Heroes of the East

Apples vs. oranges, Chevy vs. Ford, Yankees vs. Red Sox, vanilla vs. chocolate... all great debates to be sure, but they pale in comparison to the best debate of them all, Chinese Martial Arts vs. Japanese Martial Arts! This Lau Kar-Leung(who also appears as a drunken master!) film, that also goes by the far worse title, "Shaolin Challenges Ninja," delivers this battle in fantastic fashion with tons of style and charm to spare. The plot has Gordon Liu in an arranged marriage to Japanese actress Yuko Mizuno and instantly their cultures and beliefs clash, most importantly when it comes to just who has the best fighting techniques the world over. In typical Kar-Leung film fashion the movie has a light playful tone, however; unlike some of his other attempts it's never corny and obnoxious and Gordon and Yuko in particular have fun with the situations while still keeping a serious tone about everything. The Japanese masters that are brought in to challenge Gordon are all great and bring personality and flavor with the small amount of screen time each is given (by actual Japanese actors). When these duels occur we get everything you could ever hope for including Kung Fu vs. Karate, Long Sword vs. Kitana, Butterfly Knives vs. Sais, 3 Section Staff vs. Nunchuku (in the closest we'll ever get to seeing Liu take on Bruce Lee... and this guy is an obvious clone), and more! One knock I do have with the movie is that Chinese master Liu tends to pawn the Japanese masters in exciting but fairly one-sided duels. Still, this is a Chinese film (if it was Japanese I'm sure things would be quite the opposite) and the Japanese masters are all treated respectfully even in defeat. This is a top 10 martial arts movie for myself and many other fans of Kung Fu cinema so if you haven't seen this yet then do yourself a favor and check it out ASAP! For those that already own the DVD from bootleg hacks Red Sun, I implore you to do the right thing and purchase this version from Dragon Dynasty... not only will there be a nice selection of bonus material included BUT it will also show that martial arts fans are willing to pay for top-notch respectable releases of classic Kung Fu films(especially Shaw Bros movies). Who out there wouldn't love to see other chop socky masterpieces like Five Deadly Venoms, 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, Enter The Fat Dragon, The Kid With The Golden Arm, Shaolin Vs Lama, and so many others get more than just a bootleg treatment? Thank you Dragon Dynasty for taking a chance on this release and hopefully it's a step towards more quality genre titles in the near future(Come Drink With Me is coming soon too!).

Probably the most entertaining Shaw Bros. film ever! Possibly the most fun Liu and Lau had making a Shaw Bros. film ever!! Positively the most amazing demonstrations of various Chinese and Japanese weapons, styles, philosophies, and attitudes about Martial Arts in any "Kung Fu vs Karate" or "Wuxia vs Ninja" or "China vs Japan" film made at Shaw Bros. or any other studio in Hong Kong, Tokyo, or anywhere else in the world, ever!!! And no one dies, or gets beat to a bloody pulp because it was meant to be entertaining, and fun, and amazing... And it's all that and a bag of shurikan's! Also, keep your eyes peeled for the "Sifu" himself showing Jackie Chan how "Drunken Master's" style can be done righteously in 10 minutes! * Highly recommended "fu flick fare" for females and families! Even the youngest kids in your brood can watch this one and learn some good life lessons about tolerance, respect, and confidence without pride too! Plus, they'll love it all the way through and have as much of a good time as you! It's really true!! Just ask "Sifu" Lau or "Master" Liu!!! ~ S->

Heroes of the East is a fantastic cinematic presentation of Chinese and Japanese fighting styles put up against each other to see which is the better one. Gordon Liu(36 Chambers of Shaolin) stars as Ah To in this movie and does a fantastic job. The fight scenes are really well done representing both the Japanese and Chinese styles of fighting without one necessarily being the dominant one. I hope Dragon Dynasty continues its great DVD releases of classic films like this one.

Special Features were excellent also. They included feature commentary with Bey Logan, 22 minute tribute to Martial Arts icon Lau Kar-Leung, 20 minute interview with Gordon Liu, and a 26 minute Shaolin vs Ninja Martial Arts Weapons presentation which was very interesting.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 29 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars