Robert Barrett I'll start by saying I'm in no way an expert on martial arts movies. One night I was awake at 3:30 a.m. and happened to catch this movie, that's all. It was part of a martial arts marathon, or something. I was magnetized the entire time, and by the end I realized I had seen a film that was a direct predecessor of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I must agree with the other reviewer here, who states so eloquently that this movie knows exactly what it wants to do and does it perfectly. The cinematography is stunning. Almost every frame is beautiful. It's utterly preposterous, of course, but even that makes it a wonderful fantasy film that actually has much in common with Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" films. By that I mean it's utter fantasy beautifully and meticulously realized.Put it this way, I'm watching it again right now - about 15 years after I first discovered it, and I'm enjoying it so much I came here to IMDb, just to put SOME kind of review out there in the world for this wonderful movie. Wherever this movie isn't well executed, it's crazy fun, and vice verse. It's impossible to tell where the beauty ends and the craziness begins, too. Just one of my favorite movies ever - and I've watched a lot of movies.

EVOL666 DUEL TO THE DEATH is an incredible film. Admittedly, I'm not the kung-fu film expert (gore and sleaze being more my forte...), but I can recognize a great film when I see it...and DUEL is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a VERY long time. I don't throw out 10's often, but I really can't find anything wrong with this one.DUEL is about a tournament that's held between China and Japan's best swordsman. Both competitors are absolute experts in their techniques, and hold honor and patriotism in the highest regard. But along the trek to the tournament location, there are numerous hinderances thrown at our "heroes". Flying ninjas, disappearing ninjas, burrowing into the ground ninjas, poison-wielding ninjas (did I happen to mention the ninjas???....) try to trip up our worthy combatants at every step. Throw in the hosting clan's jealousy at not being allowed to participate in the duel, and a plot by the Japanese shogun to rig the fight - and you have non-stop, insane, kung-fu ninja action...The influence that this film has had on other modern martial-arts action films is undeniable. Films like KILL BILL, HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and NINJA SCROLL give obvious nods to this masterpiece. I really can't rave about this one enough. The cinematography, choreography, costumes, settings, the amazing high-flying acrobatics...everything in DUEL is absolutely top-notch. Being a relatively big Japanese pinky/exploit film fan, I could have used some more nudity and sleaze...but this isn't that kind of film. Judged on it's own merits, DUEL TO THE DEATH is the PERFECT martial-arts film, and deserves a look from any action fan. Highest Recommendation - 10/10

usert I looked this movie up on IMDb and saw some dude's review of it. He is a total moron. He says he "didn't get why it was so fake". This movie is completely rad. I have seen many martial arts movies, and this one is TOTALLY SWEET. My brother's roommate found it for 5 dollars and they watched it, then told me about it. I watched it and was BLOWN AWAY by how RADICALLY AWESOME it was...some scenes were so ABSURDLY killer that actually kept my brain from functioning normally for several seconds; I'm serious, when I see something awesome it makes me "giddy" and I got giddy like TWO times during this movie, which believe me is really good. If you like these movies, watch this, then study it and find out why it works so well. It has awesome visuals and fighting, but also an enjoyable story that isn't overly complicated or simplified...it's also the first movie by the famed action director Ching Siu Tung.

Bogey Man Ching Siu Tung is among the most talented "wire fu" action and martial arts directors in the Hong Kong film industry. He has made such classics as A Chinese Ghost Story trilogy, Swordsman trilogy, Witch From Nepal and Heroic Trio 1 and 2 (with Johnnie To). Duel to the Death (1982) is among his very early directorial efforts (as far as I know, this was his FIRST film as a director), and this film shows his great talents and visual eye. The film tells about the traditional sword fight contest in which the best fighter of Japan and best fighter of China duel, and in most cases, to the death. In this film, these two sword masters become friends and soon they have other enemies to fight. The plot is not the most important thing in these movies. The great visuals and cinematic magic are the things which make these Orient films so unique compared to others.The incredible color world is shown for the first time at the very beginning of the movie as the multi colored leaves and trees are in the peaceful countryside and temple. The colors are breathtakingly beautiful and captured very effectively on camera, which Ching is so talented to use. His angles and movements with the camera create a tension and intensity of its own, and just watch a film like Heroic Trio (1992) or Chinese Ghost Story (1987) and you know what I mean. He is equally brilliant as director as a cinematographer, and he works also as a stuntman in his/others' movies, too. There are couple of totally stunning images in this film, and they are as fantastic as in Ronny Yu's masterpiece Bride With White Hair (1993), starring Brigitte Lin. Bride's magic was created by shooting the whole film at night (exteriors) and adding artificial light to create the visuals, but Duel to the Death's magic was created by using natural lights and all the colors of peaceful and pure daytime nature.The sword fight scenes are as great as can be expected by this director. They are very fast paced and use plenty of wires to add to the irrational atmosphere. There are also weird and flying ninjas who can turn into one big human and do things no one can do, so this film is full of elements from fairy tales which don't follow any rational rules. The editing is occasionally perhaps little too confusing and fast, and it is the negative point in these fight scenes. Then again, we must remember Ching was just so young in the directorial field so these little flaws are understandable especially when we remember how professional and great most of his subsequent films are. The impact of the striking fight scenes is heightened even further by the use of blood in the fight scenes little like in the Japanese Baby Cart (1972-1974) films. The fights in Duel to the Death are pretty gory and thus become more fierce and effective in their symbolism. Especially the fights near the end are totally over-the-top with those ultra fierce throwing stars which have to be seen to be believed. The film has great finale which lasts pretty long, but this film is still pretty calm as there are long segments involving something else than just fights, but that is of course allright, if these calm segments are handled with talent and care, like in this film. One Ching Siu Tung film which becomes sadly too slow moving and pointless at one point is his horror story Witch From Nepal (1985, starring Chow Yun Fat) which should not have been so slow and uninteresting in its middle part. After all, Duel to the Death is about the motifs and reasons for these "duels" in which the fighters have to fight at the expense of their own lives. The main characters themselves question why this all has to be how it is, and isn't there any peaceful way to use martial arts and its philosophy. These are the things Bruce Lee knew the answers for. These philosophical elements make Duel to the Death of course more interesting and noteworthy piece of cinema, and thankfully Ching Siu Tung is always willing to discuss some interesting topics in his films alongside their visual and cinematic bravura.I think the negative things in this film are only those in the editing department and that the plot turns don't occasionally make too much sense and some of the characters should have been written more carefully and with little more heart. The film has also perhaps little too striking attitude towards other countries, most notably Japan, but not as underlining as in Tsui Hark's epic Once Upon a Time in China (1991). Some of these historical fight films tend to be little too patriotic and naive, but fortunately Duel to the Death is not so bad, and the final image of the film is very unpatriotic, too. After all, this film has so many positive things and elements, I think this is among the greatest historical martial arts epics made in Hong Kong (of those I've seen) and thus I'm very glad for having the opportunity to see this early film by Ching Siu Tung.Duel to the Death gets 8/10 from me.