Heroes of the East

Heroes of the East (Zhong Hua Zhang Fu) (1978)

Runtime: 105 minutes

Directed by: Lau Kar-Leung

Starring: Gordon Liu, Yuka Mizuno, Cheng Kang-Yeh, Ching Miao, Yasuaki Kurata

From: Shaw Brothers

Communication & compromise are important in a marriage.

I say that as a single dude but the arranged marriage of a Chinese man and Japanese woman in the 1930’s and their arguments over which country’s martial arts is “better” is the backbone of this motion picture. Now, there’s still nationalistic pride here and the wife doesn’t play a big role in the second half of the movie, but even with that noted, I still had a swell time.

Ah Tao & Yumiko are the young couple. The newlyweds appeared to be doing alright-despite some in town rejecting her due to her heritage & different customs-until they start beefing over which of their martial arts is superior. This escalates as both their fighting and weapons are compared & contrasted. This is all humorous, especially when Tao’s servant (the movie’s comedic role and a patsy) is stuck in the middle. Yumiko is so offended, she returns to Japan; via circumstances, several masters of the Japanese martial arts-mainly portrayed by Japanese actors who I’ve seen in Japanese movies before-come to China to all challenge Tao. What a quandary Ah is in.

Unlike what you typically saw from the Shaw Brothers, the Japanese were not portrayed as OOT villains and ultimately, their martial arts are respected. Let’s not dwell on the relations between the two countries as the fractious history they’ve had… as a nerd of course I appreciated seeing these different styles. Those arts from around the world are all fascinating, each having their strengths and weaknesses. Gordon Liu was unforgettable as Ah Tao, even if his character was a jerk and he did fumble the bag w/ Yumiko due to his haughty pride.

I wanted to watch an action film last night; this more than delivered with the number of fights and demonstrations, featuring all matters of weapons. Heck, there’s even a ninja, giving us a long creative segment where Ah Tao engages in trickery himself to thwart the art of illusion tactics of his ninja foe. It’s a relief that after having viewed a few dozen Shaw Brothers movies, all those action beats felt different and it never became hackneyed.