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.