San shao ye de jian

This is what the martial arts films were meant to be like, before the hacks made them into clowns jumping all over the place, kicking and striking a thousand times, with 90 back flips in each fight.

Here, we have a crisp story, and interesting characters. The film follows mostly "Third Master" and his attempt to become a normal man, trying to elude his fame.

It reminds a viewer of the "gunfighter" in the old West, trying to hang up his guns, but with young upstarts out to make a name for themselves, trying to goad him into a fight.

The interesting thing here is the array of other characters. Some are simple folk, some helpful, some afraid, some benevolent. Others are fighters. We find that many others also hung up their swords. At least two characters, we find, were successful in "retiring" before they reached a stage that Third Master did.

The first master also drops into obscurity for a while. The reasons are made clear later. A lot of chance meetings happen for the sake of a great fairy tale, but it's okay, because it's part of the magic.

The body count is higher than it should be. A lot of the deaths are "cliche" movie deaths, and brings this film down from the classic status it could have attained. Still, the imagery is good, and there is refreshing dialog, a lot of insight. Parituclarly good is the scene where the third master thinks he is dying, and asks others what they would do if they knew they would die tomorrow.

Later martial arts movies failed because they couldn't balance action with dialog. This film has a great balance, because too much action becomes as dull as too little. This comes from a guy who is very attention deficit, so when movies are too relentless in meaningless action for me, there is a real problem.

Here, we have a nice balance, although even this film could have toned down the action some. Put it this way. It makes the normal action Western, say "The Magnificent Seven" look slow paced in comparison.

Good film. Worth watching, but has some sadness to it.

I really enjoyed this movie, but must admit I spent the whole time feeling disappointed at the same time.

The story is really good, delivering an interesting tale supported by mostly good acting. The fighting is a bit hit and miss, some of the fights are good others, not so much.

It then dawned on me that this movie screams 'remake', however I think we have missed the chance to see it at its best.

For those of you into this genre, picture this movie in your minds eye with Jet Li in it during his prime? OMG.

It would have been one of the all time classics!

Pleasing purposeful and taut Swordsplay - movie based on stories by Gu Long, about the supremacy of the Jiang Hu. Third master [ Derek Yee ] is the #1 at the moment , considered as the best sword fighter, but he's tired of his way of life, pretends his death and begins a simple life. Too early for Yen Shi kwan [ Ling Yun ], who aimed the whole life for fame and the answer if he could be the real #1.

Death Duel is a little different from other Gu Long movies directed also by Chu Yuan, no obscure jumble of plot and persons here, it's strictly concentrated oh Third Master and his tries to survive the power struggle, where he's attacked again and again. The then 20yrs old Derek Yee [ now director of movies like ONE NITE IN MONGKOK, VIVA EROTICA, FULL THROTTLE ] does a strong impression, mainly optically and particularly with his mimic, and performs the action sequences well. These are well choreographed, unbloody swordplay with martial arts and jumps varied, there's also good use of the environment Optically the film is rather lyric - magical, many red and blue contrasts, much fog, added a calm, but appropriate score. Really entertaining 90mins.

Movie has some relation to the other Gu Long picturizations like KILLER CLANS and MAGIC BLADE, Ti Lung has a cameo as his Swordsman Fu and Lo Lieh as the killer Han Tang.

DEATH DUEL (1977) is another Shaw Bros. swordplay-and-intrigue extravaganza directed by Chu Yuan (aka Chor Yuen) from a novel by Ku Lung. Its release on DVD follows that of KILLER CLANS (1976), THE MAGIC BLADE (1976) and CLANS OF INTRIGUE (1977), all also reviewed on this site. The plot here is a lot simpler than those of the earlier films and involves fewer characters and, unfortunately, fewer fight scenes. It does, however, offer a fresh star in then-newcomer Derek Yee who plays a character who calls himself "Hopeless Ah Chi," a wandering, enigmatic kung fu expert who is challenged by numerous other swordsmen in the course of the film for reasons that are made clear in the second half. That's basically all there is to the film: various challengers pop up to try and kill Ah Chi until Yen Shih-San (Ling Yun), the only one who truly qualifies as Ah Chi's equal, shows up for the final bout. There are only slight hints of the interlocking clan rivalries, conflicting loyalties and vast spy networks that made KILLER CLANS, et al, so fascinating.

The film is beautifully shot and scored and filmed entirely on Shaw Bros. studio sets. The costumes are pretty snappy also. The fight scenes involve lots of breakaway walls and furniture and are often staged in extreme long shot, perhaps to cover up the frequent use of a stunt double for the lead.

As usual, the cast offers a number of Shaw Bros. notables, including dependable character actors Ku Feng and Fan Mei-Sheng as Ah Chi's allies and--in welcome action cameos--Shaw Bros. stars Ti Lung, Lo Lieh, and David Chiang. Also appearing are Wang Lung-Wei, Norman Chu, Yueh Hua, Yuen Wah, Chan Shen and Cheng Miu, along with many other familiar faces from kung fu films. As usual with Chu Yuan films, there are some lively and beautiful women on hand to spice up the action, although not as many as in the earlier films. Candy Yu plays Yee's girlfriend while Chan Ping plays a rival clan leader stirring things up behind the scenes.

The two leading men, Derek Yee and Ling Yun, are adequate but lack the flair of the aforementioned cameo players. Still, Yee makes an interesting hero--young, deadpan, and far more handsome than most kung fu stars of the era. He acted for approximately 20 years, but also turned to writing, directing, and producing and wound up making some key Hong Kong New Wave dramas of the 1990s, including C'EST LA VIE MON CHERI, FULL THROTTLE, and VIVA EROTICA.

UPDATE: I watched this film again in 2020 for the first time in 17 years and I was stunned at how great it is. I fear that my earlier comments above came at a time when I was watching Shaw Bros. movie after Shaw Bros movie as Celestial Pictures was releasing them on R3 DVD by the truckload and I simply got overwhelmed. Watching it again, I'm struck by how powerful a tale it is, loaded with mood, atmosphere, emotion and drama. Plus, it's got one of the most incredible star-studded casts I've ever seen in a Shaw Bros. movie. Back then, I wasn't familiar with a lot of the actors, since I was only just beginning to discover these movies. But I've seen hundreds of them since. Now I need to go back and re-watch all the other Shaw Bros. DVDs I reviewed back then and see what else I was missing.

Yuen Chor was having a good run of films during the second half of the 1970's. Sentimental Swordsman, Magic Blade, Clans of Intrigue, Jade TIger were all made during this five year period. "Death Duel" is just one more during this time. As with his other films you can expect good photography, unique art direction and dozens of characters.

As with other successful Yuen Chor films, this one succeeds by focusing on one enigmatic main character for most of the film. However, the viewer will still have to deal with a lot of fascinating characters who show up and usually are killed off quickly. The body count in this film is very high. This film is very moody and the withdrawn character of Ah Chi make the story interesting. There are some uneven parts and the constant guest cameos from Shaw stars is a little annoying as you might wish that they would stick around longer in the film. That said, the script is above average, the pacing is good and by the time the ending comes around the film holds up.

Recommended.