The Valiant Ones

The Valiant Ones (, lit. 'Portraits of Valor' or lit. 'Portrait of the Loyal Martyrs' ) is a 1975 Taiwan and Hong Kong wuxia film written and directed by King Hu. The film portrays a Ming-era conflict between Chinese officials and Japanese pirates mediated by a husband-and-wife martial arts duo.

Synopsis
Facing threats from Japanese pirates along China's southern coast, Chinese Ming dynasty officials recruit a husband-and-wife martial arts duo to fight their adversaries.

Release
The Valiant Ones was screened at the 1975 Chicago International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Feature Film. The film also screened at the 1995 International Film Festival Rotterdam and the 2019 Hong Kong International Film Festival. The Harvard Film Archive organized a screening of the film as part of its 2013 film program King Hu and the Art of Wuxia in association with the Taiwan Ministry of Culture. The Valiant Ones is also periodically screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as part of its film exhibits.

Themes
Jonathan Clements, in an essay composed as a supplement for a home media release, writes about the film's connections to anti-Japanese sentiment which was on the rise at the time the film was produced. He compares the film's general set-up to Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven but points out that The Valiant Ones includes real historical figures which adds a note of authenticity. He also points out the film's theatrical inspirations, including notes of Chinese opera brought to the film by Sammo Hung (who was a former Beijing opera performer and worked as a fight choreographer on the film).

Home media
The film was released by Eureka on Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on May 27, 2024.

Reception
Chris Berry, previously associate professor of film studies at UC Berkeley, lauded the film's "intricate web of betrayals and plots". He described that "the only nobility to be had is within the swords of the valiant ones, those doomed to protect the shores of an empire rotting from the inside". The Harvard Film Archive called The Valiant Ones King Hu's "last true wuxiafilm". They described that the film's "choreography—action is expressed in calligraphic strokes such as the brief clanging of blades, the whizzing-by of arrows and the rhythmic flight of bodies—the film is nevertheless majestic in its evocation of landscape. But unlike the preternaturally gifted heroes of most swordplay films, Hu’s valiant ones are mortal".

Derek Elley writes that "The Valiant Ones... is replete with the expected ebb and flow of artifice, suspicion and sylvan sussuration-- Hu [has the] masterly skill at evoking a sense of dislocated reality, the pregnant calm which signals imminent danger... Hu shows his perennial concern for the ruthlessly rigid pecking-order of power structures--expressed, as always, through skill in the martial arts".