Set in 1914 following the collapse of the Qing dynasty (1916-1928), the film follows the soldiers from a village as they seek vengeance after a warlord kills innocent people while they are away.
This is real old school action drama, the kind of Hong Kong movie that wears its heart on its sleeve and tends to wave it around with utterly sincere speeches about justice and duty.
Benny Chan's best film in years - a Chinese wuxia epic with obvious echoes to classic spaghetti Western films and Akira Kurosawa's samurai dramas like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.
When so many period Chinese blockbusters are all about fancy -- and more often than not, unconvincing -- special effects, it is refreshing to watch one that uses good, old-fashioned action stunts.
Sergio Leone's specter looms large over Call of Heroes, a film oozing nihilist violence on par with the bloodiest scenes in any of those spaghetti Westerns that have long informed Hong Kong's wuxia cinema.
