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

This movie is actually both a shortened version of and is a movie based on one of the best WuXia novels written by Gu Long. The title of the novels is The Adventures of Lu Xiao Feng and is actually a 4 book collection. IF anyone wants, they can read the English translations of the first 2 books and half of the third book on wikipedia. as for the other comment written by another person, please forgive the ignorant author.

Thank you very much. And please be understanding of movies made on other cultures different from your own. Enjoy life. After all, what is a life of 80 years compared to the live of the Universe counted in trillions. AN

I enjoyed 'The Duel'. It certainly isnt the greatest film in the world, but its certainly isn't the worst.

It begins with a traditional 'Stormriders'esque action sequence. By that I mean more CGI than actual fighting. I don't mind this at all really. People fly around. A geezer turns himself into a giant snowball and a man regurgitates poison. All in a days work. I like to see things like that. Spectacular and a bit out of the ordinary. The people who usually complain about the flying around in films such as this and Crouching Tiger are the very same ones who believe Bruce Willis can exterminate an elite squad of Mercs by himself or that Toby Maguire does have webs coming out of his wrists. Its funny what people will suspend disbelief over and what they won't.

Anyway, after the initial sequence we discover that the main character in this is a parody of James Bond (but one that fraternises with whores and gangsters). His main task in the film is to set up and mediate a Duel between the two greatest martial artists in the world, one of whom is his best mate and the other is a mysterious recluse with a harem of flying beauties.

Its just funny to watch, basically. The Duel doesn't take itself too seriously and neither should you. If you liked StormRiders and can sit through A man called Hero without fastforwarding the story parts then you will really enjoy this.

On a side note, as most people will inevitably watch this on DVD, The Duel is presented in flawless widescreen with good subtitles. The 5.1 soundtrack is lively and the soundscape is wide. The extras are standard but servicable. Don't bother watching the pan and scan dub. It cuts out half the action (and I mean half. Rendering the story unintelligible).