Chung Mo While the Shaw movie machine seemed to be trapped in the 1960's, director Siu-Tung Ching filmed what turned to be the start of the new wave of kung fu epics and the closing of the door of the old wave.Everything is thrown into this film, ninjas, a crazy old master in the Shaolin Drunkard tradition, flying kung fu, Japanese vs. Chinese, chambara, Shaolin monks, a super fighting woman, a puppet show, a talking cockatoo, severed limbs, Chang Cheh style blood flow, King Hu style anti-gravity kung fu. The only thing missing is the 18 Bronze Men. What distinguishes this from the other films from the time is the exceptional quality Siu-Tung Ching put into this film. The photography is really good and the script is much better then I expected. Somehow all the strange things that happen flow with the story instead of making you shake in disbelief.The film is stylistically influenced by Japanese chambara although I would suspect that Japanese martial artists would take issue with the samurai sword work on display. Ballet dancer Flora Cheung throws herself into the fighting really well. The ninja do some very crazy things. The music track is actually good!Highly recommended, this film should be as well known as some Shaw films from the same period.

Golgo-13 This classic kung fu flick pits China's greatest swordfighter against Japan's and that in itself makes for a pretty cool watch. However, this movie has something more…ninjas! Ninjas are sweet and by sweet, I mean totally awesome! This has got to be one of the greatest (and most fun) "ninja" movies ever! These ninjas fly, explode, form like Voltron, disappear, crawl underground, jump out of their clothes, throw hundreds of stars, and much, much more! While Duel is low on actual hand-to-hand combat, the swordplay is fantastic; fast and furious. There are even some nice blood sprays thrown in for good measure! The scene where the Chinese fighter slices some bark from a tree to shield him from an onslaught of shurikens was a favorite, as was the head-on-a-branch scene. The final fight was cool as well (why did he stab his own foot though?). Overall, as far as kung fu flicks go, this one rocks…hard. It's well worth the cheap DVD price.By the way, Kill Bill used several lines from Duel to the Death such as "unfinished business" and "kill God if he is in your way."

mlredr Not much to say other than plenty of Wire-fu and supposed Sholin monks ego-tripping about Kung-fu and caricature Japanese plotting to take over China. All of this would not be so bad if not for the utterly fake Japanese sword fighting. If you watched a Samurai movie or two you can tell that the "Japanese" fighting in the movie is simply the same "Kung-fu" (Really circus acrobats) stunt men doing the same things except with a Japanese sword. However, there are a couple of fun moments such as when a Japanese woman Ninja tears off her clothes in mid-flight to disarm a monk and captures him with a fishing net. Storywise, there seems to be a bit of schizophrenia as far as whether the Japanese should be shown as completely despicable or if there could be exceptions. The "Japanese" protagonist is shown as largely honourable but not beyond unwarranted cruelty such as when he murders a sedated monk so that he may have his duel. Quite disappointing with a very silly ending. Does not for a moment evoke even the semblance of the idea of an epic battle.

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.