A young man, Ryan, suffering from a disability, wishes to join the other kids from his schools football team. During an initiation rite, Ryan is swept away through a whirlpool to the land of Tao. There he is hunted by the evil Lord Komodo, who desires the boy as a key to enter the real world. Ryan is rescued by the protectors of Tao, five humanoid kangaroos, each embued with the five elements and virtues. Ryan learns his valuable lesson while saving the land of Tao.
Warriors of Virtue is a 1997 martial arts fantasy film directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Ronny Yu in his American English-language directorial debut, written by Michael Vickerman and Hugh Kelley, and starring Angus Macfadyen, Mario Yedidia, and Marley Shelton. The film was an international co-production between the United States, China, Hong Kong, and Canada. The film was based on a series of characters created by the Chinese-American Law brothers, four siblings who worked as physicians and had no prior filmmaking experience. The story follows a young boy who stumbles into a mystical world based on the Tao Te Ching, where he meets the titular Warriors of Virtue—anthropomorphic kangaroos who wield the powers of Tao and battle an evil warlord. The Irish band Clannad provided the original song "Forces of Nature".
