Martial Arts films were all the rage for a while in the seventies, thanks in no small part to the popularity of Bruce Lee. While this fad was hot, dozens of distributors got in on the action and imported all manner of oddball fight films from overseas (usually Hong Kong but in this case, Taiwan), dubbing them into English and dumping them into inner city cinemas or drive-ins around the country. 1971's Fearless Fighters (it was released in North America two years after it was made in 1973), also known as Hero Of Heroes, was one of those films and Image Entertainment, bless them, have seen fit to rescue this one from obscurity and give it a rather shining DVD presentation.

The story begins when a big-wig politician type called Lightning Whip is attacked while escorting a large shipment of gold. Hit by poison arrows, it doesn't look good for him but he manages to stumble home before he croaks where he meets his son, Chen Yi Chung (Chiang Ming), and his daughter, Yu-lan. His last dying wish is that they steal back the gold that was taken from him and return it to its rightful owner.

But who was responsible for the theft and in turn, the death of Lightning Whip? All signs point to a good man named Lei Pong who as unfortunately set up to look like the culprit by his dastardly brother, To Pa (Ma Kai), who was the real thief behind the robbery. Lei Pong finds himself locked up in jail for a crime that he did not commit until Chen Yi Chung and Yu-lan figure things out and decide to spring him. The three of them team up and soon add a fourth member to their team in the form of a mysterious female warrior named Tien-Ly (who, coincidently, helped save Lei Pong's son from the massacre that his evil brother launched on his family), and soon they're off to get the gold back from To Pa and make him pay for what he did to Lightning Whip. What they don't realize is that To Pa knows they're hot on his heels and so he's hired some of the finest mercenary fighters around to get in between them and make sure that they don't make their way to him.

The plot in Fearless Fighters is no great shakes but what it does have going for it in spades is cool weapons and wacky fighters. You want to see a guy called Solar Ray Of Death toss exploding discs at the heroes? This movie will give you that. What if you want to see a guy named Dragon Raiser fight the good guys using crazy claws? This movie will give you that too. It'll even throw in a guy called Soul Picker who has flying sword things and a special weapon for To Pa called the Devil Ripper too. Oh, and there's a bionic swordsman in here as well. You really can't go wrong when you've got a bionic swordsman in your movie. Plot comes secondary in this one, the story really only exists to bridge together the fight scenes and land our characters at the inevitable showdown with the lead villain. That being said, it works. The fight scenes are strong enough and the gimmicky weapons make for completely insane and totally entertaining combat sequences that rank up there with those seen in Master Of The Flying Guillotine (this one isn't quite that crazy but it certainly comes close).

While Fearless Fighters doesn't have the star power of other martial arts films (don't look for Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan in this one, or even Sammo Hung or Jimmy Wang Yu) the cast does a fine job with the material. Ma Kei as To Pa is the best of the bunch, he's completely evil and totally over the top in his performance, which is made all the more madcap by the insane dubbing. Rather than impress you with moving performances or fantastic line delivery, instead they're content to simply run around looking cool and showing off their moves – in the fantastic context of the film, it works wonderfully. The garish costumes and unabashed wirework simply add to the magic, making this one more fun than you'd probably expect.

Video:

Image has dug up a pretty solid source for Fearless Fighters as the 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD looks very nice indeed. Colors are strong and quite robust, while black levels stay deep and solid. There's some mild print damage here and there in the form of some specks and some mild debris but it's never too much so that it proves distracting. There are a couple of scenes that exhibit some minor to moderate film grain but it isn't anything that should prove off putting. Martial arts titles have, with a few exception, been shortchanged on DVD so it's nice to see Image present this one properly.