Heroic Duo DVD Review:

Heroic Duo didn’t seem to hold anything new upon first glance. The DVD cover looks generic, and somewhat cheesy, and it seems as if every couple of weeks there are an assortment of Asian action films competing against each other for home video attention. With a slow start, about fifteen minutes into the film I was sure that I had guessed correctly. Then something began to happen. Heroic Duo strayed from the hypnotist premise that it had began with, and turned towards more traditional plot twists. Usually when this happens I get bored, but the way that each scene was designed, I found myself getting drawn in rapidly. Soon I found myself riveted by a film which is much stronger during the moments it is unoriginal than the portion it attempts something new.

Beginning with a strange crime in which the criminal confesses and then kills himself, Heroic Duo quickly turns into an action thriller about a hypnotist who gets other to do his dirty work for him. In order to find the man responsible, Ken Li, the cop on the case, must bring a convicted criminal along to help. Jack Lai was put behind bars after committing a brutal crime, and he also has the ability to hypnotize as well as escape handcuffs quickly.

At moments it is unclear who is bad and who is good, but somehow Ken Li is framed for a crime and a murder as well, so he flees. Jack Lai is somehow responsible, so he also runs, and for the rest of the film the two of them are on their own separate journey, only to meet up at the final showdown.

If there is anything that director Benny Chan has seemed to have perfect in Heroic Duo, it is the chase scenes. There are chases on foot, many of which take place on top of buildings or in one case, a bridge, and there are car chases as well. Some of the chases involve hand to hand combat while others have only traditional gunplay. It is difficult to separate any of them as standing out because nearly every chase is expertly shot, choreographed with the actors as well as the camera in a way that it action poetry at its best.

Although Heroic Duo starts somewhat slow, it picks up rapidly, until it reaches its final climax, which last a bit longer than it should. The stakes are raised so high that by the time the climax arrives it seems as if every character involved have a few bullets in them. It may not have been so melodramatic and over-the-top had the action not slowed down. Although it is admirable that they attempted to make the scene more dramatic, it is far too difficult to switch out of action mode and into drama mode in the middle of a scene.

With great fights, spectacular chase scenes, and a decent plot, Heroic Duo was far better than I imagined it would be. It is also far better than many of the films it will be competing with on the video store shelves.

The DVD special features include Interviews with the Filmmakers, a “Making Of” Featurette, and a photo gallery. There are also an assortment of trailers for other Asia Extreme New Releases.



Ryan Izay