Duel to the Death (1983)

Excellent adaptation.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

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.

I bought this on a whim for $5 out of a bin of movies, and I quite enjoyed it. It had an interesting story, and decent acting. So the action was not up to todays standards, and it was corny at times, but it wasn't bad. Heck, some times corny rocks. I think they did a great job for what was available in 1982. If they were to remake this movie with current special effects (like they remake every movie) it would be an action packed extravaganza. Slashing and hacking all the way to box office success. I give this movie 7/10 stars, but suggest watching it with subtitles. Dubbing just kind of ruins a movie. I need one more line to post this so here it is.

Duel to the Death (1982) is Ching Siu-tung at his best! Classic Kung-Fu at it's best. See wire work and kinetic martial arts at it's best. The plot is old hat (China vs. Japan) but the action is pure eye candy! Ching Siu-tung went on to become on of the elite action directors in the Hong Kong Cinema (check out A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer and The Heroic Trio films and see why!) The movie was re-released in the United States but it's the cut version. I advise you to seek out the uncut Hong Kong version, you wont be disappointed!You can see that this movie is still very influential. Even to this day film makers such as "Q" love this film.Highly recommended!