I don't use the term "spectacular spellbinding blockbuster of a movie" often; but, this movie certainly approximates that. It manages to combine humor, romance and martial arts with competent special effects. The women are attractive and dynamic, especially Princess Phoenix (Wei Zhao) who comes across as a little sister to the comic character, Dragon Nine (Nick Cheung).The two "duellists" are attractive and subdued in their performances...The best performance, in my humble opinion, is that of Nick Cheung. He manages to combine humor with facial expressions and physical comedy; however, his character also comes across as a competent marital artist.Granted, the movie is way too short; however, it is worth a watch (or two). Odds are, if you have premium cable, you'll come across it from time to time...

I enjoyed 'The Duel'. It certainly isnt the greatest film in the world, but its certainly isn't the worst. It begins with a traditional 'Stormriders'esque action sequence. By that I mean more CGI than actual fighting. I don't mind this at all really. People fly around. A geezer turns himself into a giant snowball and a man regurgitates poison. All in a days work. I like to see things like that. Spectacular and a bit out of the ordinary. The people who usually complain about the flying around in films such as this and Crouching Tiger are the very same ones who believe Bruce Willis can exterminate an elite squad of Mercs by himself or that Toby Maguire does have webs coming out of his wrists. Its funny what people will suspend disbelief over and what they won't. Anyway, after the initial sequence we discover that the main character in this is a parody of James Bond (but one that fraternises with whores and gangsters). His main task in the film is to set up and mediate a Duel between the two greatest martial artists in the world, one of whom is his best mate and the other is a mysterious recluse with a harem of flying beauties. Its just funny to watch, basically. The Duel doesn't take itself too seriously and neither should you. If you liked StormRiders and can sit through A man called Hero without fastforwarding the story parts then you will really enjoy this. On a side note, as most people will inevitably watch this on DVD, The Duel is presented in flawless widescreen with good subtitles. The 5.1 soundtrack is lively and the soundscape is wide. The extras are standard but servicable. Don't bother watching the pan and scan dub. It cuts out half the action (and I mean half. Rendering the story unintelligible).

There's actually a fair amount of energy in this film, but ultimately its part of a trend in Hong kong cinema for "enhancing" martial arts action with CGI. Its not new for fights to be manipulated in this way. Many stars are not fighters, and their combat is cunningly edited to convince us otherwise, or they perform gravity-defying feats thanks to wires and pulleys and other tricks. CGI takes the constructed nature of martial arts to a different zone, and for a while, its been interesting to see how the technology is incorporated into Hong Kong cinema (where its a recent addition to the technical arsenal). In the films of Andrew Lau (not to be confused with the film's star and all round heart-throb Andy Lau), the technology is used to create elemental effects, with all kinds of spectacular things happening with clouds, ice, water and snow. What is lost as a result is the sheer breathless excitement of watching two powerful warriors duke it out with fist, foot and blade. When the great swordsmen in "The Duel" finally face each other (and its a long time coming, especially since the showdown is disappointingly brief), they end up assaulting each other with... well, energy. A sword would have done the trick, but these guys would rather fight with lightning. OKay, this is all well and good - its based on a legend of a fight between the greatest swordsmen ever, so it must be made to look special. However, the film doesn't build up much suspense. We are not made to really care about who will win. Where the film scores highly are in the scenes between Vicki Zhao (Zhao Wei) and Nick Cheung. Zhao is particularly charming, and their interplay is the core of the film. The two warriors generally mope around for most of the film - Ekin Cheng is almost entirely absent from the screen for the first hour. CGI will be a great asset to Hong Kong directors once the novelty wears off - it can be used to create the image of superhuman characters doing amazing things, but the problem is that it often makes the same characters seem untouchable and inhuman.

Andrew Lau tried to accomplish alot with this film but doesnt end up accomplishing much of anything.The Duel tries to be too many things at once. It tries to be a comedy, a political drama, an action adventure, a martial arts extravaganza but ultimately, it doesnt achieve any of these particularly well.And somehow, my feeling was that the comedy, although funny at times doesnt seem to fit into the overall story and subject matter of the film especially when you consider that some parts of the film were dead serious.The story while intriguing wasnt nearly as interesting as Lau's previous big budget efforts. On top of that, you really didnt feel for the characters at all.And in terms of visuals, the film did not have as much eye candy as I would have liked. Needless to say, The DUEL is not on par with the spectacular action set pieces that *A Man called Hero* and *Storm Riders provides both in terms of quality and quantity.But at the end of the day, people watch movies to be entertained and *The Duel*, while it did have its moments, on the whole failed to entertain me sufficiently. And to be brutally honest, the only thing REALLY cool about this film is its title.In my opinion, if you wish to see the ultimate HK fantasy film that has cool characters, the drama, the action, and the special effects without intrusive contrived comedy, then watch Storm Riders.Storm Riders, I consider to be Andrew Lau's best directing effort.