Zhong hua zhang fu (1979)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Chia-Liang Liu

Writer:

Kuang Ni (writer)

Release Date:

1 December 1982 (France)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

A Chinese man (Liu) marries a Japanese woman through an arranged marriage and manages to insult all...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Fight | Ninja

Cast

Chia Hui Liu	...	Ho Tao
Yuka Mizuno	...	Yumiko Koda
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lung Chan
Kang-Yeh Cheng	...	Chow Kan
Miao Ching
Norman Chu	...	Chang
Ping Ha
Riki Harada	...	Japanese Kendo expert
Linda Lin Di Ho
Hou Hsiao
Pa-Ching Huang
Naozo Kato	...	Dojo Grandmaster
Ho Chiu Kei
Yasuaki Kurata	...	Takeno, Japanese ninjutsu expert
Hoi San Lee	...	Bald Pupil
Chia-Liang Liu	...	Drunken Master
Hung Lu
Yasutaka Nakazaki	...	Japanese Sai expert
Hitoshi Omae	...	Japanese judo expert
Sha-fei Ouyang
Helen Poon		(as Pan Ping Chang)
Hayato Ryuzaki	...	Nunchaku expert
Sin San
Yujiro Sumi	...	Karate expert
Wilson Tong
Nobuo Yana	...	Japanese spear expert
Hua Yang
Siu Tien Yuen	...	Tao's Teacher

Also Known As:

Challenge of the Ninja
Chung wah cheung fu (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Drunk Shaolin Challenges Ninja
Heroes of the East (Hong Kong: English title) (original subtitled version)
Shaolin Challenges Ninja (International: English title) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-3 (1991) | USA:R

Company:

Shaw Brothers

better in Chinese

I read somewhere that the producers tried hard to come up with a story that viewers outside Hong Kong would enjoy because Gordon Liu had fans in China and Japan thanks to his Shaolin monk movies. "Heroes of the East" was the result. Gordon Liu was in Montreal for the Fantasia Film Festival so local organizers and sponsors got him to come to Toronto to say hello after the show.

I noticed something watching the Chinese version that slipped by me when I watched the English dub years ago - only the Ninja Master and Ah To's wife could speak Chinese! I guess that was necessary for the sake of the story so our hero couldn't tell the other Japanese masters that everything was a big misunderstanding and there was no reason for them to fight.

I have good feelings about this movie because the story held together so well. Nobody was portrayed as a villain and everything was resolved happily with our hero accepting the friendship of the Kendo Master.