Heroes of the East (1980)

Fresh and Exciting

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Heroes Of The East aka Shaolin Challenges Ninja is one of many collaborations between actor Gordon Liu and director Lau Kar Leung brought to us by the legendary Shaw Bros. Studios. Gordon Liu has an arranged marriage with a woman from Japan. His wife is an expert of various Japanese fighting styles and each party is of the viewpoint that their style is better than the other. Their various sparring matches cause serious tension in their marriage as well as destroy much of the house. Gordon Liu is, of course an awesome exponent of Chinese kung fu. His wife takes off to Japan and in an effort to get his wife back, slams the Japanese martial arts and challenges her to a competition. His wife's martial arts instructor/love interest grabs the letter from her and does not appreciate the letter's content. Next thing you know Yasuaki Karata and a bunch of Japanese dudes show up at Gordon Liu's pad and challenge him to a tournament. Gordon Liu accepts and fights each representative of various Japanese fighting styles. What separates Heroes Of The East from various other Chinese vs Japanese productions is that it respects both cultures and their fighting styles as well. There are lots of great fights to be had here and both Gordon Liu and Yasuaki Kurata are in top form. Heroes Of The East is indeed a solid martial arts film but it is nowhere near as essential as Lau Kar Leung/Gordon Liu's kung fu masterwork The 36 Chambers Of Shaolin aka Master Killer. Heroes Of The East still resonates and is an enjoyable, fast paced and cohesive martial arts film that is memorable and far above average.

1st thing this movie is only enjoyable if lack the knowledge in family relations , dojo and martial arts history.i would'd liked the movie if the movie was based on group single per person challenge but the movie has a such an insult to the viewer by creating a super human martial artist who could master a completely arcane art in a single evening , and he is a grandmaster in all chines combat techniques in a very very young age , let alone to make look the Japaneses as complete joke , i don't even want to mention all those. but beside that , the combat sequences and the cryptography was very will done , but i was unable to enjoy most of it because of the insulting plot and story.

If you like the Shaw Brothers Kung-fu movies and martial arts in general this is a cant miss. Gordon Lui plays a Chinese martial arts expert married off to a Japanese woman. Both are proud of there martial arts heritage and proceed to take on each other with all there countries weapons and arts. Kuda, his wife loses and returns to Japan in disgust. One of Lui's servants cooks up an idea to get here back by writing a mean letter ripping apart Japanese martial arts. Her teacher grabs the letter and takes it as an insult to there honor. Soon they travel to Japan changeling Lui once a day in different forms of Japanese martial arts, Kendo, Karate, numchuk, pole, yari, sai, Judo and then finally Ninjitsu. Defeating the kendo man and not taking his sword dishonor's him greatly and attempts seppuku but is stopped. The Japanese do there best to stop him, but Gordon takes them out one by one, apologizing about the sword incident and wining there respect. This is a great Shaw Brothers movie and surprisingly no one dies. Instead this showcases many forms of martial arts and weapons. Lui is one of the great Kung Fu leads of the 70's and I have always enjoyed him. I give this a 9 out of 10.

Gordon Liu... what else should be said?This movie is great... from Liu slapping around his servant to his servant eying up Liu's wife's open top to the excellent fight scenes, this is without a doubt excellent entertainment. Quite fun, and quite funny!Note: the ninja at the end is the same actor that appears as the master in Jet Li's Fist of Legend (the guy who cuts paper (or leaves? can't remember) with his swipes).If you can find this one, it's a gem. Don't miss it, esp. if you're a Liu fan.