HEROES OF THE EAST (SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA)

by JASON BEARDYJ RUTLAND
(LONDON UK)

Heroes of the East (1979)
A.K.A Shaolin Challenges Ninja

Ah To (played by Gordon Liu) is a Kung Fu student. His rich father has set up an arranged marriage for him with the daughter of a Japanese business associate. Ah To initially objects and fains illness, but soon thereafter agrees to the marriage when he finds bride to be, Yumiko Kōda ("Kung Zi" in Mandarin), is attractive. After the wedding, he finds out that she is also a martial artist. Ah To finds her style of karate to be violent, unladylike, and potentially immodest and tries to persuade her to learn feminine but also effectual styles of Chinese kung-fu. She is later offended during an argument over which nation has the superior martial arts styles and eventually leaves to Japan. When he travels to Japan to entreat Kung Zi to be reconciled with her husband, Ah To's father finds Kung Zi in training by her childhood friend and rather too attentive martial arts sensei Takeno.

As a ruse to bring her back to China, Ah To sends her a letter challenging Japanese martial arts and their inferiority to their Chinese roots. Ah To hopes that the letter will infuriate Kung Zi enough to return to prove that her Japanese styles are as good as the Chinese ones. Once back in China, Ah To hopes to reconcile with her. But the plan backfires when Takeno reads the letter instead of Kung Zi. Takeno reads the challenge as an affront to Japanese martial arts and declares its contents with other Japanese martial-arts masters who travels to China to take up Ah To's challenge.

In the first duel Ah To wins the duel, but misinterprets a respectful gesture From the Japanese fighter (he hands him his sword)and thus further antagonizes the Japanese contingent. Due to this cultural misunderstanding, the Japanese no longer treat the subsequent duels as exhibitions of their styles but rather as an all-out fights. Kung Zi, seeing the gravity of the situation, helps out Ah To by warning him of Takeno's (Yasuaki Kurata) mastery of ninjutsu.


My opinion is this is one of the best Shaw Brothers movies ever made, tons of Kung Fu/Karate action and yet no one dies or even really gets hurt. also you get to see some great weapon fighting, Nunchaku, Sai, Swords etc.. i do believe if your a first timer to Shaw Brothers movies this is the movie you DON'T want to watch first because it don't get any better than this masterpiece...

Cast

Chia Hui Liu (Gordon Liu)... Ah Tao
Yuka Mizuno ... Yumiko Koda
Lung Chan
Kang-Yeh Cheng ... Chow Kan
Miao Ching
Norman Chu ... Chang
Ping Ha
Riki Harada ... Japanese Kendo expert
Linda Lin Di Ho
Hou Hsiao
Pa-Ching Huang
Naozo Kato ... Dojo Grandmaster
Ho Chiu Kei
Yasuaki Kurata ... Takeno,ninjutsu expert
Hoi Sang Lee ... Bald Pupil
Chia-Liang Liu ... Drunken Master
Hung Lu
Yasutaka Nakazaki ...Japanese Sai expert
Hitoshi Omae ... Japanese judo expert
Sha-fei Ouyang
Helen Poon (as Pan Ping Chang)
Hayato Ryuzaki ... Nunchaku expert
Sin San
Yujiro Sumi ... Karate expert
Wilson Tong
Nobuo Yana ... Japanese spear expert
Hua Yang
Siu Tien Yuen ... Tao's Teacher