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.

Yes if you read my above sentence summary you read right. Exploding ninjas, giant ninjas, TONS of blood and loads of fun. This is one of the more fun experiences I've ever had watching a film and this is pretty easy to get on DVD (Amazon, Netflix, etc) for rent or buy. If you like old Kung Fu/Swordplay/Samurai type films then you should like this one. There are a lot of beautiful and bloody sword fights. The film knows exactly what it's trying to do and does that well. I am also impressed at the amount of Ninjas in this film because there's rarely Ninja in film, or at least good ones I should say and I for one happen to love them so it's a shame. Martial artist gather for a tournament held every 10 years and the end result is brutal, bloody, amazingly choreographed sword fights between the Japanese/Chinese characters. Ninja's explode, people talk with their heads having been separated from the rest of their body, and blood flies everywhere - so if that's your thing then check this one. A rare gem that more Martial Arts/Swordplay/Kung Fu/Samurai film fans should see. I love it!

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.

DUEL TO THE DEATH is one of the many "flying swordsman" action-adventures to come out of Hong Kong. If you've seen CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, then you pretty much know what to expect. If not, go into this film with an open mind and expect to get blown away.Hashimoto and Ching Wan are dueling swordsmen. Every year China and Japan hold a great tournament in which each country's best fighter clashes swords with each other. Ching Wan is from China, and he sets out to prove himself to his mentors. Hashimoto is from Japan, and he wants to win in order to make his master proud, who died while testing Hashimoto's abilities. However, something fishy is going on in China. Black-masked ninjas have stolen secret scrolls from Ching Wan's temple and Hashimoto's venomous general, Kenji, seems to have a secret agenda. The tournament is to take place at the home of the beautiful Sheng Nan and her father, but all is not right. Ching Wan's mentor is captured and ninjas try to kill him. Meanwhile, he begins to develop a strong romantic bond to Sheng, who was trained as a martial artist by her father and disguises herself as a man so she can fight. When Hashimoto realizes that Kenji wants to kill Ching Wan himself, he realizes he must go against his general in order to save Ching Wan. It turns out Japan wants the best martial artists of China captured in order to learn their secrets. Hashimoto catches on to this but he realizes that he must go against his country in order to stand up for what he believes is right.And, well, that's the plot in a nutshell. There's not much too it, and those expecting the lyrical romanticism of CROUCHING TIGER will be disappointed. However, DUEL TO THE DEATH makes up for it with some of the most thrilling, bloody fight scenes I've ever seen, including the best wire work next to Ang Lee's film. I guess the thing I love about Hong Kong cinema is that it plays by its own rules. It has its own mythology, its own way of storytelling. Here, the characters defy gravity, jumping from tree to tree like chimpanzees or flying through the air like hawks. The film doesn't play by the traditional Hollywood rules. For example, the ending is ambiguous and surprisingly bleak, as opposed to the usual "happy" ending tacked on to most American films. You would think that Hashimoto and Ching Wan would become friends at the end of it all, but instead Hashimoto does something that seems to negate everything that came before it.And yet, it's the underlying sensitivity of the two leads' performances that makes DUEL TO THE DEATH so compelling. In their respective roles, Norman Tsui and Damian Laui are great and very sympathetic. And the direction and music score are excellent.In fact, my only real complaint with the film is that the fight scenes aren't long enough. They could have been even MORE thrilling, but then again, their sparseness just makes us hunger for the next fight even more. All in all a great movie, and an essential for anybody wanting to explore the mysterious land of 70's and 80's Hong Kong cinema.