“Duel to the Death” Chinese Theatrical Poster
AKA: Duel, The
Director: Ching Siu-Tung
Cast: Norman Chu, Flora Cheung, Damian Lau, Kuo Sheng, Eddy Ko, Paul Chang Chung, Yeung Chak Lam, Kwan Yung Moon, Casanova Wong, Hon Gwok Choi
Running Time: 82 min.
By Numskull
Bo Ching Wen is a wise young Chinaman, itching to test his skills after ten years of intense study at the Shaolin Temple. Hashimoto is the warrior champion of the Sun Yin Sect, eager to illustrate the power of his Japanese martial techniques, even at the cost of his life. Both men of honor, both master swordsmen, both snappy dressers. Both headed to Saint Sword Village in China to meet their destinies and determine once and for all whose skill is superior in a…(drumroll please)…DUEL TO THE DEATH!!!
Yes, it’s a hokey old Hong Kong melodrama, but it’s no Lo Wei bullshit. It’s an entirely different kind of bullshit. Swordplay replaces Kung Fu, honor replaces revenge, and LSD-induced fantasy replaces realism as warriors fly through the air with the greatest of ease, engaging in elaborate combative exchanges while floating twenty feet off the ground. There’s also a talking bird (though it is not a parrot) named Chicken (though it is not a chicken, either) who looks after Bo Ching Wen’s crazy old mentor who appears to have modeled his life on the teachings of Tarzan rather than Buddha. Even better, when a villain is decapitated and his severed head gets impaled on a tree branch, he utters a curse at his killer before dying. I always thought that you needed your lungs to draw the breath necessary for speech, but maybe I was wrong. And let’s not forget those darn ninjas. They pop up everywhere, working against Bo Ching Wen and his allies. And when I say “pop up”, I mean that in a very literal way, because they can appear out of thin air in the blink of an eye, vanish in a puff of smoke, explode in suicide frenzies, and merge into a fifteen-foot Super Ninja.
Bullshit…but entertaining bullshit.
The fight choreography seems competent enough, but don’t expect anything too spectacular. The aerial super-heroics get in the way sometimes. The plot is coherent despite the absurdities of the action that drives it along. Towards the end of the film, it looks as though the grand finale will be a cop-out and that no actual…DUEL TO THE DEATH!!!…will take place. But take place it does, and the winner should surprise no one. Keep a barf bag handy if you can’t handle severed limbs with Kool-Aid blood flowing like…well, like blood.
Oh yeah, and there’s a token female character who falls in love with one of the duellists (after knowing him for about eight minutes) and wishes she could fight as well as everyone else seems able to.
One other point I wish to address. The subtitles. The version I saw was from Tai Seng’s Remaster series, and they look great. The film is in letterbox format and the text is in (O Hosanna!) the blank space underneath the picture, with clear electronic characters. This in itself is a minor miracle, but the thing that really impressed me was their coherence. I did not notice a single spelling error, and there were only two or three grammatical snafus that anyone could have made. You won’t have any problem following the story. Well done.
The best recommendation I can give you: “You could do worse.”
Numskull’s Rating: 6/10
I absolutely love Duel to the Death.
It has a classy veneer with some entertaining absurdaties thrown in (particularly the crazy ninja techniques). Damian Lau is a class act and Tsui Siu-Keung gives a very charismatic and memorable performance. The action has a nice mix of more grounded martial arts from Flora Cheung and Casanova Wong, and a more fantastical ‘light body skill’ when the stakes are higher and the two leads who are supposed the be the greatest swordsmen from China (Damian Lau) and Japan (Tsui Siu-Keung) need to use all their powers.
The music is used very effectively, Ching Siu-Tung’s direction in the non action scenes is solid (but nothing more). The action scenes are exciting, unpredictable and skilfully shot. The low angles and quick cuts during the very airbourne final duel hid the wires (almost) entirely.
I really like Come Drink With Me, Touch of Zen, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and all the Chang Cheh classics, but although Duel to the Death might not be regarded as highly, for me it’s easily the most entertaining Wu Xia film I’ve seen.
10/10 from me.