Kuet chin chi gam ji din

This is an intresting movie, certainly moreso than most Hollywood action/adventures. The action is few and far between as this is not an action movie, but the few fight scenes are effective. The characters are likeable and the acting is good enough.

Most of the movie concerns secret agent Dragon Nine's comedy attempts to solve a murder mystery. This is made up of slapstick, James Bond type gags and gadgets and precious little action. Amusing, but hardly gripping or hilarious.

Then the film suddenly becomes great at the climax. It contains more emotion, imagination, action and characterisation than the rest of the film put together. The mystery is revealed, and becomes more complicated and dramatic than it seemed. The final duel is an excellent, ultra-fast sword fight with superpowers - but it IS still mainly about the clashing of blades. The losing duelist has one final desire, and his attempts to reach it are very sad.

If the whole movie was of the quality of the last ten minutes this would be a classic.

This movie had good special effects. Andy and Ekin both did a good job playing their roles as cool and skilled swords-men. The plot is about a duel that will determine who is number one. Each man falls in love during the days leading to the duel, showing the soft side of their hard exteriors. Though the movie is about the duel, the life and investigations of a royal officer seems to be a main focus. Nick Cheung, who plays the royal officer, kind of takes the audience through the movie and provides comic relief. Vicky Chao, the princess, provides some comic relief as well. Over-all this movie was good and I would see it again.

I don't use the term "spectacular spellbinding blockbuster of a movie" often; but, this movie certainly approximates that. It manages to combine humor, romance and martial arts with competent special effects. The women are attractive and dynamic, especially Princess Phoenix (Wei Zhao) who comes across as a little sister to the comic character, Dragon Nine (Nick Cheung).

The two "duellists" are attractive and subdued in their performances...

The best performance, in my humble opinion, is that of Nick Cheung. He manages to combine humor with facial expressions and physical comedy; however, his character also comes across as a competent marital artist.

Granted, the movie is way too short; however, it is worth a watch (or two). Odds are, if you have premium cable, you'll come across it from time to time...

There's actually a fair amount of energy in this film, but ultimately its part of a trend in Hong kong cinema for "enhancing" martial arts action with CGI. Its not new for fights to be manipulated in this way. Many stars are not fighters, and their combat is cunningly edited to convince us otherwise, or they perform gravity-defying feats thanks to wires and pulleys and other tricks. CGI takes the constructed nature of martial arts to a different zone, and for a while, its been interesting to see how the technology is incorporated into Hong Kong cinema (where its a recent addition to the technical arsenal). In the films of Andrew Lau (not to be confused with the film's star and all round heart-throb Andy Lau), the technology is used to create elemental effects, with all kinds of spectacular things happening with clouds, ice, water and snow. What is lost as a result is the sheer breathless excitement of watching two powerful warriors duke it out with fist, foot and blade. When the great swordsmen in "The Duel" finally face each other (and its a long time coming, especially since the showdown is disappointingly brief), they end up assaulting each other with... well, energy. A sword would have done the trick, but these guys would rather fight with lightning. OKay, this is all well and good - its based on a legend of a fight between the greatest swordsmen ever, so it must be made to look special. However, the film doesn't build up much suspense. We are not made to really care about who will win. Where the film scores highly are in the scenes between Vicki Zhao (Zhao Wei) and Nick Cheung. Zhao is particularly charming, and their interplay is the core of the film. The two warriors generally mope around for most of the film - Ekin Cheng is almost entirely absent from the screen for the first hour. CGI will be a great asset to Hong Kong directors once the novelty wears off - it can be used to create the image of superhuman characters doing amazing things, but the problem is that it often makes the same characters seem untouchable and inhuman.

Having watched and enjoyed Andrew Lau's "The Stormriders" and "A Man Called Hero", watching "The Duel" seemed to be the next logical step. While those two had a more serious tone, this one is played more for comedy.

The plot goes like this: The world's two greatest swordsmen (Andy Lau & Ekin Cheng) agree to have a duel on top of the Emperor's royal palace. A government agent, Dragon 9 (played wonderfully by Nick Cheung) is first given the duty to hand out eight medals to the ones who would be allowed to watch the duel. During this mission Dragon 9 discovers a muderer is loose, and he must track down the murderer before the duel takes place.

If you're expecting a flat out martial arts film you are going to be dissapointed with this film. It contains little fighting, and the scenes that do involve fighting are short, and less than impressive. However, if you can appreciate Asian humor, and can tolerate three different love stories, you will enjoy it. Also, the murderer subplot is quite interesting in a "who done it" sense. The love stories are not bad, Dragon 9's is the best, the scenes with his love interest are often quite funny. Also, the scene involing the other Dragon Agents (watch for the one with the crutches!!) is hilarious.

I do have some small problems with the film. Ekin Cheng isn't give nearly enough screen time. I realize it was important to have a shroud of mystery surrounding his character but there are ways of adding to his character developement without giving anything away. Also, the final duel is way too short. So much of the film is invested in building up the fight that it's dissapointing when it does go down...it left me saying "that was it!?!?!?". The conclusion is satisfying yet sad at the same time. Is that the sign of a well-told narrative, or a bad story? I guess it depends on how much you enjoyed the events leading up to it.

Overall I did enjoy the film, but it could've been much better. Give me a longer final fight, and more Ekin Cheng and it would've scored much higher. I give it 6/10