Heroes of the East
Heroes of the East is a 1978 film from Hong Kong, directed by Lau Kar-leung, running 105 minutes. reelscum files it under martial arts.
- Year
- 1978 · 1970s films
- Country
- Hong Kong
- Runtime
- 105 min
- Director
- Lau Kar-leung
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (44/100)
- Also known as
- Shaolin Challenges Ninja · Challenge of the Ninja · Heroes of the East
Defined in the glossary: Martial arts
Chinese kung fu versus Japanese martial arts, as a marriage. Lau Kar-leung's most good-natured film.
A refreshingly good-natured Lau Kar-leung film built on a clever premise: a Chinese man's arranged marriage to a Japanese martial artist turns into a comedy of styles, and a misunderstanding escalates into a series of duels against visiting Japanese masters, each representing a different discipline. Nobody dies, and honour is satisfied all round.
It is essentially a showcase for the differences between Chinese and Japanese fighting arts, staged with Lau's usual technical rigour and unusual warmth. Gordon Liu stars. One of the most purely enjoyable and least bloody kung fu films of its era.
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