REVIEW: ‘Heroes of the East’ (DVD – Dragon Dynasty)

One of the greatest pure martial arts movies of all time and certainly one of director Lau Kar-leung’s finest arrives on DVD courtesy of Dragon Dynasty. Keeping pace well ahead of the competition, DD’s release comes with a full suite of bonus content headed up by an exclusive interview with the film’s star Gordon Liu.

HEROES OF THE EAST has been fully restored by Celestial Pictures and looks exceptionally sharp. Included are original Mandarin, Cantonese and English dubbing, as well as optional English and Spanish subtitles. Since no Sync sound was used and actors on set are actually speaking in Cantonese and Japanese my recommendation is to go with the original English dub which features quality voice acting.

Audio commentary with Bey Logan - Bey hasn’t done too many old school kung fu commentaries to date and it’s nice to hear him doing one for a Lau Kar-leung movie. Bey is a student of Hung Fist so is able to go into greater detail on the stylings that Lau’s student Gordon Liu displays. He also discusses at length the Japanese martial arts styles and customs while offering some helpful explanation for the film’s culture clash theme that Westerners might otherwise misunderstand.

Spotlight on a Legend: A Tribute to Lau Kar-Leung (36 minutes) - The title to this segment is somewhat misleading. Bey Logan discusses Lau Kar-leung for the first few minutes but spends most of his time discussing HEROES OF THE EAST in general. Unlike a similar segement on Dragon Dynasty’s COME DRINK WITH MEN there are fewer unique pictures mixed in. Most of the topics covered are similar to what Bey discusses in his commentary. As has become the trend, these featurettes on DD releases act as a condensed and more focused version of the commentary. It’s nice to have an option to watch either but the overlap in material covered may seem a little redundant for those of us interested in checking out all the extras. One thing I will say though is that in few words, Bey gets right to the heart of Lau’s greatness as a filmmaker.

Hero of Shaolin: Exclusive interview with Gordon Liu (22 minutes) - Excellent interview with Gordon Liu sees the soft-spoken actor talk openly about his background, career, relationship to Lau Kar-leung, and experience working on HEROES OF THE EAST. Liu is a rare breed of actor, in Hong Kong or anywhere else. He’s hard working, humble, respectful, and wise. It’s truly inspiring to see the integrity of his many heroic screen personas reflected in his own life. Too often we hear about the vices, egos and in-fighting associated with some of Hong Kong’s martial arts stars. I love what he has to say about action stars today. He chastises the young generation of Hong Kong talent for not working hard enough and even cites Uma Thurman’s extensive training for KILL BILL as example that Hong Kong action stars today are generally a mere shadow of their predecessors.

Shaolin vs. Ninja: An Exploration of the Legendary Martial Arts Weapons Forms of China and Japan (26 minutes) - Bey Logan’s lovely “co-host” Kea Wong makes a return after appearing on the FLASH POINT DVD release to bring us more examples of real-life martial arts based on techniques seen in the movie in question. For this segment, she receives basic instruction in Japanese sword drawing from Iaido master Lok, general kung fu weapons handling from Hung Gar weapons master Chi-kong and staff fighting from Okinawan bow master Lai. This is a neat extra to provide viewers with a practical and accessible introduction to some of the fighting techniques in the movie. It’s quite appropriate for HEROES OF THE EAST given the care with which Lau Kar-leung uses to portray both the Chinese and Japanese fighting arts.

Trailers - Original theatrical trailers for HEROES OF THE EAST and COME DRINK WITH ME are included.

Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16×9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: Mandarin Dolby 2.0, Cantonese Dolby 2.0, English Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English, English (CC), Spanish
Length: 105 minutes
Release Date: 2008.05.27