History Film / HeroesOfTheEast

Ho Tao (Liu), a Chinese martial artist married to a Japanese karateka, Kumiko, finds himself in deep trouble after being challenged by Japanese martial arts rivals affiliated with his wife after unintentionally pissing off a Japanese challenger in what was supposed to be a friendly duel. With seven Japanese challengers in his way, led by Kumiko's former teacher Takeno who objected Kumiko's relationship with a Chinese man, Ho Tao must defeat each and every single one of them.


The movie is known for being among the few Shaw films from the late-70s to '''not''' portray the Japanese as villains - instead, they are {{Anti Hero}}es at worst - despite the setting. The movie is pretty much a showcase of the martial arts skills of two different Eastern countries.

* ChekhovsGun: The sparring between Ho Tao and Kumiko, using different weapons, originally feels like a showcase of their skills in assorted martial arts, but later on it turns out Ho Tao had to counter his Japanese challengers, who uses the ''exact same'' skill in weapons he saw his wife using earlier, on him.

** Ho Tao, upon defeating Kumiko's kendo teacher who is his first challenger, is surprised to see the kendo teacher offering him the sheathed katana while kneeling over. Ho Tao refused, much to Kumiko's horror... later that night he finds out from Kumiko that he had unintentionally offended the Japanese by ''refusing'' to accept the katana as a token of accepting their defeat, and now ''every'' Japanese martial artist is out to challenge him.

** Ho Tao actually learns this the day before by having his servants fight the legendary master [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Chan Beggar So]] ([[CreatorCameo played by the director]]) and observing his movements.

* MasterOfAll: Ho Tao and Takeno who utilize multiple fighting styles and weapons.

* RunTheGauntlet: After unintentionally pissing off Kumiko's former school, Ho Tao ends up fighting ''every'' elite expert of the Japanese school, all of them which are eager to beat the snot out of him. Downplayed in a way that the Japanese are willing to send their challenges ''one at a time'' - so after defeating an opponent, Ho Tao had at least a day to rest and prepare for the following day's fight.
* SlapSlapKiss: Ho Tao and Kumiko, ''all the time''. Their bonding consists almost entirely of arguing the superiority between Chinese and Japanese weaponry, and then whipping out said weapons to fight each other, before making up after concluding their battle.
* StockNinjaWeaponry: Upon Kumiko's first arrival into the Ho family, she brought along with her a massive crate of her own "equipment"... which turns out to be assorted collection of ninja weapons, including the ''nihonto'', ''katana'', ''kusarigama'', various ''shuriken'', a ''kama'', several ''kunai'', and the like. And then there are the challengers from the Japanese school, who uses ''sai''s, ''makibishi'', smoke bombs, etc.

* SwordFight: One of the first sparring between Ho Tao and Kumiko, where the latter draws her ''katana'' after the former pulls out a ''jian''. Later in the film, Ho Tao had to fight another ''katana'' expert, but this time he uses a ''dao'' instead.

* WorthyOpponent: At the end of the movie, Ho Tao and all the Japanese masters, with Ho Tao thanking them for their demonstration and mending fences with the ''kenjutsu'' master by finally accepting his sword.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Kumiko, when showing off her Japanese-based kendo and aikido skills, practices barefoot, as per the norm for Japanese martial arts practitioners. Later on as Ho Tao challenged the karate expert, said expert kicks off his shoes before the fight. Same with the Judo master.

* BladeOnAStick: When Kumiko decides to show off her skills with a ''yari'', Ho Tao responds by grabbing a ''qiang'' from a nearby rack. Later on, Ho Tao had to battle against a Japanese spear expert, similarly using his own spear.

** Ho Tao and Yumiko's marriage is initially hindered by this.

* DualTonfas: After various sparring sessions between their varying sorts of Chinese and Japanese weaponry, Ho Tao and Kumiko decides to settle on one weapon which is mutual to both their cultures - tonfas. So what follows is a lengthy husband-vs-wife tonfa battle, though Ho Tao wields an extra-long one instead of using two.

* FightingWithChucks: The classic [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heroes_of_the_east_1978_kung_fu_kingdom_770x472_1024x628.jpg three-sectioned staff]] shows up as one of the many, many weapons Ho Tao gets to use against his Japanese challengers, and he kicks plenty of ass with it.

* SaiGuy: Ho Tao's fourth challenger is a sai-wielding expert, who wields two at a time. Ho Tao counters his dual ''sai''s using twin Butterfly Swords. Partway through the duel, Ho Tao managed to knock one of his opponent's ''sai''s out nof his hands, at which point he deliberately discard one of his Butterfly Knives as well to give his challenger a fair chance.

** There is also the fight with the Judo master who also towers over him, which unfortunately turned out to be a more comedic fight than a showcase of grappling, since Ho Tao‘s friends managed to rub him in peanut oil so he could avoid being grabbed (the film justifies this since the judo guy decided to challenge him at midnight instead of the middle of the day, with Ho Tao not being fully rested).

** Ho Tao actually learns this the day before the fight by having his servants fight the legendary master [[dcawnBeggar So]] ([[CreatorCameo played by the director]]) and observing his movements.
* DualTonfas: After various sparring sessions between their varying sorts of Chinese and Japanese weaponry, Ho Tao and Kumiko decides to settle on one weapon which is mutual to both their cultures - tonfas. So what follows is a lengthy husband-vs-wife tonfa battle, each of them using two at once.

* GratuitousNinja: Takeno, the final challenger Ho Tao needs to defeat, turns out to be trained in the art of ninjutsu, and uses various ninja weaponry to challenge Ho Tao, as well as spending the entire fight clad in ninja robes.

* NobodyCanDie: Enforced trope - allegedly during filming of the movie, the director, Lau Kar-leung, insists that the film's onscreen bodycount to be zero, despite the usage of various deadly weapons throughout the film. Which makes sense, since the weapon duels in the film are meant as a showcase of both countries' respective skills, instead of being used for killing intents.

* BladeOnAStick: When Kumiko decides to show off her skills with a ''nihonto'', Ho Tao responds by grabbing a ''qiang'' from a nearby rack. Later on, Ho Tao had to battle against a Japanese spear expert, similarly using his own spear.

* CultureClash: Ho Tao, upon defeating Kumiko's kendo teacher who is his first challenger, is surprised to see the kendo teacher offering him the sheathed katana while kneeling over. Ho Tao refused, much to Kumiko's horror... later that night he finds out from Kumiko that he had unintentionally offended the Japanese by ''refusing'' to accept the katana as a token of accepting their defeat, and now ''every'' Japanese martial artist is out to challenge him.

* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Initially, Ho Tao is absolutely against his family putting him through the arranged marriage with the Japanese Koda family, but after meeting Yumiko Koda for the first time, he started having second thoughts. Ho Tao and Yumiko ultimately ends up together as happily as they can be after the marriage.

* TokenEvilTeammate: While evil is a stretch, the Judo master is only one to exploit a loophole in the agreement that Ho Tao’s challengers would come for him one day at a time, by challenging him at midnight.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Kumiko, when showing off her Japanese-based kendo and aikido skills, practices barefoot, as per the norm for Japanese martial arts practitioners. Later on as Ho Tao challenged the karate expert, said expert kicks off his shoes before the fight.

* PlayingWithChucks: The classic [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heroes_of_the_east_1978_kung_fu_kingdom_770x472_1024x628.jpg three-sectioned staff]] shows up as one of the many, many weapons Ho Tao gets to use against his Japanese challengers, and he kicks plenty of ass with it.

* PlayingWithChucks: The classic [https://kungfukingdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Heroes-of-the-East-1978-Kung-Fu-Kingdom-770x472-1024x628.jpg three-sectioned staff]] shows up as one of the many, many weapons Ho Tao gets to use against his Japanese challengers, and he kicks plenty of ass with it.

''Heroes of the East'', also known as '[[TheForeignSubtitle Challenge of the Ninja]]'', is a 1978 MartialArtsMovie directed by Lau Kar-leung, released by Creator/ShawBrothers, starring Creator/GordonLiu in one of his very few non-Shaolin monk roles during the "Shaolin period" of his career.