East meets Far East when "Gordon Liu" (sporting what looks like an unintentionally funny wig) finds himself agreeing to an arranged marriage with a Japanese woman. He's Chinese, so there are bound to be some rough spots along the way- but the real sticking point for this couple turns out to be- surprise!- martial arts. She takes the next ship back to Japan, to meet with her karate instructor (Kurata) and discuss what might be done to save her marriage. Liu sends her a formal, written challenge in the hopes of luring her back. The ploy backfires and Kurata and half a dozen other Japanese martial artists, taking Liu's insult at face value, arrive to teach him a thing or two about Japanese martial arts. Before you can say "marital misunderstanding," Liu's facing off against one Japanese master after another in a great, unending sequence of fight scenes that make HEROES OF THE EAST well worth sitting through. Kurata himself, using what he calls "crab karate," has what must be the widest horse stance in the history of martial arts movies (horseshoe crab stance?) and moves from side to side like a real crab. In another bout, against a judoka, Liu greases his body so that the man can't get a grip on him.
Review of Heroes of the East
