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7,2/10
2447
LA TUA VALUTAZIONE
Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaThe best sword master from China vs the best sword master from Japan. Who will win?The best sword master from China vs the best sword master from Japan. Who will win?The best sword master from China vs the best sword master from Japan. Who will win?
- Premi
- 2 candidature
Flora Chong-Leen
- Sheng Nan
- (as Flora Cheung)
Yeong-moon Kwon
- Shaolin Abbot
- (as Yeong-Mun Kwon)
Trama
Lo sapevi?
- QuizThe English subtitles on the 2021 Blu-ray release by Eureka uses names for the Japanese characters that are different from those on previous releases of the film. Norman Chu's character, previously known as "Hashimoto", is here referred to as "Miyamoto Ichiro"; and the character played by Eddy Ko, previously known as "Kenji", is here called "Kaneda". According to the audio commentary by Frank Djeng, the translated names used on previous editions were incorrect, and the new edition's replacement names are more accurate.
- BlooperWires are noticeably visible in some shots during the final battle.
- Citazioni
Ching Wan: Don't you sometimes feel sad for us martial artists? If we're incompetent, then we can easily get killed. But if we're good, then either we challenge other masters or we ourselves keep getting challenged and can never have peace.
Hashimoto: Do you regret it?
Ching Wan: I don't regret the life I've chosen. Do you?
Hashimoto: Neither do I.
- Versioni alternativeUK VHS versions of this film were cut by 5 seconds to remove all shots of shuriken (ninja throwing stars), as these were on the no-no weapons list of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) at the time. When resubmitted to the BBFC in 2004 under revised guidelines in which shuriken were no longer a problem, the film was passed uncut for the UK DVD release.
- ConnessioniFeatured in The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990)
Recensione in evidenza
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.
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.
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