A Chinese man (Liu) marries a Japanese woman through an arranged marriage and manages to insult all of her Japanese martial arts family by issuing a challenge to her that is misinterpreted by the others. He must then prove how good Chinese Kung Fu really is through a series of duels with the seven Japanese martial artists who come to meet the challenge.In a departure from the norm for a Hong Kong film of that time, instead of stereotyping the Japanese characters as villains, the film portrays both the Japanese characters and their fighting skills with respect. Another unusual aspect of the film is that director Lau insisted that none of the fights ended in death. It is consistent with Lau's insistence on no characters being killed when in the film, Ho Tao criticizes the lethal technique of Ninjitsu as being dishonorable.This really is a nice exposition of two different fighting styles, even if staged. There is another film that does this, but I cannot recall which (possibly "Ip Man"). I find it interesting to see that interaction between the Chinese and Japanese, as they seem to have always been rivals...

East meets Far East when "Gordon Liu" (sporting what looks like an unintentionally funny wig) finds himself agreeing to an arranged marriage with a Japanese woman. He's Chinese, so there are bound to be some rough spots along the way- but the real sticking point for this couple turns out to be- surprise!- martial arts. She takes the next ship back to Japan, to meet with her karate instructor (Kurata) and discuss what might be done to save her marriage. Liu sends her a formal, written challenge in the hopes of luring her back. The ploy backfires and Kurata and half a dozen other Japanese martial artists, taking Liu's insult at face value, arrive to teach him a thing or two about Japanese martial arts. Before you can say "marital misunderstanding," Liu's facing off against one Japanese master after another in a great, unending sequence of fight scenes that make HEROES OF THE EAST well worth sitting through. Kurata himself, using what he calls "crab karate," has what must be the widest horse stance in the history of martial arts movies (horseshoe crab stance?) and moves from side to side like a real crab. In another bout, against a judoka, Liu greases his body so that the man can't get a grip on him.

HEROES OF THE EAST is most probably the greatest martial arts film I have seen. A terrific story of marital dysfunctional and rivalry between nations plays host to some of the most vivid, thrilling fight scenes ever filmed. Amazingly every fight scene in this film is on par with the others. Usually martial art films will have one or two stand out set pieces and smaller scenes peppered about, but in Heroes of the East each fight scene is handled with the same amount of care and attention, which is no small deal as the majority of the film is the fight scenes. For a film that is mostly action scenes, amazingly no one dies or gets seriously injured in the entire movie. This film is about two nation's warriors learning to respect each other's technique and culture not about striking down the opponent. The marital dysfunction scenes that set the film in motion are also hugely entertaining. One scene in particular in which husband and wive throw down their country's hidden weapons on a table recalls the great Hollywood comedies of the 30s and 40s. Combining the best of both worlds Heroes of the East becomes a relentlessly entertaining, inventive masterpiece.

This is classic martial arts with everything that comes with it, including, to start with the downside first: A terrible English dub. The videotape I saw was also cropped. But if you can past that and get on to the movie you're in for a positive surprise. Drunk Shaolin.. is as good as it gets and offers a great sense of humor without getting silly. In brief the story is about a Chinese man who happens to be a kung fu expert marries a Japanese girl who is a an avid karate fighter. Trouble is certainly ahead as she chucks out her husband's Chinese kung fu weapons to make room for her own Japanese weapons, even worse: He insults her karate she takes it personally as so does her teacher in Japan and a group of his crack students, so they are off to China to challenge her husband to a duel. What follows is a fantastic display of Japanese contra Chinese weapons and techniques presented with considerable style as well as humor. I watched this film many times, it is joy forever. 8/10