Heroes of the East

1980 "There is nothing more terrifying than the ninja... except death!"
7.5| 1h45m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 November 1980 Released
Producted By: Shaw Brothers
Country: Hong Kong
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Gordon Liu stars as a Chinese martial arts student struggling to relate to his new Japanese wife. When a series of martial misunderstandings spirals into an international incident, he's forced to take on seven of Japan's most powerful martial arts masters, each an expert in a different discipline, ranging from karate to samurai to ninjitsu.

Genre

Action, Comedy

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Director

Lau Kar-leung

Production Companies

Shaw Brothers

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Heroes of the East Audience Reviews

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
julian kennedy Heroes of the East 6 out of 10. I am going to be nice here. I know this Shaw brothers picture is a favorite of some. If you like seeing different martial arts styles going against each other in interesting and colorful ways. You are in for a treat. If you like a story with your fighting you may be in for a long haul. The basic plot is an arranged marriage between a nice Chinese martial artist (Yay) and a horrible Japanese bride (Boo.). And the bride is horrible. It turns out she doesn't follow any of the nice Chinese customs like a normal person but instead follows those weird Japanese customs (Boo). To make matters worse she is a martial artist in her own right. But instead of doing good working class All-American Chinese martial arts (Yay) She does the sneaky, underhanded Japanese martial Arts (Boo).As one might surmise from the paragraph above the movie is slightly weighted to the Chinese point of view. This proves problematic as the wife (played by Yuka Mizuno) is neither attractive enough nor has the personality to convince me that her husband would pursue her back to Japan after she beat him up and destroyed his family home. Nevertheless, he sends a message asking her to come back to him and it is misinterpreted as a challenge to all of Japan's top martial artists. So we are then treated to some pretty good match-ups between Japanese and Chinese martial arts in everything from sword work to throwing stars.I see Wikipedia gives the film credit for not making the Japanese the bad guys as was the norm in Hong Kong cinema. (I am assuming they are grading on a curve). They do note that the fights are all honorable and without fatalities and that I agree is a nice change of pace. If the thought of seeing a Japanese Kusarigama vs. a Chinese Rope Dart or Japanese Crab-style vs. Chinese Fujian White Crane fills you with glee this is certainly a movie for you. If you are looking for an actual story the premise may come across as a little thin.
gjhong I read somewhere that the producers tried hard to come up with a story that viewers outside Hong Kong would enjoy because Gordon Liu had fans in China and Japan thanks to his Shaolin monk movies. "Heroes of the East" was the result. Gordon Liu was in Montreal for the Fantasia Film Festival so local organizers and sponsors got him to come to Toronto to say hello after the show.I noticed something watching the Chinese version that slipped by me when I watched the English dub years ago - only the Ninja Master and Ah To's wife could speak Chinese! I guess that was necessary for the sake of the story so our hero couldn't tell the other Japanese masters that everything was a big misunderstanding and there was no reason for them to fight.I have good feelings about this movie because the story held together so well. Nobody was portrayed as a villain and everything was resolved happily with our hero accepting the friendship of the Kendo Master.
Stofft This movie is awesome!don't let the old year scare you away! This movie truly has it all, nice scenery and exciting fights.Shaw Brothers did have a nose for great martial arts flicks and this one is one of them (one of the better they have released I would say)the film centers around man named Liu that marries a Japanese girl. They early in their marriage argue about which martial arts styles that are the best; Chinese or Japanese. He of course speaks for the Chinese arts and she for the Japanese. He insults here that hard that she leaves him and goes back to China. In an attempt to win her back he writes a letter and sends off to her, but are misunderstood and so he insults HER family so they seeks him up to have a duel.Now here is where this film becomes really interesting; Every Japanese that he fights has different styles and weapons so this movie really shows off various styles in Martial Arts.And it shows it off well. the actors really knows their stuff; they all move and fight AMASING!don't hesitate to wait, rent/buy it know!I shall also add: IVL (Intercontinental Video Limited) has re-released this film on DVD with re-mastered video and sound quality! and it truly looks good! so I recommend looking this version up.9/10
Steve K. If you've ever enjoyed the classic Kung-fu films of the 70's, I'm sure you remember The 5 Deadly Venoms, Master Killer, 10 Dragons from Canton, etc, etc... But this classic is almost always overlooked for the simple reason that it wasn't aired too many times in the states. And this title is impossible to find on VHS, DVD, LD or any other medium. But if you ever have the chance, see this movie!!! This movie is as good as it gets when it comes to showing off the difference between Chinese Kung-fu and various Japanese techniques. And this movie is very humorous at the same time. You see, as the Japanese challenger comes one by one to duel, the wife of our star tells him of the exact style of fighting that the challenger will use (i.e. sword, spear, throwing stars, Ninjitsu etc...) . It is upto our hero (Gordon Liu of Master Killer) to counter each particular Japanese style with a similar Chinese technique. Chinese sword vs Japanese sword, Chinese spear vs Japanese spear. You get the idea. Now bearing in mind that this movie is Chinese made, of course the Chinese techniques prove to be superior. But really the best part of the movie is seeing how each weapon and techniques match up against each other.And look at the ratings the people who have seen this movie gave. Check it out.