AllMovie

A group of Chinese soldiers take on a vicious drug lord in Heroes Shed No Tears, an early film from famed director John Woo. The action takes place in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, notorious as one of the largest international centers of drug trafficking. As the film begins, an elite commando force is deep within the Triangle, launching an extremely bloody attack on the headquarters of drug kingpin General Samton. The raid ends with the successful capture of Samton -- but that is only the beginning of the their mission. The greater challenge lies in surviving long enough to bring their captive across the border of Thailand. During their journey, the group must struggle against Samton's henchmen and a brutal Vietnamese colonel they encounter along the way. While there is plenty of firepower in evidence, many of the action sequences lack the same level of elegance and style as Woo's later work. Instead, the film veers between moments of slapstick and horrific brutality of war in a fashion that would be more successful in his later Bullet in the Head.