The Heroic Ones 1970

The story told centres around 13 brothers who act as devoted sons and loyal generals to their father, a Mongol King who is preparing to launch a massive strike on his enemy, General Wang. Before the action begins we are introduced to the 13 sons (both actual and adopted) as they enjoy a lavish banquet where a local warlord, Zu Wen, is dining and offers his alliance to the Mongol King. Showing their boyish nature to the full the 13 sons leave Zu Wen unconvinced of their ability, so a demonstration is in order. The thirteenth son is elected for the task and puts on a fine exhibition of his formidable martial arts ability to Zu Wen, but in the process manages to insult and disgrace the local warlord. This proves to be an act that brings with it greater repercussions later in the story as the alliance lays fractured and intentions are left unclear.

This demonstration of ability also has an upside in the form of a secondary result, that of capturing one of General Wang's most powerful men. With this obstacle removed from the path of General Wang the Mongol King expresses the faith he has in his sons, as despite commanding thousands of troops he selects just nine of them to set out on a covert mission to take advantage of the situation and assassinate the General. It is from this point on that the underlying theme of sibling rivalry becomes apparent and not long after it is revealed does it become the centre point of the films remaining runtime. From the very start it is apparent that Jin Su (Ti Lung) and Chun Xiao (David Chiang) are the two most experienced and therefore, most applauded sons. A reality that is accepted by nine of the brothers, though two are uneasy operating in the shadows. When these two inadvertently sabotage the assassination of General Wang the Mongol King demands their death as punishment, fortunately the most respected of the sons, Chun Xiao, begs his father to have mercy, an event that results in a bitter twist of fate later in the story.

Chinese / English Subtitles
Download

You need Cryptload, RSD or Jdownloader to open the .rsdf-file.