Review of Duel To The Death

Introduction

Duel to the Death was one of the last `old school` martial arts films made in Hong Kong before audiences demanded a move towards more modern storylines.

The story has a simple but fascinating premise: every ten years, the best fighter in Japan is sent to China to face the best warrior the Chinese have amongst them. The fight, shed blood, and the winner is the one left alive at the end of it all. However, this time the two warriors are caught up in a political plot by the Japanese to gain China`s martial arts secrets, and as they prepare for their duel, find themselves just pawns in a struggle between the two nations.

Video

The picture quality on HKL discs are always a pleasure to watch, but even more so than other DVDs in their range, this one has particularly striking visuals. Benefiting from a remaster of the original print, the picture is simply sublime when you consider the age of the film. The colours are rich and vibrant and there is a high level of detail throughout. Occasionally there are remnants of print damage, but if you`ve seen any Hong Kong film made around the late seventies or early eighties then I guarantee you`ll be astounded by how good Duel to the Death looks.

Audio

Three separate tracks are included to accompany the film: The original Cantonese mono, the remastered track in DD5.1 and the English DD5.1 dub. I listened to the remastered Cantonese track, and it is of good quality, with sound effects being spread across the soundstage and explosions gaining a fairly hefty `oomph` from the sub.

My only complaint are the subtitles: although in white and outlined in black, I found them a little difficult to read at times from across the room, as they seem not as sharp as on previous HKL releases.

Features

HKL have pulled together a surprisingly good collection of extras to accompany the film, mainly in the form of interviews with the stars as they reminisce about the shooting of the film, more than 20yrs on.

Of course, as with practically all HKL DVDs, Bey Logan has recorded a running commentary that, true to his reputation, is astounding for the enthusiasm and attention to detail put into it. However, unfortunately I noticed small technical error on my test disc in the form of the commentary being slightly out of synch with the on-screen action. Certainly this does not completely harm the enjoyment of an otherwise excellent track, but it adds confusion when trying to match Logan`s comments to a particular scene.

Next follows two interviews, the first of which is with Tsui Sui-Keung, who plays the Japanese warrior Hashimoto in the film. As per the norm with HKL interviews, a fair bit of the 19min running time is taken up with action scenes highlighting the star`s work on the film, but that is not to say this is not an expansive interview. Along with the specific shooting of the film, Tsui also talks us through his movie career, from his previous job as an accountant (!) to kung fu star in the golden era of the Hong Kong film industry. The second interview, and at 10mins the shorter one, is with the female co-star Flora Cheung. Coming from a ballet background and whisked suddenly into a short-lived film career before internal politics and overwork forced her out, Cheung is in an interesting position to give her views on the Hong Kong film industry, and is quite forthright about the difficulties involved with filming.

`No Strings Attached` is a documentary on the wire work used so extensively in Hong Kong and in Duel to the Death itself. Jude Poyer makes for a good host, using his stuntman teammates (Poyer was amongst the first Westerners to become stuntmen) to explain how basic wire effect shots are made and the risks involved in filming the stunts.

A gallery of trailers round off the extras.

Conclusion

If there was ever an opportunity for a newcomer to see a piece of kung fu movie history, I would higher recommend `Duel to the Death` as the ultimate in Chinese exploitation films. Although it may reinforce stereotypes of swordplay movies, I can`t see how anyone can not like the ludicrous fun to be had. Here are some of the amazing things you will see in this movie:

• Armies of ninjas flying on kites
• A swordsman with a holy sword
• Death by head explosion
• Chinese broadsword vs. Japanese katana
• A final duel on a narrow cliff precipice!!!

I don`t think I could say anything else that could describe the sheer brilliance of this movie, they sure don`t make them like this anymore…