Whether as director of the classic HEROIC TRIO (1993) and CHINESE GHOST STORY series or action choreographer for Tsui Hark and others, Ching Siu Tung has long been one of the most influential figures in modern Hong Kong cinema. DUEL TO THE DEATH, his hugely entertaining 1982 directorial
debut (which made its official US debut on home video in 1997), helped to redefine and revitalize the HK period action film with its imaginative story line and spectacular visuals.
A contest at Sword Saint village will determine in part whose martial arts are superior, China's or Japan's. While Chinese swordsman Ching Wen (Damian Lau) woos Sheng Nan (Flora Cheung), daughter of Sword Saint clan's leader and herself an accomplished fighter, ninja commanded by Japanese monk
Kenji (Eddy Ko) wreak havoc by stealing Shaolin artifacts and waylaying contestants, including Ching Wen's master. Swordsman Hashimoto (Tsui Siu Keung) discovers he is a pawn in a plot by his Japanese masters and the Sword Saint leader; the fighters are to be kidnapped back to Japan to reveal
their skills so that China can be conquered, and Hashimoto is to take a dive in his battle with Sheng Nan, the sole remaining combatant, so that Sword Saint clan wins the contest.
Instead, Hashimoto informs Sheng Nan that the contest is rigged, and she frees the captured Ching Wen imprisoned by her father for shipment to Japan. The lovers attempt to convince her father that collaboration with the Japanese is wrong, but all he cares about is seeing his clan triumphant, so
the couple reluctantly square off against one another in private contest. Unfortunately dad steps in to cheat once more, and accidentally kills his daughter.
Hashimoto, wanting no part of the deception, faces down the ninja spiriting the captives to Japan. Knowing he is disobeying orders, he vows to die after the fight, no matter the outcome, but it must be a fair contest. Then he decimates the ninja and frees the captives. But a disillusioned Ching
Wen refuses to fight, so Hashimoto kills the rescued master to provoke him. Their climactic battle is fought in mid-air and on rocky cliffs above crashing waves; afterward, a fading Hashimoto drives a sword through his foot to keep himself standing, while a mortally wounded Ching Wen retreats to a
cliff opposite, both overlooking the ocean.
By the early 1980s, Ching Siu Tung had already amassed a varied and impressive cinematic resume: as choreographer and fighter in films like the wild kung fu comedy THE MASTER STRIKES (1979) featuring Casanova Wong; as action designer for new wave director Patrick Tam's downbeat THE SWORD (1979);
as martial arts director for films like RETURN OF THE DEADLY BLADE (1981). When Ching made his own directorial debut with DUEL TO THE DEATH in 1982, he combined everything he'd learned about eye-popping visuals and brooding characterization, in the process revolutionizing and revitalizing the
moribund genre of kung fu costume epics.
Ching's later films have oft been likened to live-action comic books, with inked panels actually incorporated into his lesser-seen THE RAID (1990). In DUEL TO THE DEATH, the story at first seems like merely a disconnected, rambling framework from which hang extraordinary set-pieces, the most
striking ones almost extraneous to the plot: a night sky filled with kites bearing assassins; a giant ninja splitting into numerous smaller ones and shedding robes to reveal a naked woman warrior. But the apparent non sequiturs of the complicated storyline fall into place on repeated viewings.
Nothing is quite what it seems: a demon attacking Hashimoto turns out to be his teacher, wanting the honor of dying at the hands of a samurai; Sheng Nan in time-honored Asian tradition insists on dressing male (although western viewers probably won't notice the difference); her father pretends for
the bulk of the film to have legs(!), having been born crippled and consequently harboring a lifelong bitterness at being unable to fight in the contest himself.
But ultimately the most astonishing thing might be that Hashimoto is far and away the most interesting character. In HK's notoriously xenophobic cinema, Japanese are rarely less than evil incarnate, as with most of the characters here. But while Ching Wen is a dull peacenik who doesn't understand
why so many people have surrendered their lives for a mere contest, Hashimoto is torn between loyalty to his masters and personal honor, setting him up as a clearinghouse for wholesale death, not least of all his own. (Graphic violence, extensive nudity.) leave a comment
