Cheap Shaolin Challenges Ninja (DVD) (Chia-Liang Liu) Price

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Customer Reviews of Shaolin Challenges Ninja

Shaolin Challenges Ninja delivers what most people wanna see. Lots of fights, exotic weapons, and different fighting styles. A chinese man (Liu) gets married to Japanese woman. The woman knows Japanese Martial arts, but Liu claims that her style is too rough for a woman especially. They fight, Liu winning constantly. His wife returns to Japan, Liu inadvertantly sent a challenge to his wife's teacher. The Japanese accept and Liu must face 7 (i think) Japanese men and 7 major different fighting styles. Some of the fights close to the end are a bit strange. Most likely, the director ran out of ideas. The very end fight is excellent though. The end is okay, but could have been better.

Great for watching exotic weapons. extremely bad sound quality, i could not realy understand what was being said. only english dubbed, bad video quality. The use of the weapons is really what redeems this movie

Chinese kung fu vs. Japanese budo
SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA (1979) is as close to a pure martial arts movie as any Hong Kong kung fu movie, with the possible exception of the same director's MASTER KILLER (aka THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN). Director Lau Kar Leung strips away all subplots to focus directly on contests of skill between a Chinese kung fu expert and seven Japanese martial artists who travel to Hong Kong to challenge him. Ah To (MASTER KILLER'S Gordon Liu) is the son of a Chinese merchant in early 20th century Hong Kong and is newly married to a bride from Japan, Kudo (Yuko Mizuno). Kudo's attachment to her country's fighting arts irritates Ah To who proves Chinese kung fu's superiority by beating her in a series of not-so-friendly bouts. Her feelings of humiliation set into motion a chain of events leading to a direct challenge to Ah To by Kudo's handsome Japanese sensei, Sanzo (Yasuaki Kurata), who brings his fellow champions from Japan, each a master of a different specialty, all of whom schedule bouts with Ah To. The specific challenge for Ah To is to find the appropriate Chinese style or weapon to use in each bout, e.g. Drunken Fist boxing to counter Karate, a 3-section staff to fight nunchakus. The emphasis is always on training, strategy and a flexible approach.

Director Lau Kar Leung (aka Liu Chia Liang) was the chief fight choreographer at Hong Kong's Shaw Bros. studio in the 1960s and early 70s before becoming a director in his own right with SPIRITUAL BOXER and CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS. More than any man, he infused the Hong Kong kung fu film with authentic martial arts and strove to fill his casts with performers who were genuine martial artists. SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA is almost a perfect model of how to shoot kung fu sequences in a studio setting-with spacious sets, long shots, fewer cuts, and a mobile camera to follow the combatants. Lau himself appears in one scene as a drunken boxing expert who inadvertently teaches his moves to Ah To. Also appearing, as Ah To's teacher, is the original Drunken Master himself, Simon Yuen, the title character in Jackie Chan's original DRUNKEN MASTER (1978) and the father of that film's director, Yuen Wo Ping.

SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA is also known as CHALLENGE OF THE NINJA, DRUNK SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA and HEROES OF THE EAST. If there's any flaw in this film, it's in the final battle (on outdoor locations) between Gordon Liu and Yasuaki Kurata which relies too much on ninja gimmicks (smoke bombs, rope tricks, acrobatic leaps, flying darts and needles), undercutting the authenticity displayed in all the previous bouts. It's still an exciting fight, however. Kurata, a Japanese actor/martial artist, was a regular fixture of Hong Kong kung fu films and turned up 15 years later to fight Jet Li in the similarly themed FIST OF LEGEND (1994).

Great Fun! Get This One!
This is undoubtedly one of my favorite Gordon Liu films, as well as one of my favorite kung fu films of all time. Like another reviewer, I have watched his movie several times without tiring of it in the least.

The beginning is full of the comedy of differences and humorous rivalry between a young Chinese man (Liu), who is proficient in Chinese boxing, and his new Japanese bride, who is proficient in Japanese fighting; along with the misdeeds of a meddlesome servant who manages to incite even more difficulty between the spouses.

The rivalry turns into a formal challenge, as a cadre of Japanese fighters: experts in--among other things--Bushido, Karate, Ju-Jitsu and Ninjitsu, visit the character portrayed by Liu, to defend the wounded pride of his wife, which translates to their own pride in the (alledged superiority of) Japanese martial arts.

Liu then faces off against each of seven Japanese fighters in a series of very entertaining matches. Liu carefully chooses the appropriate Chinese weaponry and/or fighting style prior to meeting each of the challenges (the ju-jitsu match has its own surprises, though!), then engages. Good, clean (and informative) fun! No blind revenge, no death matches or victims coughing up blood, just a wholly enjoyable look at two competing styles within the context of 7 challenges, each of which affording the contestants new insight, appreciation and respect for each other: the elegant, diverse repertoire of Chinese martial arts styles pitted against the powerful, efficient styles of the Japanese.

And in the meantime, the marriage relations get better!

Top-shelf, top-of-the-list entertainment for every devotee of "old-school" kung fu films.