General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Heroic Ones (十三太保)

The Heroic Ones (十三太保) is a 1970 Hong Kong martial-arts film directed by Chang Cheh (張徹), produced by Shaw Brothers, and released in Hong Kong on 14 August 1970.¹ Set at the end of the Tang dynasty, it dramatizes the destruction of the warlord Li Keyong's band of thirteen adopted sons, the "Thirteen Taibao", through the scheming of the rival Prince of Liang, Zhu Wen.² The film was one of the four top-grossing Chinese-language films of 1970 and pairs the studio's two leading action stars, David Chiang and Ti Lung, under Chang Cheh's direction.²

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	十三太保 / The Heroic Ones¹
Director and writers	Directed by Chang Cheh; screenplay by Chang Cheh and Ni Kuang (倪匡)¹
Studio and producer	Shaw Brothers (邵氏兄弟); producer Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫)¹^•³
Hong Kong release	14 August 1970¹
Box office	HK$1,395,310, sixth place in its Hong Kong run⁴
Principal cast	David Chiang (Li Cunxiao), Ti Lung (Shi Jingsi), Ku Feng (Li Keyong), Chen Sing (Zhu Wen), Lily Li (Cui Yan), Chin Han (Li Siyuan)¹
Action directors	Tang Chia, Lau Kar-leung, and Lau Kar-wing; music by Wang Fu-ling³^•⁵

Spoilers

Plot and historical setting

The story is set in the final years of the Tang dynasty. Li Keyong (谷峰), ruler of the Sha Tuo kingdom, leads a hundred thousand elite soldiers, five hundred house generals, and his thirteen adopted sons, the Thirteen Taibao, on an imperial mandate to suppress the Huang Chao rebellion.² The Prince of Liang, Zhu Wen (陳星), who harbors ambitions of usurping the throne, resents Li Keyong's power and sets the thirteen brothers against one another through provocation and intrigue.²

The internal feud turns lethal. According to the Baidu Baike synopsis, the Fourth Taibao Li Cunxin (南宮勳), at odds with his brothers, joins Zhu Wen in a plot against Li Keyong: Zhu Wen lures Li Keyong to Bianliang, gets him and the Eleventh Taibao Shi Jingsi drunk, and moves to kill them; Shi Jingsi dies fighting to protect his adoptive father, and Li Cunxiao arrives with his Black Crow troops at the critical moment.¹ In the fighting that follows, more than half of the thirteen brothers die, and the Thirteenth Taibao Li Cunxiao (姜大衛) is executed by drawing and quartering.²^•¹³ A Hong Kong Film Archive writer observed that the tragedy springs from political intrigue, but that the rivalry among the adoptive father and his sons already existed within the family itself; the outside schemer is only the spark that ignites it.³

Cast and crew

The film belongs to what IMDb's summary calls the "iron triangle" of Chang Cheh and his protégés David Chiang and Ti Lung.⁶ David Chiang plays Li Cunxiao, the Thirteenth Taibao; Ti Lung plays Shi Jingsi, the Eleventh Taibao; Lily Li plays Cui Yan; Chin Han plays Li Siyuan; and the large supporting cast includes Nam Kung-hun as Li Cunxin, Wang Chung, Ku Feng, and Chen Sing.¹ The credited cast runs to about thirty performers, including Yuen Woo-ping, who later became an internationally known action director.⁴

Behind the camera, Run Run Shaw produced, Kung Mu-toh was the cinematographer, Chiang Hsing-lung the editor, and Wang Fu-ling composed the music; the action choreography was shared by Tang Chia, Lau Kar-leung, and Lau Kar-wing.³

Production

A large-scale Shaw Brothers production. A Hong Kong Film Festival program described the film as a key Shaw Brothers production of its year with vast and ferocious battle scenes, drawing on the studio's elite martial-arts performers.⁷ The magazine Southern Screen (南國電影), Shaw Brothers' official film magazine, reported in its issue of May 1970 that Chang Cheh personally supervised the carpenters building the exterior sets, wanting the film to surpass his previous one.⁸

Filming took place in summer heat severe enough that several horses died during production.¹ The five-horses dismemberment scene required a raised platform to be built, which drew protests from villagers; the dispute was settled through Chang Cheh's mediation and the scene was completed.¹

Style and reception

The film is an example of Chang Cheh's masculine, violent style. The Hong Kong Film Archive's retrospective essay on his work notes that he used slow motion in The Heroic Ones to heighten the sense of heroic slaughter, and that his films ritualize death, presenting a hero's violent end as the completion of his heroism.⁹^•¹⁰ The same essay places the film among the important works of his most productive decade, 1966 to 1976, alongside The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), The Assassin (1967), Golden Swallow (1968), Vengeance! (1970), The Boxer from Shantung (1972), and The Blood Brothers (1973).¹⁰

Box office standing. The film earned HK$1,395,310 in its Hong Kong run from 14 to 28 August 1970, ranking sixth, and Apple TV's and TVB's synopses both describe it as one of the four top-grossing Chinese-language films of 1970.⁴^•²^•¹¹ A Japanese Shaw Brothers retrospective site characterizes it as a Chinese western-style entertainment from the established Hong Kong action master Chang Cheh.⁴

Release

After its Hong Kong premiere on 14 August 1970, the film reached West Germany on 11 May 1973, France and the Netherlands on 9 August 1973, and Mexico on 5 September 1974; Taiwan saw a re-release on 9 August 1980. It later appeared on DVD in Finland on 5 September 2007 and in the United States on 6 April 2010.¹ Runtime listings differ across sources: Baidu Baike and IMDbPro give 126 minutes, the Hong Kong Film Festival program gives 125 minutes, and Apple TV lists 1 hour 40 minutes.¹^•¹²^•⁷^•²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1963 to 1998

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?