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Richard James Havis

Martial arts cinema maestro King Hu’s lesser known The Valiant Ones is his most action-packed film.
The 1975 drama, which is set in China’s Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and was shot in Hong Kong’s New Territories, including outlying islands, is based on a true story of Chinese heroes who struggle with corrupt officials as they attempt to rid China’s coast of Japanese pirates.
We talk to critic Frank Djeng, who provided the commentary for the Eureka Films Blu-ray release of The Valiant Ones, about the film.
This was once considered a “lost film”. When was it found?
The Valiant Ones languished in obscurity for around 20 years until 1996, when the Hong Kong Film Archive found a print of it in a film laboratory.


King Hu gifted the reels to the archive, who restored it – this happened the year before Hu died. The latest 4k restoration was done 20 years after that, around 2017.
The martial arts are presented in a straightforward way – there’s less of Hu’s arty editing style on show. Why was that?
The action in The Valiant Ones can be seen much more clearly than in Hu’s earlier films – and there’s a lot of it, too.
The story lends itself to this kind of action, because it is very literal and very straightforward. There are no subplots or hidden twists, and nothing to surprise the audience – the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad.

In a film like Dragon Inn (which Hu directed earlier in his career), the focus was on power games, but here it is just two opposing forces going at each other. The story is very direct for a King Hu film, and the action scenes reflect that.
There’s some great sword fighting scenes, but there’s also more kung fu than in Hu’s earlier films …
By the mid-1970s, Hu had realised that wuxia (sword fighting) films were going out of fashion, and this was his way of connecting the old and the new. By using the young Sammo Hung Kam-bo as his choreographer, he was connecting the old wuxia films with the “new style” of kung fu films.
I also think he wanted to show off Sammo’s skills, as Sammo’s fame was on the rise. He was saying to the audience, “Look at what this guy has got, this is the way to go, this is the future.”

Many people are unaware that Sammo Hung had a long association with King Hu, and has said that Hu was his major influence.
Han Ying-chieh, who worked as a choreographer for King Hu, taught Sammo martial arts at Yu Jim-yuen’s Peking opera school, and I think Han brought Sammo to Hu’s attention.
This was Sammo’s second and last collaboration with Hu as a choreographer – he had also been the choreographer for The Fate of Lee Khan. Sammo also appeared in the earlier A Touch of Zen as a bodyguard of the Commander, who was played by Han.
Hung also plays a Japanese pirate chief in The Valiant Ones, giving a very camp performance.
It is a very interesting performance, because although he is covered in all that kabuki-style facial make-up, he does not try to act Japanese. Until the end, when he uses chambara-style sword fighting, he fights with a combination of Chinese and Japanese swordplay.

You have to wonder why Hu chose that make-up, as (the Japanese performance art) kabuki did not become popular until the Edo period (1603-1868), which was later than this film’s time period.
My guess is that Hu put all that make-up on Sammo to disguise him, as he was worried that he was too recognisable from his role in Enter the Dragon, and so on … he put him in make-up to avoid that kind of distraction.
Hsu Feng, Hu’s usual heroine, also plays an odd role in this – she hardly speaks a word. Why was that?
Hsu’s character Ruoshi is the wife of Jiyuan, one of the heroes, but they hardly say anything to each other. I think she has less than 10 lines in the whole film.

Hu wanted to convey the idea that they had an incredible rapport with each other. It shows that they are a loving husband and wife who know each other so well, they do not need to speak to each other.
Hu uses silent expressions to convey their love for each other, right up to their demise. Hsu’s silence and her furious stare speak volumes. She is stoic throughout, and Hu used the duo to represent the idea of chivalrous knights.
Bai Ying’s character Jiyuan – the master of the “whirlwind sword” technique – steals the show.
Bai Ying is a really good performer. He played the evil eunuch in Dragon Inn, but after that Hu would always cast him in heroic roles – he seemed to find a kind of heroic sensibility in him, and he thought he personified a kind of heroic spirit.

In The Valiant Ones, Hu uses him to show exactly what he thinks a hero should be like. It is important to note that when his character is asked who he is, he replies that he is just an ordinary Ming dynasty citizen. Hu wanted to show that ordinary people could become heroes, too.
Hu liked to feature strategising in his films, but here it is much more military in nature.
The first part of the film is definitely more militaristic – it is like a war film. The heroes, led by Roy Chiao [Hung], develop strategies to try and wipe out the pirates.
But when it gets to the tournament sequence, in which Jiyuan has to show his skills, it becomes more typical of Hu. I think the beauty of this film is how you gradually learn about the characters as the film progresses.

At the start, they show up and start fighting after just 10 minutes. You know nothing about these men and women, they just fight. As the film progresses, you find out who they really are.
At first it seems like Bai Ying is playing just another scholar character, and you do not see his incredible sword fighting skills in the first third of the film. But once he and Hsu Feng arrive on the pirates’ island for a series of duels, their heroic spirits shine through.
Unusually, the film does not end well for our heroes.
Hu’s theme was like that of a typical Chinese history lesson, in which the good guys lose their lives while the incompetent emperor and the corrupt court officials survive.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
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A still from The Valiant Ones. King Hu’s 1975 martial arts drama spent two decades “lost” before being rediscovered. A film critic tells the Post why the movie stands out among the maestro’s other films. Photo: King Hu Foundation

(From left) Lau Kong, Bai Ying and Roy Chiao in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

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Sammo Hung in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

Hsu Feng (left) and Bai Ying in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

Ng Ming-choi (left) and Lau Kong in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

(From left) Hsu Feng, Bai Ying, Yiu Wai, Roy Chiao, Lau Kong and Lee Man-tai in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

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King Hu’s 1975 martial arts drama with Sammo Hung was overlooked for 20 years. Film critic Frank Djeng tells the Post why it stands out


The Valiant Ones, King Hu’s 1975 martial arts drama, was rediscovered after being ‘lost’ for two decades. A film critic tells the Post why it stands out from the director’s other films.


Martial arts director King Hu’s forgotten film The Valiant Ones was his most action-packed

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}King Hu’s 1975 martial arts drama with Sammo Hung was overlooked for 20 years. Film critic Frank Djeng tells the Post why it stands out

King Hu’s 1975 martial arts drama with Sammo Hung was overlooked for 20 years. Film critic Frank Djeng tells the Post why it stands out