Comparison between the cut international version and the uncut long version (both included on the British Blu-ray by 88 Films).

- 1 cut
- Runtime: 200.3 sec (= 3:20 min)

 

The two versions on the British Blu-ray of HEROES SHED NO TEARS

John Woo's war action movie Heroes Shed No Tears was first released in the US in July 2019 as a new 2K restoration on Blu-ray. While this release was limited to Region A, the release by 88 films in Great Britain, which came out on February 17, 2020, offers a viable alternative for the region B, which is also common in a lot of other EU markets.

Our main topic in the sense of a complete film version is actually the "International Cut", in which primarily the 3-minute, additional erotic scene is missing, which is an example for the many post-shoots without Woos' approval. Woo is considered to be relatively prudish and such nude shots are hardly to be found in his films, so that some fans might have welcomed the fact that this was missing in most of the releases worldwide until the beginning of the 00's. This was also the case on the Hong Kong DVDs, which is why releases with this scene are often classified as "long version".

In the export version by 88 Films, it is missing again, and also the beginning of the following scene, where a joint is lit. Since the drug consumption determines the whole rest of the scene, this shouldn't be considered censorship, though. All in all, this version is quite unspectacular and since it was reconstructed from the same 2K image source, there are no other deviations in e.g. the credits. Somewhat strange is the decision to offer the English original dubbing only for this version. As so often, a complete new dub was created later and the erotic scene is only available in English in this version. 88 Films has therefore decided against a hybrid dub here. With just one scene, this would have been nice at least as an additional language option for fans of the original dub, who still want to see the longest possible movie version. But the original mono track in Cantonese as well as a new 5.1 mix without awful additional effects are in return commendable for purists.

Featurette gives extensive insights into the workprint, SUNSET WARRIORS

Woo already shot the movie in 1984, but Golden Harvest didn't really know how to market it. Over two years, there were several re-shoots, in which the director wasn't involved anymore. Only immediately after Woo's success with A Better Tomorrow, the movie came to cinemas in a very different form than the original version. According to an interview on the 88 disc, leading actor Eddie Ko was also annoyed, the film was heavily distorted in content. Still, in 2004, Woo is said to have said that he never watched this final studio version, which has always been known worldwide.

For years, Woo's original movie, which was shot under the title Sunset Warriors (or "The Sunset Warrior"), was considered lost. As with the new Jackie Chan releases, 88 Films has brought a lot of fan support on board and the Blu-ray.com thread already hinted that we can expect a little surprise. This comes in the form of a 15-minute featurette, which goes into detail about the differences between Woo's original '84 film and the '86 "Heroes" cut, which has been known since the beginning.

From our documentary point of view and for the die-hard fan, it is a little disappointing that the workprint is not offered completely on the release. To archive it for eternity and to be able to evaluate its complete effect would have been great, of course. But thanks to a fan, they actually had access to a Korean VHS containing this film version. In the featurette, various alternative scenes were vividly contrasted or even completely distant as well as re-shot scenes were categorized via audio commentary. This is (besides the main movie, which has been edited in top quality) the most exciting thing about the British Blu-ray and as an appendix we give you a comprehensive insight into it.

Runtimes are ordered as follows: International version Blu-ray / main version Blu-ray

52:21 / 52:21-55:41

Chin is creeping around the hut at night when suddenly someone holds a gun to the back of his head. As he turns around, he looks into the eyes of a beautiful young woman with whom he falls in love immediately. They have a little chat, and she tells him her name - Masachi. Chin thinks that she is probably a good masseuse because of her name. Afterwards, both can be seen in the hut. She takes off her dress and soaps herself with bath foam. Chin lies naked on his stomach and looks at her with satisfaction. Masachi goes to him and starts to massage him. He asks her about her family and she tells him that they were killed by the military. She lies down on his back. When she asks him what brought him to this area, he tells Masachi about her mission. Afterwards, there is a love scene between the two.

Up to this point the scene was missing in most of the earlier versions. In the export version of the British Blu-ray, a close-up of the joint and the beginning of the follow-up shot, in which inhaling is performed, is shortened.

200.3 sec (= 3:20 min)

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Here is a look at the bonus featurette "A Tale of Two Cuts". In addition to a montage of poster material and various excerpts, Brandon Bentley's audio commentary provides a breakdown of the differences.

It starts with a short summary of John Woo's status at that time in the Hong Kong film industry. Here you can see various posters, stills and excerpts from the film. After the end of the shoot in 1984, Golden Harvest kept the film under lock and key, but in South Korea they found what they were looking for afterwards. Woo also had some Korean actors in his squad and because of some financial backgrounds, an early workprint might have found its way into the cinemas there. A South Korean VHS, whose cover is also shown, was therefore the source for the following insights into Woo's original movie, originally shot under the title Sunset Warriors. As a rough summary it is said that the movie seems to be much more fluent, the more quiet moments are better integrated into the plot and the mood in general would rather remind us of other typical Woo works. In the following, we will call the '84 Korea version "Warriors" Cut and the well-known version "Heroes" Cut.

It starts with a split screen of credits. The introductory text differs. Before the exclusive material fills the full picture, the comparison shows a few identical shots, which of course look much worse on VHS.