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Heroes of the East
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List Price: $19.97
Our Price: $14.99
Your Save: $ 4.98 ( 25% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: The Weinstein Company
Starring: Gordon Liu, Yasuaki Kurata
Directed By: Lau Kar-Leung
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
EAN: 0796019809962
Format: Dubbed
Label: The Weinstein Company
Manufacturer: The Weinstein Company
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: The Weinstein Company
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Running Time: 104
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Theatrical Release Date: 1979
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Editorial Reviews:
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HEROES OF THE EAST (DVD MOVIE)
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A marvelous film
Comment: This is a marvelous film. Awesome fight sequences. It goes to show that you can make a quality kung fu film without wire work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Keep the Shaw classics coming
Comment: It's a beautiful thing to see a Shaw Brothers film get the five star treatment, but it's even better when the movie itself is a five star film, like this classic from Liu Chia-liang (Lau Kar-leung). His movies rarely disappoint, in fact, some of his failures are superior than other's successes. My personal fave from him is "36th Chamber of Shaolin", but this is just a tiny notch below that one. It's a totally unique take on the familiar topic of Chinese vs. Japanese. Instead of it being down the line & doing a "virtuous" Chinese avenging themselves against "wicked" Japanese, Lau crafts a very subtle & realistic story. The cause for the combat is over miscommunication & misunderstanding, not because somebody is a nefarious villain. Get this, nobody gets injured in this film, much less killed; all the martial bouts are tests of skill, not duels to the death. I like that aspect, and this is coming from a huge Chang Cheh fan.
Lau's half-brother, Gordon, does a great job (as usual) portraying the lead Ho Tao, as does Yuka Mizuno as his somewhat immature Japanese wife. The culture clash seems absolutely authentic. Lau made a very smart move employing real Japanese fighters to play Gordon's combatants, and the bouts are appropriately matched up; gim vs. katana, karate vs. kung fu, spear vs. yari, 3-sectioned staff vs. tonfa/nunchaku, butterfly knives vs. sai, culminating with the Japanese crab technique vs. Chinese crane style. Gordon takes on everybody, Yasuaki Kurata gives an incredible performance as the ninjitsu expert leading his team. Many familiar Shaw actors can be seen like Norman Chu, Wilson Tong, Ching Miao & Cheng Kang-yeh. Director Lau also shapes up the awesome fu and even plays the Drunken God expert Gordon tries to learn from. That character looks like a younger version of the drunk sifu Simon Yuen (who plays Gordon's sifu here) portrayed in "Drunken Master". Not only did Dragon Dynasty remaster the picture with it's widescreen Shawscope ratio (Arthur Wong's cinematography is stunning), but you can watch the movie either in Chinese with remastered subtitles (which emphasizes the language barrier better) or in a decent English dub. Don't miss the tribute to the man himself, Lau kar-leung or the awesome interview with Gordon Liu in the special features.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic martial arts film that will never go old.
Comment: Tell the truth; how long has it been since you kicked back and watched a martial arts film and said-"woooooow",It's probably been a while. Well, heroes of the east has put that ooh-ah back into the martial arts films.For about 20 years,kung fu film buyers have been cheated by watching martial arts films that are either bootleged or improperly framed. Now celestial, which owns the rights of all the shaw brothers titles, have restored and remastered some of the most finest cinema I have ever seen. The fight scenes in this film is so carefully directed,and the best fighting scene i found to be good was the scene when gordon lui character had to go against a ninja doing a style called "the crab stance", the fight is nothing but amazing. We should get serious about kung fu films, computer genertated effects are not the real deal. In which gordon lui expressed in an interview. Too many actors are not being trained and too many actors are not true martial artitst. Heroes of the east presents true martial art presentation.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Quality Extras for this Classic Film
Comment: There is an audio commentary by Hong Kong cinema expert by Bey Logan. He points out that this film was made during the glory days of the Shaw Bros. At the time, Gordon Liu was doing Shaolin monk roles in films and had a shaved head so he is wearing a wig in this film. Logan identifies many of the actors that appear on-screen and lists off some of their other credits. For those not familiar, he points out various customs of Chinese and Japanese culture which really enhances what we are watching.
"Spotlight on a Legend: A Tribute to Celebrated Martial Arts Icon Lau Kar-Leung." Bey Logan talks at length about the man interspersed with clips from several of his films.
"Hero of Shaolin" is an interview with Gordon Liu. He says that his father wanted him to follow a more conventional career path but he had other ideas. Liu took martial arts classes and became very proficient and serious about it. He talks about the Hong Kong film industry in the 1970s and how Bruce Lee's death impacted it. Liu talks about the genesis of Heroes of the East and working on it, including how he communicated with the actors who only spoke Japanese.
Finally, there is "Shaolin vs. Ninja" which takes a look at the martial arts weapon forms of China and Japan and features experts demonstrating the proper way to handle these weapons used in the film mixed with clips from it. This is a really interesting and engaging primer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing Film!
Comment: This is one of the best martial arts movies of all time. Fun story with humorous moments and fights that will boggle the mind. The various match ups between different various weapons and the choreography involved is exciting to watch and a real treat for fans of weapons in general. This movie showcases plenty of cool martial arts styles and what they could look like if they were used in a battle against each other. Btw, if you love games like Soul Calibur then check out this film! It's like watching a live-action version of that game. :D
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