Lau Kar Leung’s Heroes of the East (1978) is a great film...in theory. The central idea is a martial arts fan's dream come true: a showcase of Chinese and Japanese fighting styles going toe-to-toe in a series of grudge matches. The central idea of the film is practically revolutionary considering the anti-Japanese sentiments that usually dominate the wuxia genre: that Japanese martial artists are honorable and highly skilled. And I don't want to under-emphasize how important that is! But I would like to point out something that almost sabotages the film: the Japanese never win a fight. Not even once. If the film wanted to point out that Chinese and Japanese martial artists were equals, having one side dominate the other isn't the way to do it. And quite frankly, some of the fight outcomes are straight-up bullshit. Perhaps the most insane example is when the protagonist defeats a Japanese karate expert...who has presumably trained for his entire life...after spending only a few minutes learning Drunken Kung Fu. And yes, I do mean minutes. And then there's the time when the Japanese judo expert is defeated thanks to the bystanders cheating and sabotaging him with oily rags. Again, the fight scenes are dreams come true. And I adore the idea of mutual respect between Chinese and Japanese fighting traditions. But for equality to be equality, both sides have to be, y'know, EQUAL. Also, I didn't like how the Japanese wife character became essentially irrelevant after the first half. She was the most interesting character in the entire film and she didn't deserve to be shunted into the background.
7/10
0 Yorumlar