Kuet chin chi gam ji din

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