Ti Lung and David Chiang are Bash Brothers, onscreen and off.
The Anonymous Heroes is a 1971 Shaw Brothers action film/revolutionary drama directed by Chang Cheh, starring Ti Lung and David Chiang.
Set in the Chinese revolution, the corrupt local military is oppressing the local population. A rebellion from the south can overthrow the military and put an end to their dictatorship, but they will need weapons of their own; as such the La Résistance leader Wan (Ku Feng) have recruited the help of two vagabond buddies and punks, Meng-kang (David Chiang) and Tieh-hu (Ti-Lung) who grew up together, to steal a cache of 3,000 rifles from the military and assist him in delivering the weapons to the rebels.
Tagging along for the ride, whether they want it or not though, is Yin-feng (Li-ching), Meng-kang's girlfriend and daughter of the local Customs Officer who refuse to be involved in the revolution in any way despite opposing the corrupt military.
Plenty of shootouts, bayonet fights, and chase scenes occurs as the trio of Anonymous Heroes recovers the massive cache of weapons and tries to survive crossing the forests of Southern China with enemy troops hot in pursuit.
The Anonymous Heroes contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Yin-Fung, played by Li Ching, who provides occasional support to Meng-kang and Tieh-hu during shootouts, although she exclusively uses Mausers instead of rifles.
- Attack Hello: In their first scene, Meng-kang gets the drop on Tieh-hu in his bedroom, and was quickly greeted by a punch which he retaliates. Cue a massive fight between the two Bash Brothers, who knew each other but is just fighting for the fun of it.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Meng-kang and Tieh-hu against Marshall Chin’s army in the final battle.
- Bash Brothers: Meng-kang and Tieh-hu, played by real-life Bash Brothers David Chiang and Ti Lung.
- Bayonet Ya: There are plenty of bayonet fights throughout the movie, especially the 15-minute long climatic duel where Meng-kang and Tieh-hu fends off wave after wave of enemy soldiers using bayonets.
- Bittersweet Ending: The weapons cache is successfully delivered to the La Résistance, who may start their revolution now and overthrow the corrupt local warlord. But by using themselves as distraction, Meng-kang, Tieh-hu and Yin-Fung ends up getting overwhelmed and dying in battle, and worst of all, their names aren’t known to the rebels, ensuring that their deeds will be forgotten as history goes on.
- Chase Scene: One occurs partway through the film, where enemy soldiers on horseback pursues Meng-kang and Tieh-hu while they are on a train.
- Destination Defenestration: Happens several times in fight scenes. Tieh-hu sends rival gamblers through windows during the gambling den fight, while Meng-kang flings enemy soldiers who tries to arrest him out using the same method.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Meng-kang and Tieh-hu disguises themselves as soldiers working for Marshall Chin to sneak the weapons cache and smuggle those through the forest. Unfortunately, their disguise doesn’t last for long – cue enemy soldiers pursuing their train on horseback.
- Illegal Gambling Den: One of Tieh-hu’s fights takes place in a gambling den, where he beats up plenty of mooks before being reinforced by Meng-kang.
- La Résistance: The rebels Meng-kang and Tieh-hu are delivering the weapons for, to fund their revolution against the corrupt local military.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Marshall Chin’s army wouldn’t have realized Meng-kang and Tieh-hu had sent their cache of stolen weapons to the rebels, if Meng-kang did NOT cockily stay behind during the evacuation and challenged Chin to a gambling bet to stall for time instead of evacuating with the others. While he had good intentions, unfortunately Meng-kang wasted time trying to one-up Marshall Chin’s men in his bet, ultimately leaving their tracks exposed and for the Marshall’s army to track them down.
- Sacrificial Lion: Wan, the rebel leader and The Team Benefactor for Meng-kang and Tieh-hu, gets shot and killed in the train chase scene, with his Dying Words being for them to continue the mission and help the resistance.
- Together in Death: The movie ends with Meng-kang, Tieh-hu and Yin-feng being shot from all directions by reinforcements from Marshall Chin’s army.
- Title Drop: One at the very, very end of the movie, literally the last line delivered:Rebel Leader: "Our revolution can finally proceed. We shall overthrow the warlord, and victory will soon be ours... we all owe this to The Anonymous Heroes of this mission."
- Traintop Battle: The chase scene quickly culminates into a close-range fistfight between Meng-kang, Tieh-hu and the soldiers pursuing them, when several of the soldiers managed to board the train and engage the titular heroes from up close.
- Two Guys and a Girl
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: Besides the government soldiers sent by Marshall Chin hot on their tracks, the titular heroes also have to content with bandits who wants the stolen weapons cache for themselves. Although the bandits quickly bail the moment Chin’s soldiers arrives.
- I Want Them Alive!: This is the reason why Marshall Chin doesn’t order his men to open fire immediately on Meng-kang, Tieh-hu and Yin-Fung, despite having them cornered in the middle of an empty town square. The first few waves of soldiers tries to overwhelm the titular heroes using a Zerg Rush, resulting in the climatic epic bayonet fight where Meng-kang and Tieh-hu battles hordes and hordes of soldiers by themselves, but when Tieh-hu eventually flings a bayonet into Marshall Chin’s shoulder and it’s evident the heroes are not willing to be taken alive, eventually Chin orders his soldiers to just fire away.
