble with the locals, and strip bodies of anything valuable. They acted like no one was after them regardless of evidence to the contrary. Aside from the boy who was always yelling for his father, they’d also picked up an annoying French woman. Coupled with the problematic Chin, the Triangle of Irritation was a bit much. Chan Chung also had powerful plot armor and healing abilities, he went from being mostly dead to back in action without missing a beat. Ridiculous 80’s action tropes were strong in this story.

If you are a John Woo completionist, you cannot miss this film where he began to hone his bloody resume. Or if you just enjoy watching things blow up and relentless carnage, this might be one to try. If none of that draws you in, probably best to skip.

14 September 2026

Trigger Warnings: Nudity. Sexual situations. Sexual assaults. Multiple impalements. Dismemberment. Eye torture. Snake. Smoking of drugs.

Multinational note: The cast included actors from Hong Kong, Thailand, France, and South Korea. The movie was filmed in Thailand.

Release day note: The film was completed in 1984 and released in SK that year. Wider release was held until after Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986)

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