Duel of the Iron Fist

The plot in The Duel is fairly complex, with non-stop double crosses and no one trusting anyone much at all by the end of it, but the brutal action scenes are frequent and quite exciting. This makes it an above average Shaw Brothers martial arts movie, but still a step or two below the studios' greatest efforts.

It's certainly a worthwhile watch for action fans, but part of me wishes it had either spent a bit more time making its story clearer, or just given an even bigger middle finger to the idea of story, cut 15 minutes of chit-chat from the film, and had 90 minutes of even more frequent, bloody fight scenes.

Quentin Tarantino selected this film for his first film fest, and going into this one knowing that piece of trivia made it a lot of fun to watch, as it becomes quite clear why he highlighted this martial arts film in particular. High crime, Ultra violence, and some really quirky characters sprinkled through out, especially David Chiang's "The Rover" (aka "Rangler" in Chinese), a super cool mystery man. If I had to describe through Tarantino, think Kill Bill meets Reservoir Dogs.

The plot is pretty straight forward, but I suppose the most important thing to focus on is the fact that the world changes around them, and it's interesting to see who stands their ground and who instead falls and changes with it.

The camera work is very impressive here, as the majority of screen time revolves around David Chiang's "Rover". It actually feels like while the rest of the world rages on, a quiet box sits around him. It really stabilizes the tone of the film and solidifies his role as one of the Top Bad-A** characters he's ever played.

The sound mixing is a bit funny in this film, as some effects seem updated and mixed in later into some fights, possibly due to an effect of a re-master?

To sum things up, the film is incredibly charming mostly because of the presence of David Chiang, and the overall quirkiness of many of the other main characters. But the niche really comes in because DUEL OF THE IRON FIST is very likely to have the MOST AMOUNT OF FIGHTING AND BODY COUNT I'VE EVER SEEN in a Shaw Bros. film. I would actually go so far to say it could be a bit out of control to some viewers, not making this one very marketable.

Definitely an underground piece, so watch if you dare. But fans of David Chiang will rejoice. Exceptionally Charming, but Quite Niche

This genre of films is well noted for title problems. Many movies have two, three, or even four alternate titles. The titles frequently do not relate to anything happening during the film. This movie is known as "The Duel" and "Duel of Iron Fists" and "Duel of the Shaolin Fist" and "Iron Fist Pillage" and "Big Duel". The situation is further complicated because Shaw Brothers made another movie in 1971 starring David Chiang and Ti Lung titled "Duel of Fists" or "Duel of Fists" or "Striking Fist".

There is more. Assuming you have a copy of this movie there may be a lot missing. This is common because of censorship of the violence. I have the Celestial release and the run time is 1:45:16. I am aware of releases up to about fifteen minutes short of that. I can't even get into the many VHS differences. Besides, that technology is 99% extinct anyway. I recommend acquire the Celestial DVD and you will do good.

This movie starts with Ti Lung getting fresh ink. After the opening credits, Yeung Chi-Hing and Lee Wang-Chun meet. When I first started watching these movies I had the usual problem, as an old white guy, of telling the actors apart. I identified Lee Wang Chun as "Mr. Smiley" because he had the best smile I have ever seen on screen.

Almost all the fights in this movie are out and out brawls. Brawls can be done the lazy way resulting in stunt men jumping around all over the screen in the long shots then brief shaky close ups of two or three strikes. The fights then all look alike and boring. The brawls in this movie are done right. There is a direction or flow to the movement instead of nervous looking stunt men hopping around in the background awaiting their turn as the lead actor is only attacked by the man he looks at. The sots stay long enough to show all the moves and there are more than just one or two moves before a cut. Knives are the main weapon but not the only weapon. The overall result is that the fights all look different and never get boring.

Five minutes before the movie ends guns come out. It is my outspoken opinion that guns simply have no business in martial arts movies. The audience is good if gun aren't even mentioned, just pretend guns don't exists no matter what time period the movie is in.

Any Shaw Brothers movie with both David Chiang and Ti Lung starring are considered mandatory viewing for any fan of this genre. I think I watched this movie twice and made some notes then watched it a third time to write this review. Initially I rated it an eight out of ten. Today I will round that down to a seven but still well above average for the genre in 1971.

This film is a lot of fun. The revenge based plot means infinite opportunities for groups of bad guys to leap out from no where to try and kill the hero - which results in some fantastic, often knife based fights. It may not be realistic, but it sure is spectacular. And then there's the fun to be had with the bad dubbing by Americans from down South and the quirky, chop-sockyness of this film. But if that's not enough, the first major fight scene in this film will be very familiar to fans of Kill Bill volume 1. It was this film that inspired Quientin Tarintino's brilliant finale in the Blue Flower. The set is very reminiscent, and there is even a moment where the power is cut and the fighters are in darkness. So for classic, old school cinema that's still relevant to today - Dual of the Iron Fist is an excellent film.

Boasting a young production assistant by the name of John Woo, this knife-fighting film is considered by many to be the first HK-style gangster film. In fact Ti Lung would go on to star in "A Better Tomorrow". Ignore the shoddy production values, and enjoy this morality play. WARNING: Some US prints end with the government troops fighting Ti Lung and David Chiang in the rain. This is not the ending, the fight goes on for another 15 minutes! Enjoy the risible dubbing; at one point Ti Lung has 3 different accents in one sentence!