Huo bing feng lin du

While it is certainly not a masterpiece when compared with modern films like ¨Crouching Tiger¨, ¨Duel at Forest¨ (aka Forest Duel) is a very enjoyable Martial Arts movie in the 1970s style. The plot will be familiar to fans of the old Hollywood westerns of Randolph Scott et al – even down to the hero riding off into the sunset at the end! For me this merely added to the enjoyment.

The leading actor (named as Wen Chiang Lung on the Australian DVD version I own) cuts a fine brooding figure as an ex-convict who arrives home to find his girl has married a rich loser and just about everyone else wants to beat him up. Hsu Feng plays the feisty daughter of the man he accidentally killed and proves no slouch herself in handling the many fights that litter the movie. In fact my only criticism of the film is the excessive number of fight scenes that crop up ever few minutes. I suspect that some slower scenes may have been edited out to cut down on translation and dubbing (I may be wrong of course).

Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed the film and look forward to watching it again.

After seeing this film, I felt compelled to comment. At the beginning of the film you would have thought that Bruce Willis and Madonna were playing star roles at the endless introductions and credits. I feel that by saying this was by far the worst obscure Kung Fu flick I have ever seen would lessen the blow that I am about to give. The Main character is a worker that accidentally kills his boss while digging for gold, (betcha heard that one before). After being sent to prison, his lover is taken with child and marries the drunk gambling son of the Gold Mine in order to escape shame and death (they were hard on unwed mothers). Returning from prison he finds his old flame is married, best friend wants to send him back to prison, virtually everybody wants to kick his ass and cant find a job. Finally a corrupt EVIL westerner who runs a gambling outfit hires him after seeing that he beats the crap out of everybody that works for him.

I must make special mention of the fighting style. The fight scenes that were orchestrated were reminiscent of a child staring in the mirror saying "I know KungFu". There were almost 20 fight scenes where I WISH someone would pick up a sword or a stick and finish them off. They beat and flung and flipped one another about 700 times, I think it was the fighting style of WimpLo, the my Face hit your Fist technique. I wish that I had the time back from watching it. I can only say if you liked this film then you would also like Gouging your eyes out with two sharp sticks! Don't do it, go watch television snow so you wont be haunted by the lack of coordinated punches and falls. I feel as though I were watching a train wreck except when you see it sliding off the tracks, it just doesn't stop....it just keeps going and going and going. Please end my misery and someone Find Chung Kuo Hung and demand WHY he made this abomination among obscure Kung Fu movies. If you watch this you will hate yourself for it. Well, I hope that was a fair assessment and someone out there will have an opportunity to buy this, maybe from Ebay. Don't do it, not even for $1 with free shipping, Just Don't DO IT.