I originally knew this movie as Shaolin Challenges Ninja (due to the U.S. Title renaming of foreign films at the time) but regardless of the title, it is STILL one of my favorite martial arts {Kung-Fu} movies. I watched it again in 2019 and surprisingly, it still holds up. For the time period, it was shockingly not another "...You killed my master/revenge..." film that the genre was known for back in the 70s. It has a solid, down to earth plot which tries to explain WHY the combat engagements are taking place. This film really was ahead of its time in terms of narrative.
Review by GreeneidalVIP 9BlockedParent2022-04-07T20:56:34Z
There have been movies by Lau Kar-leung I find a bit hard to like, They are rare, but it happens. Heroes of the East is NOT one of them. I had this one and Dirty Ho on a bootleg VHS tape back in the late 80s. It was probably the most watched videotape I owned for a while there. So...when I got the Shaw Scope Volume One, and found out that those two were actually on the same disc, and the last disc in the set...well...thrilled doesn't start to cover it.
Heroes of the East is one of my all-time favourite martial arts film. Not only is there different kinds of Chinese kung-fu here, but also a lot of Japanese styles. What more can you ask?!? There's also a decent story to go with the action this time, even though the martial arts takes over in latter part of it, but by then you are so thrilled with the talent on display, you forget all about the story anyway.
The best part...even though Gordon Lius Ho Tao wins every match, he's not an asshole about it. It's mostly about mutual respect, which is great.
Anyway...this review has gone on long enough. Heroes of the East is a masterpiece in any sense of the word, and is required viewing. End of story!!!