Heroes of Sung is a 1973 Shaw Brothers wuxia film, one of the many made during the studio's peak when they are capable of churning one martial arts swordplay movie after another. Starring Shaw regulars Shih Szu and Lo Lieh in the lead roles, ever since their previous collaboration in The Rescue (1971) a couple years earlier, the movie had a notably short running time (even by wuxia standards) at 80 minutes.
When the Sung Emperor is captured by the Mongol invaders and held hostage, the lawful Emperor decide to relegate the throne to his brother, Prince Kang, in the capital city, in order to rally his people to unite for the impending Mongol invasion. To legalize his order, the Emperor's Imperial Seals is entrusted to his loyal follower, General Meng, who managed to escape from the Mongols and return to his hometown, and is assigned to have the seals delivered to the capital city. But when the General's cover is blown, the loyal general have to assign the task of delivering the seals to his most loyal disciples, Tien-hu (Lo Lieh) and Tian-Long (Chang Pei-shan), and his daughter, Meng Hong (Shih Szu).
Unfortunately, a dangerous enemy of the martial world, He Wan-Yan, a mercenary and expert killer working for the enemy, managed to steal one of the two seals for himself, and now the forces of good and evil in the jiang hu must battle each other, their victory or defeat crucial in determining the fate of the Sung Dynasty.
Tropers of Sung:
- Action Girl: Meng Hong is the lead female character, a lady warrior who's damn good with a sword. There's also Yan Erh, the Dark Action Girl working in league with the villains.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Occurs in the second act, but at that point the heroes, consisting of Fan Tian-hu, Wang Tian-Long and Meng Hong, had already fled with the other seal.
- Badass in Distress: Tian-hu, who ends up getting captured by He Wan-Yan's mooks after being seduced by Yan Erh, and is given A Taste of the Lash while the villains tries interrogating him to reveal the seal's location, intending to kill him slowly afterwards. Meng Hong saves him after killing Yan Erh in an extensive sword battle, and release Tien-hu so that he can help out in the final battle.
- Big Bad: He Wan-Yan leads the mercenaries after the second half of the seal, and is a dangerous Professional Killer armed with an Epic Flail who provides bulk of the conflict throughout the film.
- Cool Old Guy: Master Jing, whi can put up a tough fight while on a wheelchair.
- Designated Girl Fight: Between Meng Hong and Yan Erh at the ending, which ends with Meng Hong driving her sword into Yan Erh.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: A low-tech version, being the main villain He Wan-yan's weapon; an Epic Flail that ends with a bronze claw fist. He can hurl this weapon to claw his opponents or to steal objects without being noticed by the heroes, which he repeatedly demonstrates throughout the film.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: He Wan-Yan's final fate. Vertically. The camera shows the right half of his corpse later on.
- Handicapped Badass: Master Jing Yue Feng, who fights He Wan-Yan while on a wheelchair. He does put up a valiant fight before getting defeated.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Meng Hong's father, General Meng, moments before succumbing, reveal to his daughter the true hiding place of the all-important Imperial Seal, telling her to take it and deliver it to the capital city to warn of an impending Mongol invasion, hence getting Meng Hong involved in the quest with Tian-Long and Tian-hu.
- In a Single Bound: Like every good wuxia movie.
- Left Stuck After Attack: This is how He Wan-Yan finally gets defeated in the ending: after a lengthy, epic fight scene, Tien-Long, while being gored by Wan-Yan's flail, leaps all the way to the ceiling and embeds the flail's claw-like tip into the ceiling just as the villain is trying to retrieve it, getting his weapon trapped. In the few seconds he attempts to free his weapon, Tien-Hu managed to land a fatal downward sword slash and neatly cuts the villain into half.
- Right Under Their Noses: The main villain, He Wan-Yan, somehow managed to steal the second seal from the heroes by snagging it with the clawed tip of his Epic Flail, barely a feet away from all three of the main protagonists! Although, in all fairness, Meng Hong is actively mourning her recently deceased father, Tian-Long and Tian-Hu are trying to console her, and the villain did the theft when all three of their backs are turned for two seconds.
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Spiritual Successor: Can be considered this to The Rescue (1971). Starring Lo Lieh and Shih Szu as two sword-wielding warriors actively opposing the Mongols in the Song Dynasty. - Sword Fight: All over the place. Many which contains plenty of High-Pressure Blood and loads of Gorn.
- Training Dummy: The underground caverns where the heroes train contains wooden training mannequins, armed with wooden swords and flails. In his first scene, Tian-hu tries testing his skill by hitting one of the dummies, only for the dummy to swing backwards and hit Tian-hu in the face with a wooden flail, leaving him with a bruise in a rather embarassing meeting scene later on.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Fan Tian-hu and Wang Tian-Long, the two Bash Brothers, with Shih Szu's Meng Hong as the sole female.
- Two Halves Make a Plot: The two Imperial Royal seals, which ends up in possession of the heroes and the villains. Naturally, both sides are eager to kill each other for the other seal.
- The Vamp: Yan Erh seduces Fan Tian-hu into bedding her, intending to have him killed after finding out the location of the second jade seal.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Yan Erh, the sole female villain, pretends to be a victim of a robbery (carried out by her own mooks, no less) tricking Fan Tian-hu to rescue her so that she can seduce, and later attempt to kill him.
- Wuxia
